It’s been a while since my last “Boats and Birds” post. However, last night while studying my marine shipping app I realized the Michipicoten (one of my favorite lakers) would be arriving just off the Superior entrance to the harbor shortly before sunrise. Thus, I got up at 5 am and drive to Wisconsin in time to walk the beach and welcome my favorite ore boat. These photographs resulted.

The birds portion of the post comes from our trip down to Madison this past weekend for a wedding. Sunday morning I wanted to go birding, but I did not know the area. In an instance like this I do two things:

• Check eBird for nearby hotspots
• Peruse Google Maps looking for green spaces

Google Maps provided the winning location when I realized that the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Research Station was only five minutes away by car. Ag means a farm, which at this time of year also means food for birds. There was a gorgeous garden and small apple orchard. The birds did not let me down.

House Finch eating apples

American Goldfinch eating sunflower seeds

And the gardens!