Candice Gaukel Andrews - Travel Wild Wisconsin: A Seasonal Guide to Wildlife Encounters in Natural Places

Travel Wild Wisconsin

A Seasonal Guide to
Wildlife Encounters in Natural Places

CANDICE GAUKEL ANDREWS

THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS

The University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street, 3rd Floor
Madison, Wisconsin 53711-2059
uwpress.wisc.edu

3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
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Copyright 2013 by Candice Gaukel Andrews
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any format or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without written permission of the University of Wisconsin Press, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Andrews, Candice Gaukel.
Travel wild Wisconsin : a seasonal guide to wildlife encounters in natural places /
Candice Gaukel Andrews.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-299-29164-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-299-29163-1 (e-book)
1. Wildlife watchingWisconsin. 2. Wildlife viewing sitesWisconsin.
3. WisconsinGuidebooks. I. Title.
QL214.A53 2013
590.72'34775dc23
2012035300

Maps by John T. Andrews

It is not down in any map; true places never are.

HERMAN MELVILLE, Moby-Dick (1851)

For all of you who seek
the true places.

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

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NOVEMBER

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

Its DiscoveryNot DistanceThat Matters

My father never had the urge for going, as songwriter-singer Joni Mitchell calls itthe desire to travel. I place the blame for that fact squarely on the shoulders of World War II. As a young man, my dad was sentcompliments of the U.S. Armyto France in the bottom of a transport ship to take part in the D-day invasion. It was the first time hed ever been abroad. From then on, traveling just didnt have a positive association for him. Besides, hed ask me, why should he want to leave home when what was dearest to himhis familywas here?

And so, when I was growing up, my family never went away on vacation as my friends families did. Perhaps thats why as a child I was drawn to reading books set in wild, far-off places I assumed Id never see, books such as Benedict and Nancy Freedmans Mrs. Mike, published in 1947, which takes place in the blizzard and grizzly bear regions of northwest Canada, and tales from authors who made location as powerful as any protagonist in their storiessuch as Jack London in his Klondike adventures, John Steinbeck in his California novels, and Robert Louis Stevenson in his South Seas fiction.

Since Ive become an adult, however, my work as a nature-travel writer has taken me all over the world: from the sub-Arctic down to the Galapagos at the equator and Patagonia and New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere. But in the last two years, Ive concentrated my travels a little closer to home, within Wisconsins borders, to see some of our most beautiful, natural places and to seek genuine encounters with the wildlife there.

The spots I traveled to were varied, from a preserve situated in the environs of a city to a remote barrens you wont be able to find on any highway map. It occurred to me that many of youlike me before writing this bookarent aware of the opportunities there are in the state to get close to the birds, fish, mammals, and even insects that reside or regularly pass through. So, I decided to write this book and take you along with me.

As you see by the chapter titles, the emphasis is on verbs. These are things you can do to see wildlife in Wisconsin. For example, its possible to sit in a blind at dawn on the largest grassland east of the Mississippi River and watch greater prairie chickens do a dance theyve been doing since time immemorial. And did you know that here you can witness the waters of one of the largest inland lakes in the United States roil with ancient, monster fish?

Within the pages of this book, youll go to a distinctive landscape filled with even more fancy footsteps by a bird that inhabits neither grassland nor forest, but the singular land in between. Youll count loons on a renowned flowageone of the most undeveloped and quiet lakes in northwest Wisconsin todayand look for elk in an enormous national forest. Youll search for one of the rarest cranes in the world in a national wildlife refuge, and then watch as common ones come in by the thousands to a huge, state-owned wildlife area. Youll try to spot bald eagles as they spend a season near the Wisconsin River, and then be awed by the tundra swans that move through the countrys mightiest waterway and flyway in a matter of weeks.

Youll tag tiny monarchs in the states oldest private nature preserve and track a large carnivorethe gray wolfin the expansive wilds of northern Wisconsin. Youll glimpse a time that once was by visiting a group of American bison whose ancestors had flowed across the states grasslands in massive herds, and then seek what streams across the terrain today: white-tailed deer. Youll go to a festival and touch a tiny, wild saw-whet owl, and then confront in the largest wetland in the Upper Midwest the very large Canada goose and face your feelings about this bird: migration phenomenon or nuisance?

In these searches for Wisconsin wildlife, we cant forget that people are part of the nature-travel experience, too. We are inextricably entwined with the animals, fish, reptiles, birds, and insects we live with. So, youll also hear from wildlife technicians, biologists, educators, researchers, and festival organizers; environmental center property managers and naturalists; and citizen scientists, counters, and trackers.

Today, I think I can appreciate my dads sentiments about long-distance travel more than I could when I was young. He was right: If what you lovewild places and wildlifeare nearby, you dont need to travel all over the world to be with whats dear to you. Theres a lot right at home, within our state. And it seems Wisconsin Public Television host of the series In Wisconsin, Patty Loew, would agree. She once said, Hiding in the wilds of Wisconsin are a vast array of amazing animals most of us will never see.

But you can. Reading this book is the first step. After you do, I hope youll get the urge to pull out your calendar and make seasonal dates with yourselfjust see the table of contentsto go out there and find them.

C. G. A.
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin

As much as writing a book is a solitary pursuit, producing a book is a team effortone that takes years to complete. Its never accomplished without the understanding and support of family, friends, and publishing experts.

Id like to thank John T. Andrews, my husband, who not only indulges my wanderlust but comes alongfor the most part, with much enthusiasmto take the majority of the photos.