Sign 8 (29) - BIRDS OF MARSH EDGES
 

       In addition to the shore and water birds (signs 9/24, 10/23, 11/25 - 28-31), marshes are home for many birds which use either open meadows & fields, the annual weeds, or the shrubs for food and sometimes nests or cover.

I. OPEN MEADOWS - In abrupt transition from mowed upland fields to wet marsh, most OPEN SEDGE MEADOW birds may be absent here: snipe, marsh hawks, bobolinks, short-eared owls, short-billed marsh wrens. But horned larks and Killdeer may nest on the grassy edges.

II. SHRUBS - Shrubs and trees, both natural and planted, include:

• Lowland Species:

  red-osier dogwood	American black willow	tamarack (of bogs)
  pussywillows	European golden willow	river birch (of Wis. River)

• Upland shrubs: The open space lovers - shadbush, hazel, choke cherry, gray dogwood, brambles, crabapples, plums. Since trees abound by the lake to harbor nesting green herons, wood ducks, woodpeckers, house wrens, and tree swallows, large trees will be kept to a minimum here to favor waterfowl and shore birds (sign 10).

• Shrub Nesters expected to locate here include: yellow throat (a warbler), yellow warbler, song sparrow, swamp sparrow, goldfinch, catbird, traill's flycatcher, red-winged blackbird, grackle (All are summer insect-eaters except goldfinch, which nests only in late summer when seeds become abundant).

• Insect Feeders in spring and fall will include wanderers and migrants (the first five also eat berries): robin, catbird, waxwing, thrasher, thrushes, phoebe (a flycatcher), palm warbler, kinglets and wrens, pheasant

III. ANNUAL WEEDS - The mostly short-lived weeds include ragweeds, pigweeds, bur marigolds, docks, smart­weeds, amaranth, campion, sweet clover, evening primrose, mullein, fleabane, horseweed, knotweed, wild lettuce, pepper grass, bull thistle, velvetleaf, and several grasses - barnyard, foxtail, witch and love grasses and chufa sedge. These provide seeds attractive to the fall and winter sparrows and finches and their associates (less common ones in parentheses); and Ring-necked Pheasant

Seed Eaters: