Welcome to Horicon Marsh
Living in Wisconsin my entire life still has not been enough time to see all of the amazing features of this beautiful state. Despite having lived in Oshkosh at one time, I have never visited Horicon Marsh, the nation’s largest freshwater cattail marsh and one of the Seven Wonders of Wisconsin (allegedly, I haven’t been able to find the complete list yet).
So last Saturday my friend and colleague Jonathan Rice joined me as we reconnoitered this beautiful natural resource for North American migratory waterfowl.
The marsh covers 33,000 acres. The Horicon National Wildlife Refuge makes up the northern two thirds of the marsh. It’s managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources handles the bottom third, the Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area. I was intrigued to discover the marsh is circumnavigated by a 36-mile bicycle route. I hope to try that another day.
As we set out for Horicon, the sun was just breaking over the Horizon.
The early morning sun washed across the Wisconsin farm fields.
When we arrived at the marsh, there was still some frost on the ground and the sun had slipped behind the clouds.
The sun was trying to break through.
We saw geese and other migratory birds, but not nearly as many as I expected.
The autumn colors were near peak.
Even the Marsh grass seemed to have a unique color.
Bright colors were everywhere.
We weren’t the only ones enjoying the dramatic early morning lighting, although the number of people we saw also were not as large as I had anticipated.
As we drove around from the northwest side of the marsh to another viewing location on the northeastern side, the clouds thinned and the sun brightened.
The biggest expanse of open water was at the Wisconsin DNR Welcome Center. Not a lot of birds to see, though.
Although we recognized some coots, as we walked the trails.
Also the ubiquitous Canada Geese.
We were only at Horicon for a few hours, but it’s clear that the Horicon Marsh is a great place to see autumn colors in all their splendor on an October day.
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