After dinner, we drove over to Horicon Lake. It was a beautiful evening to watch a sunset over a lake.
We were only there for about 1/2 an hour but we saw (and heard) an interesting assortment of birds including 2 Least Terns (apparently tern have been a spring presence at the lake for at least a decade), a couple of Great Egrets in the marsh, and, very surprising, 4 Purple Martins hawking over the lake.
But the best bird was one we heard--a Sora in the marsh with it's unmistakable whinny which we heard at least 4 times a long with a couple of loud clicks. Soras are rails and while not as hard to see as some of the other rails, still pretty secretive (except for one we saw in Canada which actually followed us as we walked around the pond where it was feeding). I've thought before that I had heard rails at the back of the lake where it gets swampy, but this was the first time I was positive of what I'd heard. I want to go back and clap my hands loudly. I knew one of the rails responded to that trick, I just didn't remember which one until I looked up Sora on my Thayer software when we got home.
21 species for the quick trip:
Canada Goose 3
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Sora 1 Heard it whinny 4 times in marsh at back of park.
Least Tern 2
Mourning Dove 1 Heard
Chimney Swift 2
Blue Jay 1
Purple Martin 4
Tree Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Gray Catbird 2
Cedar Waxwing 4
Pine Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1 Heard
Song Sparrow 1 Heard
Northern Cardinal 1 Heard
Red-winged Blackbird 3
Common Grackle 1
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