Monday, March 21, 2011

A Trip to the Pullien Plant

By tomorrow, we'll be back into winter with another snowstorm, so on this fine sunny day it was time for a road trip.  Gary heard through friends that the pelicans had returned to Green Bay and he knew that the one place we could see them was at the Pullien Power Plant and the surrounding marina.

On the drive over, we found a flock of snow buntings swarming a field.  They, at least, knew that it was still winter here in Wisconsin and had not set off for their summer quarters in the Arctic.

But at the Pullien Plant at the point where the Fox River exits into the bay, spring birds had arrived  We indeed found the white pelicans, along with common mergansers, cormorants, and greater scaup.  At the top of the plant there's a box set up to attract the very rare peregrine falcon and sure enough, there was the female peering out as she sat on her nest.  We watched the show through binoculars and scope.

On the way home, we found a northern harrier with his hawk body and owl's face.  So far this year, I've found 38 species.  I'll do far better than most years as I explore the western states. I need to find a good bird book for those birds.  

For the next two days, we'll be here looking out at the snow, but for this day, we celebrated the coming season.

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