WHEN THE FIRST WHITE MEN came to Illinois, they found large mounds of earth rising up out of the prairies, usually near navigable rivers. Because these mounds contained burials, pottery, stone implements, and the ruins of buildings, and were sometimes shaped like birds and beasts, various legends arose about the people who built them. One story had it that they were a lost tribe of Israel. Another described them as a people related to the Mayas and the Aztecs. A third told of an ancient race, of much vision and beauty, with large cities and widespread commerce and trade, that flourished in the Mississippi Basin about the time of Christ. For many years the mound builders captured the imagination of story-tellers.
Today, however, these myths have been exploded, and the mystery of the mounds has been solved, at least in part, by archeological expeditions. Archeologists have been able to show clearly that the mound builders were simply Indians who built mounds.
These mounds were not all of one period, nor were they all built for the same purpose. Some, like the effigy mounds in the northwestern part of the State, were of a ceremonial nature; many were built primarily for burial purposes; others were sites for buildings. Those of the latter type seem to show influences which came from the Lower Mississippi, and possibly from the higher cultures of Mexico and South America. With the great tribal unrest among the Indians during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, largely due to the incursions of the Iroquois from the East, a great shifting of tribes occurred, so that by the time the first explorers came to Illinois, there were few mound-building Indians left in the region.
More than 10,000 mounds are scattered throughout the State. Because Illinois was situated at the confluence of the great highways of primitive travel--the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois Rivers --various mound-building cultures shuttled back and forth across the State. Here are found obsidian from Yellowstone, Catlinite from Minnesota, copper from Michigan and Minnesota, mica from the Alleghenies, and shells from the Gulf of Mexico. And in the mounds of other States are found the kind of flint mined only in the ancient quarry in Union County, Illinois.
Archeologists have found two major culture patterns in the State, of which the Woodland is the older and more basic. One phase of this culture is represented by the effigy mounds in northwestern Illinois; this came down from Wisconsin. Another is the Hopewell phase which probably had its origin farther east. The other major pattern is known as the Mississippi culture, and is divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower phases; it runs up along the Mississippi, the Illinois, and other rivers, as far north as Astalan, Wisconsin.
Woodland pottery is crude and unevenly colored; textiles and shell work are absent; and only its stone work is definitely well-fashioned. Houses of the period were circular and temporary. The mounds themselves are round, are generally smaller than those of the Mississippi culture, and were not used as substructures. The dead were usually buried in the mounds in flexed positions; a few of the remains found had been cremated. In the Hopewell phase of this culture--so-called because it probably came to Illinois from the vicinity of the famous Hopewell mounds in Ohio--copper and mica ornaments occur. One of its chief characteristics is the frequent use of log tombs, over which the mounds were built.
In the more recent Mississippi culture, the pottery work is wellfired from carefully prepared clays; it is evenly colored and of many forms. Shell work is highly developed. Finely woven textiles are frequent. The dwellings were square or rectangular, of a permanent or semi-permanent nature, and the mounds were often used as substructures for these houses. In the cemeteries near the mounds the dead were buried in extended positions, together with projectile points, pottery, charms, and amulets.
One of the richest archeological areas in the Middle West is at the junction of the Spoon and the Illinois Rivers in Fulton County. Expeditions from the University of Chicago under Professor FayCooper Cole found as many as three cultural manifestations of the two basic patterns existing in the same mounds. In the eight hundred mounds in Fulton County, six different cultural manifestations have been discovered, with the Middle Mississippi and the Hopewell phases often existing side by side, although different in time. Thus, though the religious practices and beliefs among the mound builders apparently differed, they continued to use the same spots for their burials.
In the same area, near Lewistown, on a high bluff overlooking the two rivers, is the Dickson Mound Builders Tomb. Here a museum has been erected over a mound of the Middle Mississippi phase containing more than two hundred skeletons, the largest and most interesting display of its kind in the country. The remains, together with their accompanying artifacts, are exposed in their original positions. With the skeletons are pottery vessels, mussel-shell spoons, L-shaped pipes, bone needles, beads, and fish hooks, flint arrowheads, stone adze blades, and effigy forms. The mound itself, originally crescent-shaped, with the points toward the east, measured 550 feet along its outer curve, and was 35 feet high. A reproduction of one of these burials, contributed by Mr. Don Dickson, explorer of the mound and owner of the museum, is exhibited at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.
Fifteen miles southwest of Joliet is the Fisher Group, explored by George Langford, a local engineer. Three successive occupancies were revealed here: under the original surface, buried in the limestone gravel below the base of the mounds, were skeletons, with medium and long skulls, interred in a flexed position, and unaccompanied by relics; this complete absence of pottery, and the difference of physical type, probably indicate an extremely ancient culture. In the middle levels of the mounds were found burials of a short-headed people; with them were many pottery vessels, and artifacts of stone, bone, and shell. The upper levels held mixed types and mixed artifacts. In one of the smaller mounds of this group occurred skeletons of a short-headed people, extended on their backs with their heads to the west; in these graves were iron, brass, and silver utensils and trinkets, of white man's manufacture, indicating that some of the mound builders lived here down to historic times.
In the American Bottom, near East St. Louis, are the mounds of the world-famous Cahokia Group, known throughout the archeological world. Here the mounds of the Middle Mississippi phase were used as substructures for ceremonial buildings. The pottery is highly developed and sometimes, in form and design, indicates southern connections. Near the center of the area, which contains eighty-five smaller mounds, stands the largest earthwork in the world, the Cahokia or Monks' Mound. A truncated pyramid, rectangular in form, with a broad terrace or apron extending from the south side, it covers sixteen acres. Its greatest height is 100 feet; the east-west width is 710 feet, and the north-south length, including the terrace, 1,080 feet. The general similarity of mounds of this type to those found in Mexico has often been noted. The herculean labor involved in their construction denotes either the existence of slavery or an almost fanatical religious belief. Though there is much evidence that a large community, equal in size to a modern small city, existed in the vicinity of these mounds, no cemetery, strangely enough, has been found.
Also belonging to the Middle Mississippi phase are the four Kincaid Mounds near Metropolis, in Massac County. The largest, a truncated pyramid, rises 32 feet above ground, and covers 2 acres at its base. The nearby village site comprises more than 100 acres. The whole area has been made available to the University of Chicago for archeological research.
Effigy mounds, belonging to the Woodland culture, occur in the northwestern part of the State. They possibly represent totems or clan symbols; usually no burials are found in them. Near Galena is a mound shaped like a serpent, which strikingly resembles the famous Serpent Mound of Ohio. At the junction of Smallpox Creek with the Mississippi is the effigy of a bird with outspread wings. Also belonging to the Woodland culture are seventeen conical mounds on the bluffs overlooking East Dubuque and the Mississippi River, the largest of which is 70 feet in diameter and 12 feet high.
Thousands of small mounds, usually called bluff mounds, line the Illinois River. In culture they are of two types, for here again the Woodland and the Middle Mississippi, separated by considerable lapses of time, are found in the same area. Among other larger mounds of the State are the Montezuma Mounds near Pearl and the Beardstown Mounds in Cass County.
Showing posts with label Animal life in Wisconsin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animal life in Wisconsin. Show all posts
Wisconsin Animal Life
Animal life in Wisconsin was once as varied as the topography. Fur-bearing animals attracted white men to the northwest territories, but, as the areas of human occupation widened, many of the larger animals retreated northward. Today many species originally found over the entire State live only in the northern part, and some species have altogether disappeared.
Within the evergreen forests of northern Wisconsin lived the wildcat, the wolverine, the Canada lynx, the marten, and fishers, all now rare, weasels, otters, minks, muskrats, raccoons, and beavers. In the northern lakes region roamed herds of elk and northern Virginia deer; the latter is the only member of the deer family that remains. The only moose reported in recent years were a pair that strayed across the border from Minnesota, roamed about for a short time, and then returned to their haunts. The herd of some 30 elk in Vilas County is not native but is the progeny of two carloads imported in 1915 from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Timber wolves and black bear are now comparatively rare, but brush wolves, or common coyotes, are numerous. The red fox, the porcupine, and the smaller mammals -- the chipmunk, deer mouse, woodchuck, skunk, snowshoe hare, star-nosed mole, shrews, and squirrels -- are still abundant. The flying squirrel, red-backed vole, bog lemming, marsh shrew, and several species of bat are common to all parts of the State.
At one time the elk, black bear, eastern cougar, timber wolf, and beaver lived not only in the northern forests but also in the deciduous forests farther south. These deciduous forests came within the Alleghanian faunal area, and in them a large number of animals reached the northern limit of their range. Typical small species in the south were the southern flying squirrel, fox squirrel, striped ground squirrel, gray squirrel, woodchuck, cottontail rabbit, long-tailed weasel, Wisconsin gray fox, prairie mole, opossum, small shrew, and prairie vole.
In the thickets edging the forest openings of the southeast the Franklin ground squirrel, skunk, jumping mouse, chipmunk, and shorttailed shrew are still to be found, and in the prairie openings themselves live some pocket gophers, prairie jumping mice, and badgers. Large herds of bison formerly grazed the more extensive prairie of the southwest, home of the prairie red fox, the coyote, the white-tailed jackrabbit, the ground squirrel, and pocket gopher. However, most of the large native mammals of the southern half of the State have been exterminated; such imported pests as the Norway rat and the house mouse thrive where once deer, bear, and porcupine lived in great numbers.
Whereas such species of reptiles and amphibia as the garter snake, the snapping turtle, painted turtle, and mud puppy are found throughout the State, the swamp tree frog, cricket frog, skink, milk snake, and racer live only in the southern area. Parts of the southeast are favorable to the pickerel frog, the bullfrog, the soft-shelled musk, spotted and map turtles, the green and the garter snake, the bull snake, and the rock rattler.
Wisconsin's fish fauna, with over 200 species, is rich and varied. Once the many lakes and rivers swarmed with fish. Now fish are less abundant, especially in the south, where conditions favorable to breeding have not been maintained. The northern lakes and streams still abound in game and near-game fish. Among them are brook trout, German brown trout, bluefin, largemouthed black bass, a common whitefish, smallmouthed black bass, black crappie, pickerel, and wall-eyed and other varieties of pike. The lake sturgeon is now comparatively rare. But king of all game fish and the fisherman's dream is the hard-fighting muskellunge, a species peculiar to the lakes of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota.
A few of the fishes common to the Mississippi River and its tributaries are the spoonbill, shovel-nosed sturgeon, the fish-destroying gar pike, river lamprey, common buffalo fish, carp, sucker, eel, the Mississippi catfish, and the hickory shad. Many other species, also plentiful farther northward and eastward, abound in this area -- the channel catfish, common bullhead, common sucker, golden shad, yellow perch, yellow bass, sheepshead, and the smallmouthed and the largemouthed black bass.
Bowfin, mooneye, short-nosed pike, mud minnows, common pike, grass pickerel, white crappie, rock bass, burbot, pike, perch, red-spotted and blue sunfish are common in nearly all Wisconsin lakes. The smaller lakes and streams are rich in brook stickleback, nine-spined stickleback, mud cat, black bullhead, stone cat, tadpole cat, yellow cat, common red-horse, green sunfish, long-eared sunfish, Miller's thumb, and several species of darters (small fish belonging to the perch family).
The hog sucker is found occasionally in some rivers. New species that have been introduced into Wisconsin waters include the rainbow and brown trout and the German carp, now widely distributed. Smelt, first introduced from Green Lake, Maine, into Lake Michigan in 1906, now occur there in great numbers. In Lake Michigan also, and in the State's deeper lakes, the whitefish, Menominee whitefish, lake herring or cisco, bluefin, perch, and yellow bass are abundant.
Lying within the path of the mid-continental spring and fall migration, Wisconsin is visited by great flocks of birds. Of the hunted migratory waterfowl the Canada goose, flying in great V's, honking over cornfields, resting by the thousands on Lake Wisconsin, is perhaps the most spectacular and the most familiar. The fish-eating mergansers migrate in greatest numbers along the Lake Michigan shore and breed regularly in Door County. Mallard, blue-winged teal, black duck, and shoveler breed within the State, as does the beautiful wood duck. Canvasback, redhead, and pintail attract hunters yearly during the fall migration. Of the non-breeding migrants the lesser scaup, or little blue-bill, occurs in greatest number.
Wisconsin's first settlers found the region particularly rich in upland game birds. The sharp-tailed grouse was originally common in the southern half of the State. This species has since retreated to the northern half, and the "prairie chicken" of southern Wisconsin is now the pinnated grouse. Ruffed grouse still occurs in well-forested areas, and bobwhite is fairly common except in the extreme north and in counties bordering Lake Michigan. The Canada spruce grouse is found in the northernmost counties. The wild turkey has disappeared as a native Wisconsin bird, and the sandhill crane is reduced to a remnant. Woodcock and jacksnipe are still taken as game. The Eastern Chinese ring-necked pheasant and the Hungarian partridge have been introduced and are increasing in numbers. In 1939 the chukar partridge was introduced.
The common loon breeds on Wisconsin's northern lakes, and the red-throated loon is sometimes seen on Lake Michigan, especially in winter. The little pied-billed grebe is a frequent summer resident, and the handsome horned grebe a common migrant. Holboell's grebe is a rare breeder. There are nesting colonies of the double-crested cormorant, the great blue heron, and the black-crowned night heron. On inland waters the green heron is always a familiar sight. The American egret used to breed regularly in Wisconsin, but for a time it disappeared entirely as a breeding bird and for years was only a rare straggler from the south. More recently juvenile birds have occurred regularly in July and August, and at least three pair of egrets bred in the State in 1939.
Wisconsin marshes harbor coots, Florida gallinules, king, Virginia, and sora rails, American and least bitterns, and black terns. Herring gulls breed on the islands of Green Bay. Except for the spotted sandpiper and the killdeer, most shorebirds are known as migrants only, although the upland plover and the Wilson's phalarope breed in small numbers.
Raptors are well represented among Wisconsin's birds. The most abundant hawks are Cooper's, marsh, and red-tailed. The duck hawk breeds here and there on limestone cliffs. The bald eagle is much less rare than the golden. Sparrow hawks nest in small numbers, but the pigeon hawk is rare. Goshawks and snowy owls occur in the northern part of the State and are occasionally seen farther south. The barn owl, which has a relatively southern range, is not common here. There are long-eared and short-eared owls, barred owls (especially in the Wisconsin River bottoms), and great horned owls. The screech owl is very common, the saw-whet much less so.
Hairy, downy, and red-headed woodpeckers are common permanent residents, although many redheads leave in winter. Flickers are abundant in summer, and yellow-bellied sapsuckers are commonest during migrations in the southern counties. Well-timbered country provides the breeding habitat for pileated woodpeckers, and in the northern counties there are a few nesting pairs of American three-toed and Arctic three-toed woodpeckers. The red-bellied woodpecker is fairly common in the Wisconsin River bottomlands.
Other birds peculiar to the Wisconsin River country are the lark sparrow, the blue-gray gnatcatcher, the Kentucky warbler, and the yellow-breasted chat. Blue-winged and golden-winged warblers breed here, and the two hybrid forms, Lawrence's and Brewster's warblers, have been found. The beautiful prothonotary warbler nests in holes in bottomland timber, and sometimes nests in wren houses or tin cans. In the southern part of the State the yellow warbler, northern yellowthroat, and redstart are common breeders. More warblers, of course, nest in the northern counties. Both the northern and Louisiana waterthrushes are seen in migration, and ornithologists look for the western form, Grinnell's.
Many although the upland plover and the Wilson's phalarope breed in small numbers.
Raptors are well represented among Wisconsin's birds. The most abundant hawks are Cooper's, marsh, and red-tailed. The duck hawk breeds here and there on limestone cliffs. The bald eagle is much less rare than the golden. Sparrow hawks nest in small numbers, but the pigeon hawk is rare. Goshawks and snowy owls occur in the northern part of the State and are occasionally seen farther south. The barn owl, which has a relatively southern range, is not common here. There are long-eared and short-eared owls, barred owls (especially in the Wisconsin River bottoms), and great horned owls. The screech owl is very common, the saw-whet much less so.
Hairy, downy, and red-headed woodpeckers are common permanent residents, although many redheads leave in winter. Flickers are abundant in summer, and yellow-bellied sapsuckers are commonest during migrations in the southern counties. Well-timbered country provides the breeding habitat for pileated woodpeckers, and in the northern counties there are a few nesting pairs of American three-toed and Arctic three-toed woodpeckers. The red-bellied woodpecker is fairly common in the Wisconsin River bottomlands.
Other birds peculiar to the Wisconsin River country are the lark sparrow, the blue-gray gnatcatcher, the Kentucky warbler, and the yellow-breasted chat. Blue-winged and golden-winged warblers breed here, and the two hybrid forms, Lawrence's and Brewster's warblers, have been found. The beautiful prothonotary warbler nests in holes in bottomland timber, and sometimes nests in wren houses or tin cans. In the southern part of the State the yellow warbler, northern yellowthroat, and redstart are common breeders. More warblers, of course, nest in the northern counties. Both the northern and Louisiana waterthrushes are seen in migration, and ornithologists look for the western form, Grinnell's.
Many western birds, such as the yellow-headed blackbird, the western meadowlark, the western grebe, Brewer's blackbird, and Gambel's sparrow occur in greater or lesser numbers. Certain southern species, such as the cardinal and the tufted titmouse, are extending their range in the State.
In the fall the prairie horned lark is replaced by the northern horned lark, the migrant shrike by the northern shrike. The common seedeaters in Wisconsin fields include the slate-colored junco and the tree sparrow. In severe weather the regular winter residents may be joined by such winter visitants as the Lapland longspur, the snow bunting, the pine and evening grosbeaks, and the Bohemian waxwing.
Within the evergreen forests of northern Wisconsin lived the wildcat, the wolverine, the Canada lynx, the marten, and fishers, all now rare, weasels, otters, minks, muskrats, raccoons, and beavers. In the northern lakes region roamed herds of elk and northern Virginia deer; the latter is the only member of the deer family that remains. The only moose reported in recent years were a pair that strayed across the border from Minnesota, roamed about for a short time, and then returned to their haunts. The herd of some 30 elk in Vilas County is not native but is the progeny of two carloads imported in 1915 from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Timber wolves and black bear are now comparatively rare, but brush wolves, or common coyotes, are numerous. The red fox, the porcupine, and the smaller mammals -- the chipmunk, deer mouse, woodchuck, skunk, snowshoe hare, star-nosed mole, shrews, and squirrels -- are still abundant. The flying squirrel, red-backed vole, bog lemming, marsh shrew, and several species of bat are common to all parts of the State.
At one time the elk, black bear, eastern cougar, timber wolf, and beaver lived not only in the northern forests but also in the deciduous forests farther south. These deciduous forests came within the Alleghanian faunal area, and in them a large number of animals reached the northern limit of their range. Typical small species in the south were the southern flying squirrel, fox squirrel, striped ground squirrel, gray squirrel, woodchuck, cottontail rabbit, long-tailed weasel, Wisconsin gray fox, prairie mole, opossum, small shrew, and prairie vole.
In the thickets edging the forest openings of the southeast the Franklin ground squirrel, skunk, jumping mouse, chipmunk, and shorttailed shrew are still to be found, and in the prairie openings themselves live some pocket gophers, prairie jumping mice, and badgers. Large herds of bison formerly grazed the more extensive prairie of the southwest, home of the prairie red fox, the coyote, the white-tailed jackrabbit, the ground squirrel, and pocket gopher. However, most of the large native mammals of the southern half of the State have been exterminated; such imported pests as the Norway rat and the house mouse thrive where once deer, bear, and porcupine lived in great numbers.
Whereas such species of reptiles and amphibia as the garter snake, the snapping turtle, painted turtle, and mud puppy are found throughout the State, the swamp tree frog, cricket frog, skink, milk snake, and racer live only in the southern area. Parts of the southeast are favorable to the pickerel frog, the bullfrog, the soft-shelled musk, spotted and map turtles, the green and the garter snake, the bull snake, and the rock rattler.
Wisconsin's fish fauna, with over 200 species, is rich and varied. Once the many lakes and rivers swarmed with fish. Now fish are less abundant, especially in the south, where conditions favorable to breeding have not been maintained. The northern lakes and streams still abound in game and near-game fish. Among them are brook trout, German brown trout, bluefin, largemouthed black bass, a common whitefish, smallmouthed black bass, black crappie, pickerel, and wall-eyed and other varieties of pike. The lake sturgeon is now comparatively rare. But king of all game fish and the fisherman's dream is the hard-fighting muskellunge, a species peculiar to the lakes of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota.
A few of the fishes common to the Mississippi River and its tributaries are the spoonbill, shovel-nosed sturgeon, the fish-destroying gar pike, river lamprey, common buffalo fish, carp, sucker, eel, the Mississippi catfish, and the hickory shad. Many other species, also plentiful farther northward and eastward, abound in this area -- the channel catfish, common bullhead, common sucker, golden shad, yellow perch, yellow bass, sheepshead, and the smallmouthed and the largemouthed black bass.
Bowfin, mooneye, short-nosed pike, mud minnows, common pike, grass pickerel, white crappie, rock bass, burbot, pike, perch, red-spotted and blue sunfish are common in nearly all Wisconsin lakes. The smaller lakes and streams are rich in brook stickleback, nine-spined stickleback, mud cat, black bullhead, stone cat, tadpole cat, yellow cat, common red-horse, green sunfish, long-eared sunfish, Miller's thumb, and several species of darters (small fish belonging to the perch family).
The hog sucker is found occasionally in some rivers. New species that have been introduced into Wisconsin waters include the rainbow and brown trout and the German carp, now widely distributed. Smelt, first introduced from Green Lake, Maine, into Lake Michigan in 1906, now occur there in great numbers. In Lake Michigan also, and in the State's deeper lakes, the whitefish, Menominee whitefish, lake herring or cisco, bluefin, perch, and yellow bass are abundant.
Lying within the path of the mid-continental spring and fall migration, Wisconsin is visited by great flocks of birds. Of the hunted migratory waterfowl the Canada goose, flying in great V's, honking over cornfields, resting by the thousands on Lake Wisconsin, is perhaps the most spectacular and the most familiar. The fish-eating mergansers migrate in greatest numbers along the Lake Michigan shore and breed regularly in Door County. Mallard, blue-winged teal, black duck, and shoveler breed within the State, as does the beautiful wood duck. Canvasback, redhead, and pintail attract hunters yearly during the fall migration. Of the non-breeding migrants the lesser scaup, or little blue-bill, occurs in greatest number.
Wisconsin's first settlers found the region particularly rich in upland game birds. The sharp-tailed grouse was originally common in the southern half of the State. This species has since retreated to the northern half, and the "prairie chicken" of southern Wisconsin is now the pinnated grouse. Ruffed grouse still occurs in well-forested areas, and bobwhite is fairly common except in the extreme north and in counties bordering Lake Michigan. The Canada spruce grouse is found in the northernmost counties. The wild turkey has disappeared as a native Wisconsin bird, and the sandhill crane is reduced to a remnant. Woodcock and jacksnipe are still taken as game. The Eastern Chinese ring-necked pheasant and the Hungarian partridge have been introduced and are increasing in numbers. In 1939 the chukar partridge was introduced.
The common loon breeds on Wisconsin's northern lakes, and the red-throated loon is sometimes seen on Lake Michigan, especially in winter. The little pied-billed grebe is a frequent summer resident, and the handsome horned grebe a common migrant. Holboell's grebe is a rare breeder. There are nesting colonies of the double-crested cormorant, the great blue heron, and the black-crowned night heron. On inland waters the green heron is always a familiar sight. The American egret used to breed regularly in Wisconsin, but for a time it disappeared entirely as a breeding bird and for years was only a rare straggler from the south. More recently juvenile birds have occurred regularly in July and August, and at least three pair of egrets bred in the State in 1939.
Wisconsin marshes harbor coots, Florida gallinules, king, Virginia, and sora rails, American and least bitterns, and black terns. Herring gulls breed on the islands of Green Bay. Except for the spotted sandpiper and the killdeer, most shorebirds are known as migrants only, although the upland plover and the Wilson's phalarope breed in small numbers.
Raptors are well represented among Wisconsin's birds. The most abundant hawks are Cooper's, marsh, and red-tailed. The duck hawk breeds here and there on limestone cliffs. The bald eagle is much less rare than the golden. Sparrow hawks nest in small numbers, but the pigeon hawk is rare. Goshawks and snowy owls occur in the northern part of the State and are occasionally seen farther south. The barn owl, which has a relatively southern range, is not common here. There are long-eared and short-eared owls, barred owls (especially in the Wisconsin River bottoms), and great horned owls. The screech owl is very common, the saw-whet much less so.
Hairy, downy, and red-headed woodpeckers are common permanent residents, although many redheads leave in winter. Flickers are abundant in summer, and yellow-bellied sapsuckers are commonest during migrations in the southern counties. Well-timbered country provides the breeding habitat for pileated woodpeckers, and in the northern counties there are a few nesting pairs of American three-toed and Arctic three-toed woodpeckers. The red-bellied woodpecker is fairly common in the Wisconsin River bottomlands.
Other birds peculiar to the Wisconsin River country are the lark sparrow, the blue-gray gnatcatcher, the Kentucky warbler, and the yellow-breasted chat. Blue-winged and golden-winged warblers breed here, and the two hybrid forms, Lawrence's and Brewster's warblers, have been found. The beautiful prothonotary warbler nests in holes in bottomland timber, and sometimes nests in wren houses or tin cans. In the southern part of the State the yellow warbler, northern yellowthroat, and redstart are common breeders. More warblers, of course, nest in the northern counties. Both the northern and Louisiana waterthrushes are seen in migration, and ornithologists look for the western form, Grinnell's.
Many although the upland plover and the Wilson's phalarope breed in small numbers.
Raptors are well represented among Wisconsin's birds. The most abundant hawks are Cooper's, marsh, and red-tailed. The duck hawk breeds here and there on limestone cliffs. The bald eagle is much less rare than the golden. Sparrow hawks nest in small numbers, but the pigeon hawk is rare. Goshawks and snowy owls occur in the northern part of the State and are occasionally seen farther south. The barn owl, which has a relatively southern range, is not common here. There are long-eared and short-eared owls, barred owls (especially in the Wisconsin River bottoms), and great horned owls. The screech owl is very common, the saw-whet much less so.
Hairy, downy, and red-headed woodpeckers are common permanent residents, although many redheads leave in winter. Flickers are abundant in summer, and yellow-bellied sapsuckers are commonest during migrations in the southern counties. Well-timbered country provides the breeding habitat for pileated woodpeckers, and in the northern counties there are a few nesting pairs of American three-toed and Arctic three-toed woodpeckers. The red-bellied woodpecker is fairly common in the Wisconsin River bottomlands.
Other birds peculiar to the Wisconsin River country are the lark sparrow, the blue-gray gnatcatcher, the Kentucky warbler, and the yellow-breasted chat. Blue-winged and golden-winged warblers breed here, and the two hybrid forms, Lawrence's and Brewster's warblers, have been found. The beautiful prothonotary warbler nests in holes in bottomland timber, and sometimes nests in wren houses or tin cans. In the southern part of the State the yellow warbler, northern yellowthroat, and redstart are common breeders. More warblers, of course, nest in the northern counties. Both the northern and Louisiana waterthrushes are seen in migration, and ornithologists look for the western form, Grinnell's.
Many western birds, such as the yellow-headed blackbird, the western meadowlark, the western grebe, Brewer's blackbird, and Gambel's sparrow occur in greater or lesser numbers. Certain southern species, such as the cardinal and the tufted titmouse, are extending their range in the State.
In the fall the prairie horned lark is replaced by the northern horned lark, the migrant shrike by the northern shrike. The common seedeaters in Wisconsin fields include the slate-colored junco and the tree sparrow. In severe weather the regular winter residents may be joined by such winter visitants as the Lapland longspur, the snow bunting, the pine and evening grosbeaks, and the Bohemian waxwing.
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