Birding Mountain Bike Highway

Remembering how it makes me smile...

It’s been an unusually hot and humid summer - especially for Milwaukee Wisconsin. Don’t get me wrong…I like the warmth much better than the cold.  However, human nature is to complain regardless of the weather. I guess the reason I notice it (and mention it) is my current self-imposed living arrangement. You see, I left my wife of nearly 26 years; the love having all but evaporated like one of those cone-shaped room air fresheners that you have to open up to expose the soft inner core, and moved into an upper half of a house with zero AC. Since the place I’m renting didn’t come with it, and I would have to pay for it…I’m suddenly uber-frugal with my meager stipend. I can also unequivocally attest to you dear reader that heat does indeed rise…I have the sweat-stained tee shirts to prove it. I guess that’s one reason I totally enjoy getting out in the deep woods…the coolness of natural shade.

Even at 8:30 AM on this particular Sunday; the Cicadas were buzzing with gusto as I parked the White Pickup Truck under the westbound bridge of Milwaukee’s Capitol Drive. Why not park the vehicle in the shade I thought, as I gathered up my binoculars, tripod and camera. I knew I’d be away from it for a time and didn’t need to come back to an easy bake oven interior. My goal for today was two-fold; investigate the crumbling and forlorn cemetery plots directly adjacent to the Capitol Drive highway 45 North freeway on ramp, and to walk the trails that lead away into the woods near the ruins. The only convenient access was to park where I did and walk a short distance, so walk I did. Note: The focus of THIS particular blog installment will be the Trails, if you want the “cemetery” segment (because it is more birdy in nature)…look HERE within my NEW "Roads Less Traveled" blog.

The path started just west of the bridge over the Menomonee River Parkway and Capitol Drive.  The signs at the trail head hinted that I would have to share parts of the trail with the BRAINDEAD.  That's if they followed the little blue man on the bicycle insignias -nailed to the marker posts.  I was following the little blue man with the hiking stick markers, and I hoped not to "bump" into anything on two wheels wearing gaudily colored spandex.  The mosquitoes were thick and I cursed my decision to leave my camo fanny-pack in the truck.  It had my Off wipes in it darn-it!  Oh well...slap and move, slap and keep moving.

This particular trail wound its way mostly northward along the west edge of the Menomonee River.  The ground was primarily wet and/or damp due to the recent 500-year flooding of July 15th and 22nd.  The fact that most of this (lower) area had been far under water was quite evident due to the flotsam and jetsam higher up in the tree branches.  Colorful dragonflies, Blackwinged damselflies and Monarch butterflies flew about and the prevailing sound was that of moving water.  The sunlight at that time of the morning didn't seem to reach all that far into the heavily leafed-out forest, to add much heat; that was a good thing. Dappled patches of light filtered through to the ground creating shadows on the moist earth.  I was listening closely and moving as soundlessly as possible when I heard the familiar sound of the Red-eyed Vireo high in the tree tops.  Chickadees and Red-bellied Woodpeckers called back and forth to their kin and I heard the welcome song of the Eastern Wood Pewee in the distance.

A clearing in the tall grasses along the still hidden but heard from highway 45, yielded a pair of Song Sparrows flitting about from tree to tree, visibly upset by something unknown to me.  A female American Redstart zipped here and there; its tail fanning and twisting this way and that as it chased insects.  I noticed that I must have gotten into some sort of low nettles, as my ankles and shins began and to burn and itch.  I was wearing shorts and it is a professional hazard of the hobby I guess.  Gray Catbirds and American Robins were the next species I heard as I approached the western most part of my morning walk.  The urban "artists" known as taggers had decorated the newer bridge abutments on Hampton Ave. near the intersection of the Oak Leaf Trail. 

That looked like a likely place to disengage myself from the tangle of the dense woods and emerge onto some nicely manicured asphalt path.  To be honest, I hadn't realized just how far I had traversed until I came out and recognized the road. 

I walked back to the WPT on the macadam with slightly soaked shoes and socks, but feeling like I had gotten back on that horse and ridden once again...it felt good to "get lost" for a time, chasing avian folly.

I think I'll go again...soon.