A Yellow Warbler at Lake Farm Park. Photo by Arun Christopher Manoharan.
The BIPOC Birding Club is thrilled to be hosting our third annual Birdathon! The Birdathon is like a walk-a-thon, but instead of counting miles walked, teams count bird species that they see!
We are equally enthusiastic about partnering with the Ice Age Trail Alliance and beginning our Great Wisconsin Birdathon on the Ice Age Wetlands Trail at Hartland Marsh in the town of Hartford, then continuing to Milwaukee at Shorewood Nature Preserve, Lake Park, and Warnimont Park on Saturday, May 4th, 2024.
For carpooling, please use this form to connect with other carpoolers.
Schedule and Locations
Hartland Marsh (Cottonwood Wayside parking at: 43.088183 -88.350079) and the Aldo Leopold Overlook (Maple Wayside parking at: 43.092081 -88.342595)
8:00 AM-10:30 AM
Lunch break
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Travel to Milwaukee and lunch break (a restaurant will be chosen for people who would like to meet to socialize).
Shorewood Nature Preserve
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
https://maps.app.goo.gl/umiHMb1jc3iH2Joi7
Lake Park
1:30 PM-3:30 PM
2975 N Lake Park Rd. Milwaukee, WI 53211
Warnimont Park
3:30 PM-5:30 PM
5400 S Lake Drive Cudahy, WI 53110
Meet at the Warnimont Golf Course Parking lot
Hartland Marsh and the Aldo Leopold Overlook
The Ice Age Wetlands Trail is a beautiful White Blazed loop trail, just off the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. The Hartland Marsh is located adjacent to a residential area in Hartland, but the marsh is surprisingly wild. You'll find boardwalk trails, ducks, herons, and songbirds, as well as other critters like frogs, muskrat, mink, and raccoons. The Ice Age Wetlands Trail includes two islands, oak savanna openings, boardwalks.
Time permitting, we can carpool over to the Maple Wayside and take the short, yet steep walk to enjoy the Aldo Leopold Overlook. The view is over the Hartland Marsh so there could opportunity to see wetland birds, but it is very open and not much tree cover. There is a new boardwalk just south of the overlook that folks could enjoy as well.
Shorewood Nature Preserve
The Shorewood Nature Preserve is located between Menlo and Newton on the east side of Lake drive. Opened in 1982, the preserve offers 8 acres of woodland along the shore of Lake Michigan. Descend a steep path and you will be treated to native flora and fauna. The preserve is an important birding hot spot, with an all-time total of 202 species observed. The preserve offers connection to nature close to home.
Lake Park
This park, with its multiple ravines, including one with a waterfall, provides wonderful habitat for migrating songbirds including many warblers, flycatchers, and sparrows. It has hosted rare warblers such as Worm eating, Black-throated Gray, Connecticut, and many others. Like the magic hedge, it often gets birds that seem out of place, like a Least Bittern on the golf course, or a Marsh Wren in a conifer tree. Nesting birds include Red-headed Woodpeckers and Eastern Bluebirds. Walking paths go through the ravines with foot bridges over the running water. Additional paths above the ravines give great views of the tree canopy to see what might be flitting about there.
The Magic Hedge at the Lake Park rugby pitch in Milwaukee lives up to its name. This part of the park jets out into Lake Michigan making it an ideal place for migrating birds to stop. A variety of warblers, sparrows, and other passerines are typically flitting about the hedge, but it also has hosts birds that seem quite out of place including prairie birds such as Bobolinks, Sedge Wrens and Dickcissels; or shorebirds like plovers and sandpipers. One year an Upland Sandpiper stopped for a couple of days.
Warnimont Park
This park in Cudahy (southern Milwaukee County) is close to 250 acres and covers a variety of habitats that attract migrating birds including prairie, deciduous woods, ravines and more. Its east border is Lake Michigan. The bird species count is 234 including a number of rarities that show up every spring and have included Western Kingbirds, Northern Mockingbirds, Blue Grosbeaks, Prairie Warblers and many more.
About the Great Wisconsin Birdathon:
The Birdathon is Wisconsin’s largest fundraiser for bird conservation and happens each spring. Bird-lovers across the state come together to help raise over $100,000 for Wisconsin’s most important bird conservation projects, including the protection of imperiled species like Whooping Cranes, Piping Plovers, and Kirtland’s Warblers.
Please help us raise money to assist the Natural Resource Foundation with bird conservation and to help the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin continue providing birding events and opportunities that welcome more BIPOC folks into the outdoors, see more birds, and beat those 2023 Birdathon numbers!
Registration opened on March 15, 2024, so you can join our BIPOC Flock and learn how to donate to the cause. You can to join our team if you’d like to help fundraise on our behalf, or you can help spread the word and share our team page with your family and friends to encourage small donations in support of the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin. Fifty percent of what we raise goes to the Bird Protection Fund, and the other half comes back to us to support our work building an inclusive birding community.
Team BIPOC Flock had an amazing Birdathon day on June 13th of last year. Despite the rainy, then overcast and cool conditions most of the day along the Milwaukee Lakefront, we far surpassed our goal of 90 birds and collectively saw a total of 109 species at Warnimont, Lake, and Sheridan Parks in Milwaukee, at Patrick Marsh in Madison and in Rock County. We had a small group with us as we saw many great birds, including 21 warbler species.
We sure hope you’ll join us on Saturday, May 4th as we bird all day for a cause! Come to one or all locations!