CURB Out of the Dark

… five, six miles an hour. That’s usually
suitable for hearing,” he says.
In Horicon, wind speeds hovered
around six miles per hour that night, but
as we’re huddled on the side of the hill,
the gales feel stronger.
After 15 minutes, we get our first gull
sighting: one returning to roost, perhaps
after dining in a landfill in Mayville less
than 10 miles away from here, says Liz
Herzmann, a wildlife educator for the
Horicon Marsh Visitor and Education
Center who is leading tonight’s discussion
with Bahls.
“We’ve had some nights where this
whole area up here is just white with gulls,
just hundreds and hundreds of them,”
Herzmann says.
Not so scared of the dark
Here on the state-owned side of Horicon
Marsh, hunting and trapping is permitted.
Around a half-hour into the watch, the
sound of gunshots in the distance reminds
those of us on the hill that we’re not the
only ones here, nor is birdwatching the
sole objective of human activity on these
lands.
Birders can’t be naive about the dangers
at night that accompany the beauty
they’re seeking. Sometimes the wildlife
they’re looking for can pose its own kind
of threat.
“I was once scraped by a saw-whet owl
in the twilight just before dawn,” McCaffrey
says. “I’ve been calling it, and it had
been calling back. And then, I wasn’t
quite sure where it was, and suddenly,
out of my peripheral vision I saw it coming
right at my head across the top of my
car and ducked, and on my recording,
you can hear my shuffling as I’m ducking
from this little teeny owl that was going
for my head.”
When McCaffrey is out night birding
in Bayfield County, he’s more often than
not looking for owls. He also drives to and
from where he’s birding to avoid the risk
of getting lost in the woods at 1 or 2 a.m.
“I’m more comfortable doing it up
here than I would in a more populated
area,” McCaffrey says. “Because really, my
greatest concern is encounters with people
on these back roads where it’s not many
people doing what I’m doing, so it’s like,
what are they doing back here?”
For birders in more urban settings, risk
is a certain reality of birding at night. Madison
birder Jeff Galligan, who’s seen over
300 bird species in Wisconsin over the
years, describes himself as “very careful”
during his night outings as a Black man.
Galligan says he’s attuned to his surroundings
and where he’s pointing his
camera and binoculars when he’s birding
at night because people, like police, can
make assumptions.
He and Dexter Patterson co-founded
BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin this
year precisely for this reason, with the
goal of getting people of color involved
in the predominantly white world of
birding and feel comfortable exploring
Wisconsin’s outdoors. He’s excited about
its potential to expose Madison youth
of color to different perspectives and
opportunities.
“Environmentalism and stewardship
and having a vested interest in things like
reducing the carbon footprint, being
aware of global warming … is something
I want people of color to be seeing and
experiencing more because we all are here
and our children are all going to be inheriting
the same Earth,” Galligan says.
Back at Horicon, two sandhill cranes,
the night’s main attraction, fly about 15
feet from the top of the picnic shelter and
give their strangled honk that jolts me
back into the moment.
River of birds
After 40 minutes a flock of mallards
loops around the picnic shelter, and one
of robins follows soon after. Of all the
waterfowl, wood ducks are the last to
roost tonight.
“If you get a good night you’ll see this
river, of waterfowl, or cranes or whatever,
going from one spot to the other
because they’re just kind of following one
another,” Bahls says.
It’s 5:50 p.m. now, and as the sun sinks
in the sky, the Rock River glistens in the
distance. Still, Bahls and Herzmann don’t
miss a beat at identifying birds for the
thinning crowd. Off in the distance is a
sedge of sandhill cranes, says Herzmann.
“A lot of it is just training your eye in
silhouettes, is how I look at it, so every
bird has a different shape and flight. …
They have different wing beats,” she
says. Bahls can name birds at the drop of
a hat because he’s been birding in Dodge
County his entire life.
The orange band of the sunset thins
away, until night envelops the marsh completely.
Herzmann and Bahls fold up the
scopes they carried in.
It’s 6:24 p.m., the sunset was 15 minutes
ago and just a few of us are left. I hear
the gurgling motor of a duck hunter and
his dog in his airboat first, and then see
the flashing green light that guides him
through the winding Rock River.
As a writer, I chose Horicon because I
wanted to see birds in all their glory and
what brings people to them. But what I
found instead was how nature brings out
“I want people of color to
be seeing and experiencing
more because we all are
here and our children are
all going to be inheriting
the same Earth.”
the best in us. Sure, “...it’s fun to at least
be aware that a huge number of birds can
be flying over you at night at this time of
year,” says Madison Audubon director of
education Carolyn Byers.
But more than that, birders find it
empowering to develop a lifelong connection
with the natural world, to make
new discoveries in familiar places and see a
side of creation while the world is sleeping.
WHAT’S IN YOUR BIRDING BAG?
Six essentials you need to get started
Story and Illustration by Lauryn Azu
Be sure to bundle up, as evening
temperatures in Wisconsin can drop
fast after sunset. “I usually try not to
have synthetic fabrics on the outside of
what I'm wearing, because they can be
surprisingly noisy,” says Brian McCaffrey,
a birder in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
He likes to wear a Carhartt coat or a
wool sweater to muffle the sound of his
steps and not spook off the birds he’s
looking for ($110, carhartt.com).
These are essential for spotting
birds from far away. Pick up a
pair of Nikon Prostaff 3S 10 x 42
Binoculars ($140, rei.com), to
bring small creatures to eye. Add a
harness ($28, rei.com) so you don’t
have to carry them, BIPOC Birding
Club of Wisconsin co-founder Jeff
Galligan recommends.
Though bright lights are necessary
for navigating dark trails, they can
damage the eyesight of nocturnal
creators if flashed directly at them,
according to Carolyn Byers, director
of education at Madison Audubon.
Still, take extra nighttime precautions
with a 3-in-1 safety light, lantern
and flashlight from L.L. Bean ($15,
llbean.com).
Birders like to use a variety of apps
to make their nighttime treks more
rewarding. The two apps most favored
by birders are eBird and Merlin.
Madison birder Neil Gilbert calls Merlin,
“like Shazam for birds,” where you can
record a bird call and generate an
instant identification. Birders who record
their observations in eBird are citizen
scientists because they contribute to
data used for scientific research and the
conservation of birds. Wisconsinites have
submitted more than one million
checklists to eBird, according to the
state’s Department of Natural Resources.
Also, for safety reasons, a phone is a
must in case of an emergency.
Keep track of field observations the
old-fashioned way, using paper and
pen. For gold standard note taking, try
out Moleksine’s Pocket-Sized Classic
Soft Cover ($16, moleskine.com), and
Muji’s 0.38 Gel Ink Ballpoint Pen, which
will provide enough ink flow for on-thego
notes in cooler temperatures ($1.50,
muji.us).
Stay awake and warm in the dark hours
with a tumbler of hot coffee or tea.
Madison-based JBC Coffee Roasters
offers light to medium roasts in whole
bean or a variety of grinds
($15-20, jbccoffeeroasters.com).
20 CURB
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