Northward we drove through a landscape shrouded in a thin fog as if a cloak, hills looming up like a sea-dragon’s back. With a dull red, two-man kayak strapped to the roof of our silvery car, a day of excitement and adventure lay spread before us like a tree ready for the picking. This moment, the result of days of preparation, would help fill a gaping hole in our datasheets. The Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II, well under way, required venturing into even the largest and most impenetrable marshes. And so to the marshes we pushed. An unprecedented yet spectacular opportunity had come upon me, and only time would tell what glories the sunrise would bring.

Fifteen years after the termination of the first Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas, the second atlas kicked off. Filled with days of collecting intense data on the breeding habits, habitats, and precise locations of birds throughout the entire state, I could hardly wait to jump in. With the help of a birding friend of mine, Aaron, who had participated in another atlas, my days soon filled with work and atlasing. Most of it consisted of observations, followed by tedious entering of data. From traipsing along lofty bluffs to trudging through mosquito-infested bogs, success and even the work …show more content…
As we paddled, tiny brown and rufous Marsh Wrens darted out in front of us, quickly zipping between cattails and carrying mouthfuls of food to eager young. Coming too close to a Black Tern colony, large flocks of this stunning endangered species spun and hovered around us, attempting to drive us from their nesting grounds. As we neared the end of the marsh, a tiny, secretive Least Bittern treated us to an exquisite view of itself as it perched at the edge of the grasses, and then melted back from where it came. All in all, we turned from one of God’s wonders to the next, filling us with unspeakable