Trip to Milwaukee
Marquette Golden Eagles
By: Pat Coate
We recently trekked out to Milwaukee to drop our daughter off at Marquette University. Situated on Lake Michigan, Milwaukee seems to be a vibrant city with an appealing waterfront offering biking/walking/jogging trails, parks, an art museum, Discovery World, ethnic and music festival sites. Milwaukee also offers a great variety of ethnic food and we enjoyed a Mexican restaurant, La Fuente, for dinner in the 9th (?) Ward.
The Marquette Golden Eagle was the most unique bird we saw. During our limited time along the waterfront, we only saw fairly common birds such as Canada geese, mallards, mixed flocks of swallows, ring-billed gulls, and pigeons. During our drive (near Crystal Lake, Illinois) we passed two groups of Sandhill cranes in the fields but not conveniently located for photo ops.
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Chickadees
Black-capped Chickadee
By: Pat Coate
Over the past couple of weeks, the chickadee count at our backyard feeder has increased and their busyness and calls greet me most mornings. They are the first to the feeder after a refill, often barely able to contain themselves while waiting for me to move the requisite few steps away. They don’t seem to require this distance for our dog, who is often right under the feeder while they grab a seed and retreat to the nearby maple tree.
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Fun in Bermuda
Great Kiskadee
By: Pat Coate
A couple weeks back, I had the good fortune to get together with my roommate and five other friends from college, whom I hadn’t seen in many years. We had a grand time cruising from Baltimore to Bermuda. While in Bermuda I spent a morning birding and biking. I had read that Bermuda had many of the same birds that we have in WNY and it was very true, but I did manage a couple exceptions.
Moose in Algonquin
Algonquin Moose
By: Pat Coate
Even more than birds, I really enjoy seeing moose (and catching them with my camera is an added bonus). As such, I spend some time each year ‘stalking’ them in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario. Most years I am able to at least see them along Highway 60, which cuts across the southern portion of the park, and other years I have been lucky enough to see them while canoeing or hiking. Here are some photos of this year’s moose, seen along Highway 60.
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Budding Birders Meet Tom
Logan, Maddie and Lilly with Tom (check out the Mon@rch tattoos)
By: Pat Coate
My sister and her young family recently visited and we had a wonderful morning learning more about birds and getting to see them up close at Tom’s banding site in Napoli. Tom is very knowledgeable, gracious, and a born educator.
What fun we all had – as expressed so well by Maddie: “Bird banding was awesome! You should have seen the birds that were there!” Here are some pictures from our birding experience.
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 