Nothing inspires awe like Mother Nature in motion. Come autumn, massive waves of birds journey southward, filling the skies and often staging together by the thousands in fields and waterways. Migration events like these are bucket list moments for wildlife lovers, and in Wisconsin, there is no better place than Horicon Marsh to witness them.
During migrations, as many as 350,000 geese and ducks alone pass through the marsh – about an hour’s drive northwest of Milwaukee. Sandhill cranes amass by the thousands, their prehistoric croaking filling the air.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Special sightings include the tundra swans, on their way from Alaska to Chesapeake Bay, thousands of redhead ducks, and rough-legged hawks, which come here from their Arctic nests for the winter. Most impressive, however, are a few rare whooping cranes, bright white and towering over their gray cousins. Only about 700 whoopers exist in the wild, and less than a century ago there were only 21 in the world!
The marsh’s creation story is, geologically speaking, icy: Glaciers carved out a basin and created a lake trapped behind moraines when the ice melted 12,000 years ago. The water eventually eroded its way out, draining the lake and leaving the silty foundation of the largest freshwater cattail marsh in North America.
These 33,000 acres – 13 miles long and 5 miles across at their widest point – are managed as two wildlife refuges, one national and the other state. One isn’t better than the other. On the state-managed side is about 5 miles of trails, many along impoundments where waterfowl gather.
Perched atop a glacial drumlin, the Palmatory Street Overlook provides a picnic shelter and a platform with a sweeping view of the marsh. You’ll need binoculars or spotting scopes to observe the birds on the water in the distance. The national refuge includes an auto-tour route and 10 miles of trails, including a floating boardwalk out into the cattails.
Both refuges have free exhibits at their visitor centers, though if you must choose just one, the state’s center also adds the Explorium, an area with hands-on exhibits, an airboat simulator and a life-size woolly mammoth, great for the kids.
Time your visit for peak migration
That’s typically late October/early November for Canada geese and cranes. These large birds rest and refuel here for several weeks before departing as late as December. But a cold fall or even just a cold front can encourage birds to ride those winds earlier.
Stay in your car
Your vehicle makes a good bird blind. Aim to park along the auto route as well as the shoulders of Highway 49 near patches of open water.
Drop by for lunch or dinner
During midday, many cranes and geese leave the marsh to feed in nearby farm fields, drawing visitors to backroads outside the park. An hour before sunset, find a good observation spot to see them all returning to the safety of the marsh for the evening.
