High overhead on many of these spring nights the dark skies are filled with unseen flocks of migrating birds, sturdy travelers winging their way back to the Upper Midwest from Mexico and Central and South America and other points south.
We humans plod along on the ground below, often little aware of this annual drama of epic journey and endurance and return. Local birder Mike McDowell, a sales representative at Eagle Optics in Middleton, calls it one of the greatest animal migrations on the planet.
"It's like a chance," said McDowell, "to become acquainted again with old friends you said goodbye to in the fall."
Now, Wisconsin is trying to tap into the power of this natural phenomenon and the growth of birding as an economic force. The Department of Natural Resources is spearheading an effort to establish a series of auto birding trails that will eventually crisscross the state, taking birders from the Mississippi River to the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan to the broad inland marshes such as Crex Meadows in northern Wisconsin and Horicon Marsh in the south.
The Great Wisconsin Birding and Nature Trail capitalizes on Wisconsin's unique role as a busy hub for numerous migratory routes and gives the state's communities a powerful tool to attract visitors, said Susan Foote-Martin, project coordinator for the DNR's Bureau of Endangered Resources.
"This is the first time Wisconsin has brought together all of its bird and wildlife viewing opportunities in one project," Foote-Martin said. "It's an effort to market the best we have to offer."
The program has been under way since 2001 when the state received federal money from offshore oil leases to develop wildlife action plans aimed at protecting non-game species. Foote-Martin said $100,000 was budgeted to set up the birding trails. The agency teamed with the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative, a group working to raise awareness of bird conservation issues, and more than 150 partners, from local businesses to the Department of Tourism.
Foote-Martin is no stranger to the attachment that many people in Wisconsin have to the state's wild creatures. A conservation biologist with the DNR, she also oversees for Madison Audubon the Goose Pond Sanctuary near Poynette. But in 2001, when Foote- Martin started traveling the state and hosting town meetings in community halls and schools to gather suggestions for the birding trail, she was overwhelmed.
"It was tremendous," Foote- Martin recalled. "People would come out in droves. The rooms were always full of people, from Rhinelander to Grantsburg."
Communities and individuals were asked to nominate sites for inclusion on the mapped auto routes. The result is an interactive, online map, broken up by region, which travelers can visit to plan a trip. Birders and other wildlife enthusiasts can click on suggested stops and get information on everything from bird species they are likely to spot to the closest lodging and dining.
Maps are completed, according to Foote-Martin, for areas along the Mississippi River and Lake Superior. The map for the Lake Michigan shoreline will be posted soon and maps for central and southern regions of the state will be up in 2007 and 2008, Foote-Martin said. Potential stops for those future auto routes can be nominated on- line, she added.
Jerry Huffman, communication director for the Department of Tourism, praised the trail project as a way for cities and villages throughout the state to tap into the estimated $4.3 billion that surveys show visitors to Wisconsin spend on outdoor pursuits. Activities such as hunting and fishing top that list, he said, but birding is climbing fast.
"Birding over the last few years has been moving steadily up the list," Huffman said. "It's become so obvious you can't ignore it."
Huffman added that the state is even getting its share of birders from other parts of the country. "We're quite hot when it comes to prairie chickens," he said.
Foote-Martin said communities have responded by promoting the trails and by organizing festivals and other activities geared to the arrival of migrants in the spring and their departure in the fall.
"It gives the communities a chance to showcase what they have to offer," said Foote- Martin.
But there is a deeper and perhaps longer lasting benefit to the project, said Foote- Martin. Along with the growing interest in birds and the best places to see them comes a growing awareness of the threats that many species face. Human-caused problems - from the destruction of habitat to the deaths of migrating birds from collisions with buildings and communication towers - are likely to receive more scrutiny, she said.
McDowell, the Madison birder, said a stronger connection with the natural world and an awakening of awareness about the wonder of all of these tiny, other lives are powerful motivations for taking to the state's fields and forests.
On Tuesday, McDowell got a firsthand look at just how easy it is to draw people in to the small, everyday miracles that birding offers. He joined a group of novice birders in the UW Arboretum and they came across a pair of nesting great horned owls. The parents were feeding the young and McDowell could not help appreciating the looks on the faces of those around him.
"They were just mesmerized," McDowell said.Wisconsin State Journal
