Monday, August 24, 2015

The Birds of Horicon Marsh

This summer I was in Wisconsin. I spent the day at Horicon Marsh. It is a freshwater marsh and a refuge for wildlife including many birds. Part of the marsh is run by the state's Department of Natural Resources and part of it is run by the U.S. government - the Fish and Wildlife Service.

This is a picture of me looking at double-crested cormorants in the distance. A double-crested cormorant is a water bird. It is usually black with orange feathers on its face.

First three photos by my mom.

This, of course, is a goose. A Canada goose. Canada geese are among the best known migratory birds, and many people recognize their V formation in the sky. But other birds make the V formation in the sky, too. Migratory birds are birds that migrate, or travel, to warmer parts of the world for the winter.



Below is a photo of tree swallows entering the cavities of tree. Just like cavities in your teeth are holes in your teeth, cavities in trees are holes in trees, and birds nest in there. The cavities are often formed by woodpeckers.

The top half of adult male tree swallows' bodies is iridescent blue and the bottom half is white. 


While I was at Horicon Marsh, I saw a bird I had never seen before. It is called a sora. A sora is a noisy bird found in freshwater marshes.

Here is a photo of a sora that I found doing an image search the way my former 3rd grade teacher and computer teacher taught me. This photo was taken in Morro Bay, California.

"Mike" Michael L. Baird [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I look forward to sharing more about Horicon Marsh.

Did you see any birds this summer?