Coasting quietly on a well-worn path along a magnificently wooded bluff, some small sound catches your ear. You pause along the trail and wait. Now a graceful floating movement causes you to turn your head and gaze into the thick stand of trees. There on the side of a large cedar tree grasps an elusive Pileated Woodpecker, in all its splendor. You have just been “birding by bicycle”.
Peninsula State Park in Door County Wisconsin, offers nearly 6 miles of smooth graveled surface trails and an additional 9 miles of rugged unsurfaced terrain for off road bicycling enthusiasts. These trails visit nearly every conceivable birding habitat from lakefront to deep woods. Bicycling with binoculars is a great way to cover more territory, get some additional exercise, and see more species.
Campers within the park are regularly treated to daily early morning serenades and bustling activity right in their sites, but they have to be paying attention. For a few hours after sunrise each day during the summer months, American Redstarts flit in and out of the low shrubbery catching insects for their first meals of a busy day. These diminutive black, orange, and yellow birds often land in close proximity to humans, pausing on the woodpile, or picnic table, before dashing off with a flick and twist of their tails. Listen to the sounds around the campsite to direct your attention to other visitors like Red and White-Breasted Nuthatches, Chickadees, Hairy and Downey Woodpeckers, Northern Cardinals and even the infrequent aforementioned Pileated.
Get on the bicycle armed with your binoculars and perhaps a camera, to find yourself an open meadow surrounded by a ring of trees. If you pause along the edge and are still for a few moments gazing into the trees, you will probably be rewarded with the activity of insect and berry-eating Cedar Waxwings as they emerge, catch and disappear over and over again. These sleek looking, buff-colored, black masked, crested birds also have yellow-tipped tails that flash while in flight. Riding slowly through the woods near the Eagle Bluff lighthouse, make sure to keep an eye out for foraging groups of Wild Turkey in the underbrush. They prefer eating acorns and nuts of various trees as well as seeds, insects and berries. Since the turkeys were first successfully reintroduced into Wisconsin in 1976, population levels continue to increase and expand statewide.
Peninsula State Park in Door County Wisconsin, offers nearly 6 miles of smooth graveled surface trails and an additional 9 miles of rugged unsurfaced terrain for off road bicycling enthusiasts. These trails visit nearly every conceivable birding habitat from lakefront to deep woods. Bicycling with binoculars is a great way to cover more territory, get some additional exercise, and see more species.
Campers within the park are regularly treated to daily early morning serenades and bustling activity right in their sites, but they have to be paying attention. For a few hours after sunrise each day during the summer months, American Redstarts flit in and out of the low shrubbery catching insects for their first meals of a busy day. These diminutive black, orange, and yellow birds often land in close proximity to humans, pausing on the woodpile, or picnic table, before dashing off with a flick and twist of their tails. Listen to the sounds around the campsite to direct your attention to other visitors like Red and White-Breasted Nuthatches, Chickadees, Hairy and Downey Woodpeckers, Northern Cardinals and even the infrequent aforementioned Pileated.
Get on the bicycle armed with your binoculars and perhaps a camera, to find yourself an open meadow surrounded by a ring of trees. If you pause along the edge and are still for a few moments gazing into the trees, you will probably be rewarded with the activity of insect and berry-eating Cedar Waxwings as they emerge, catch and disappear over and over again. These sleek looking, buff-colored, black masked, crested birds also have yellow-tipped tails that flash while in flight. Riding slowly through the woods near the Eagle Bluff lighthouse, make sure to keep an eye out for foraging groups of Wild Turkey in the underbrush. They prefer eating acorns and nuts of various trees as well as seeds, insects and berries. Since the turkeys were first successfully reintroduced into Wisconsin in 1976, population levels continue to increase and expand statewide.
The expansive rocky shoreline of Lake Michigan is also home to many species of waterfowl. Gulls, White Pelicans, Cormorants, Killdeer, Canada Geese, and Wood Duck are among the residents and visitors to the area, and can easily be seen via the paths that run along the water’s edge. So the next time you are out for some Door County (or any other) birding, consider the bicycle as a “natural” partner.
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