Molly and I just finished up “a quikie” bike tour. Unlike our longer multiple month and hundreds of miles, if not thousands of miles trips … we only cycled 156 miles over three days. The bike tour may have been short, but the birding and scenery has been great. Just this morning at sunrise I captured a new lifer, a Dickcissel! Next to that bird on the wire was an Eastern Meadowlark. Although I love my home area along the North shore of Lake Superior, both of these birds never visit the Boreal forest.

Here are a few of my sunrise photographs, and a few pics from the last three days of cycling. We named this bicycle tour the Wisconsin River Ramble. After a short tour along the Mississippi River, we biked 61 miles up the Scenic River byway, and then back the next day. As much as we could, our route took some different roads each day. Much of this area was never scoured by glaciers during the last ice age. The end result is hills because the land was nor shaved flat by the grinding pressure of the ice.

The Dickcissel

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Eastern Meadowlark

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Day’s 2 and 3 of our ride

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A typical farm scene while cycling

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The Unique Cafe in Boscobel

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Some Blue Wildflowers Along the Highway

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Hill Dispair \ Fatigue (50+ miles into the day’s ride)

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Thanks Wisconsin!

Although I love photographing birds, there are some other subjects I like to chase with my camera including shunted aside ancient and derelict railroad cars. Sometimes the search for the trains yields a fun birding experiences. Such was the case two nights ago when driving through an old railyard near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin I noticed a Killdeer immediately in front of my Subaru. The bird would not move. I commented to my wife, Molly: “There must be a nest”! After exiting the car, two Killdeer immediately presented me with the fake broken wing treatment. I quickly took some photos and left them to enjoy the warm summer evening in peace. Killdeer nests are right out in the open and amazingly camouflaged. Take a look!

Nesting Killdeer

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Broken Wing Treatment

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Eggs … well camouflaged right in the open

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Shunted Aside Old Train (my original quarry)

Molly and I are doing a short three day bike tour along the Wisconsin River. It is a scenic byway, and it lived up to its scenic name. Today’s 61 mile ride took us along some beautiful backwaters, and also included a climb up through a scenic small River valley. This area is unique as the glaciers did not scour the land, and thus it is quite hilly … except right next to the river where we were bicycling most of the time.

At one point Molly yelled for me to stop. She had spotted a Trumpeter Swan family in the wetlands right next to the highway. As noted previously, I always bike with my camera and monopod. That preparation was rewarded today!