Horicon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge

This past weekend, I made the trip up to Horicon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, a trip my dad and I had talked about taking for the Crane Count in 2017, but a trip which we were never able to take.

I planned the trip around accessing the refuge from WI - 49 near Waupun. The marsh spans 33,000 acres, the northern two-thirds of the marsh are managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service while the WI DNR manages the bottom third, better accessed for Horicon, WI. My family joined me, and we headed up to stay the night on Friday, April 27th, which would have been dad's 70th birthday.

We stayed the night before because by 6:00 am on Saturday, I was hiking around in the marsh. The main access point is in the northeastern corner of the marsh. There's a road which supports an auto-tour, it's 3 miles long, and there are additional hiking trails: Redhead Trail, Red Fox Trail, and Egret Trail which allow birders, runners, and dog walkers greater access to the marsh. Based on the size of the marsh, even if you hike every trail and road at this access point, you've probably seen less than one twentieth of the marsh.

I pulled into the parking lot just before sunrise.

It was sunny and cold. just below freezing.

I grabbed my backpack, it held the essentials for the trip: dad's Alpine binoculars which I'd given him years earlier, water, my Stoke's field guide, my wife's Nikon camera which she generously allows me to borrow for birding, a map of the marsh, and a small container of my dad's ashes.

The mission was simple. Follow the trails. Look for birds. Find out where the cranes were hiding. And ideally come across the right spot to spread dad's ashes. If not this access point, then move onto another.

I decided to walk the auto-tour backwards.

Just off the Egret trail is a floating walkway which takes visitors out into one of the ponds.

As I walked along this trail, I walked through clusters of swallows, who were still warming themselves in the rising sun. It was about freezing and flying insects were not about. The tree swallows perched on oaks and aspens at the edge of the pond near their selected nesting cavities, having been carved at some point by woodpeckers. Further along the trail is a tower for greater viewing, it was covered in barn swallows who noisily chittered to one another but seemed surprising undisturbed by my presence.

Three sides of the platform face deeper waters which shimmer in the sunrise without cattails to block out the light. The western side is full of cattails and on this morning, full of Blue Winged Teal.

I followed the Egret Trail into a woods where kinglets, chickadees, and woodpeckers scratched and pecked and willows, aspens, and oaks looking for their breakfast. I exited back on the auto tour road and headed back up toward the parking lot. I'd been hiking around and taking pictures for about 2 hours, and I decided to sit in my car to warm up. It being black, it warms nicely in the sun. This also when I realized that my adventures in this access point might take longer than expected. My wanderings so far had stumbled on the usual suspects like: Red Winged Blackbirds and Song Sparrows and also more exciting things like American White Pelicans, Great Egrets, and Northern Shovelers and I had only covered about one third of this area. I also hadn't seen any cranes.

To be sure, I had heard them. They were everywhere and nowhere. I'd hear a guard call or a unison call, raise the binoculars and stare off into a sea of grasses and reeds and see nothing.

I hiked part of the auto-tour to point where I could see Trumpeter Swans and Redhead Ducks in a pond off the road. There was trail head I had passed by which looked like it would have better access, so I circled back to the start of the Redhead Trail.

The Redhead Trail was a bevy of activity: Northern Flickers, Yellow Headed Blackbirds, White Breasted Nuthatches, and better access to the ponds where the swans were swimming. It was on this trail where I got my best view of the Sandhill Cranes. Two flying above who eventually landed in some far off stand of grass where they disappeared from view. The trail meanders back well away from the auto-tour; there are also periodic benches.

The trail eventually runs along side, Libby Creek. I took a seat at a bench just a foot or two away from the water. By this point in the morning, it was warmer and lighter. Other people had started to drive the auto-tour; I saw runners, and cyclists, but back here on Redhead Trail near Libby Creek; it was quiet. A group of bachelor Wood Ducks was making their rounds in the creek, swimming around some fallen branches.

I eventually soldiered on from Red Head trail to Red Fox trail and back to the parking lot. I decided to drive the auto toor as well, which is where I was able to add Buffleheads to my list for the morning. But by the end, I had only see a couple more flying cranes.

I left this area later than I expected and drove out to the other access points, following WI - 49 to County Highway Z to Point Road. The other access points provided far less access. For the most part they were slightly elevated land with a spotting scope looking down on the massive marsh in the distance. They served more to make me feel very small in this world than they did provide access to the creation below.

In the afternoon, I met up with my girls for lunch in Waupun, and we made our way down to the Horicon Marsh Explorium run by the WI DNR. This areas was bustling with activity. People were out with their kids and their dogs. The museum is new and kid friendly and does a good job explaining the history of the marsh. We did some hiking with the girls on the trails and saw Canada Geese, Painted Turtles, Forster's Terns, and other wildlife but only airborne cranes.

At the end of our time in the DNR managed site, I'd come to a couple of conclusions. Firstly, a Crane Count here may have been a miserable idea. The area is gigantic, it's about 150 times bigger than the marsh where dad and I had completed the Crane Count in 2016. Near the Sugar River, we can use our binoculars to see across the whole site and can reliably expect to see 6-12 cranes. While I understand others have seen 100+ cranes in Horicon, my experience was one of ghost birds hiding in the reeds, and I am certain my dad would have found this be a frustrating experience. Secondly, I'd decided where best to spread his ashes.

The girls and I backtracked to Redhead Trail on the opposite end of the marsh. The hike back to Libby Creek was made significantly more difficult with a 2 and 6 year old in tow. We sat on the bench and watched the water flow by. It sort of reminded me of King's Mill Creek which trickles through the yard of my childhood home. So we spread the ashes near the bench in the quiet of the creek just yards from the pond where the Trumpeter Swans swim.