Tundra Swans are once again flowing south along the Mississippi River and can be seen by the hundreds from the Trempealeau Refuge area to south of Goose Island County Park (La Crosse, Wisconsin, Brownsville, Minnesota, to Stoddard, Wisconsin.) Be certain to keep your eyes open for ducks, pelicans, and occasionally, a pair of Trumpeter Swans.
Find much more detail about the Fall Migration and peak dates by typing “Tundra Swans” or “Trumpeter Swans” or “Pelicans” in the Search Box to the upper right of this Web Page!! You might also do a search of our EAGLE articles! We have been making notes about the spring and fall migration for nearly 20 years!
The Swans and Pelicans will be around until the bays and the main channel ice over. Then American Bald Eagles will begin gathering in quantities around any open water just below the Dams. It is a great time to meander along the river, view eagle nests, eagles, and our lovely little towns along the river. Bring your Binocs!
Hi Friends and neighbors, very shortly we will be putting our property 1.25 miles east of Stoddard up for sale. This is a heads up, in case you have a friend or relative looking for a beautiful south-facing property in Wisconsin’s Driftless region just 12 miles south along the Mississippi from downtown La Crosse.
The house overlooks a beautiful and varied 54-acre domain of woods, meadow, pristine spring-fed marsh, robust artesian well and hillsides. Fish the property’s 1 mile of frontage along Coon Creek…one of Wisconsin’s most lauded trout streams. The bottoms provide beautiful and silent cross country skiing.
South facing decks on two levels of the bungalow style home and an insulated 3 season room provide beautiful vistas of bluff and valley to south, east and west year around.
The historic 1912 barn stands straight and tall, has a dry hay loft, 2 horse stalls. Great as a walk-in barn for horses or storage for toys and tools. Artesian well just below the house and barn. Historic buggy shed offers a dry home for horse tack, or any other collection that is dear to your heart. Excellent pasture or hay in the meadows, or firewood from the woodlot. Wild grapes and a 35 yr old apple tree as well as perennials make even the yard productive.
Neighbors practice quality deer management so plan your hunt for the big buck! Or watch the hunt from the sun porch or decks! The wetland meadows provide a natural refuge with nesting sandhill cranes, playful otters, muskrats, resident eagle, and fawns are raised annually on the homestead hillsides. Watch Turkeys strut as well as pheasants, trumpeter swans and Virginia Rail which populate your piece of the Mississippi River valley. Listen as Tundra swans fly low to land between Stoddard and Goose Island.
Visit this link on Lisa’s Facebook page for many more pix!
3 bedrooms, 2 bath home of approx 2500 sq ft. 2 car garage. High topped boat/RV storage off the barn. Hardwood floors throughout the main floor. Finished walk-out basement with family space, laundry, a huge office space. New heat pump, furnace and kitchen appliances. All systems work as they should. Fireplace in living room. Wood stove in basement. Both with stainless steel chimneys. Large open kitchen. New roof on house and barn.
Upstairs is finished with bedroom suite, 1/2 bath, walk in closet. Large attic space is unfinished.
Owner may accept, counter offer, or refuse any offer. Sold as is. Look for more pictures on Zillow (address W987 Cedar Valley Road, Stoddard, WI 54658) or the public Farm for sale album on Lisa Middleton’s facebook page noted above.
Call Rich 309-200-7473 or text Pat at 608-385-2510 for more info (including a map) or to visit the property. Suggested pricing $675,000-$720,000.
Nearly the entire sideyard is shaded by the great oak.
Between thunderstorms, Winter Snow Warnings, and now Sunshine! I’ve been wondering what the response of our (mostly) migratory waterfowl would be over the course of the last day or two. Viewing has been great from Goose Island south to the Bay immediately north of Stoddard, along Hwy 35. Big white swans on their own in pairs are most likely Trumpeter Swans, while the migratory Tundra Swans will be visible in large numbers. If you see a thick cluster of large white birds, check closely for the large bill, heavy body and short neck of the pelicans.
All the waterfowl have been passing through for 2-3 weeks, as well as the mass of migratory ducks. Bring your bird guide to ferret out the many species of Dabbling (shallow water) ducks and Diving ducks (bigger, deeper areas) you are bound to see. Bald Eagles are abundant and Sandhill Cranes are pretty much settled into their nesting territories now and are busy calling to one another.It’s a wonderful time of new life on the river!
Ice has begun to clear from the Mississippi River, and like clock-work, our puddle ducks, diving ducks, White Pelicans, Trumpeter Swans, Sandhill Cranes and Tundra Swans have begun the great move northward. About the 5th of March, we were already hearing the Cranes and the Tunda Swans. This week, the great white Trumpeter Swans have begun passing our porch windows into the small ponds and creek of the valley. For the past four days, large pods of White Pelicans are clustering all along the river from Stoddard to Goose Island. Sandhill Cranes are now establishing their territories and making a rukus!
Except for a sloppy snow day today, river birding has been great. As the weather clears up visit the many roadside rest areas along Highway 35 in Wisconsin. Bald Eagles are abundant–a couple dozen at a sweep of the eye, clustered along the floating ice sheets and beside the big black nests. Happy Spring!!
Dec 24, 2020. Merry Christmas everyone. Some may be surprised I still have Tundra Swans, pictured in the header. In fact, during the Christmas Bird Count on Dec 19, our La Crosse Audubon group reported counting 2600 Tundra Swans (big movement over the area), and a high number of duck species despite still water areas being frozen. So yes, you may still be seeing Tundra Swans passing through.
(Nov 2020) Now that our Tri-State bluffs are clad mostly in the deep browns of persistent oak foliage, and the first measurable snow has sprinkled down, we are seeing the Tundra swans winging their way into Pool 8 once again! It’s always one of my favorite birding seasons. As is normal, we not only have elegant Tundra swans resting and feeding, but large “mobs” of American white pelicans are gathering. Migrating ducks also form vast rafts…puddle ducks in more sheltered areas; diving ducks in open water upriver of the locks and dams. Check out the rest area near Brownsville, MN, and the open water south of Goose Island in Wisconsin. The highway pulloffs allow parking and offer scopes and often volunteers to help explain why the swans stop in Pool 8 and what other migrating waterfowl might be identifiable. Eagles are frequent and will become even more so in November!!
Had the great joy this morning of seeing thousands of pristine white Tundra Swans along Wisconsin’s Hwy 35, just to south of Goose Island! The sky was full of flying swans as well as swans filling the ponds. When I returned 1/2 an hour later, the skies were empty and there were fewer swans on the water.
“So where did they go?” I asked another birder who was panning with his scope.
“Did you notice that the wind changed direction and picked up, since 11 a.m. ? That’s what some of them were looking for. They’ve already resumed their migration to Chesapeake Bay.”
I was also curious as to what he saw in the scope. “Any gray cignets (juveniles)?” He said, yes, a few, but indeed most were adults and most were not family groups. The first drop of migrating swans is normally the single swans rather than swans traveling with juveniles.
Finally, make a grand journey THIS WEEKEND along the Great River Road between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Dubuque, Ia. In addition to Swans in the pools north of Genoa, American Bald Eagles are migrating and we are flush with both our resident eagles and the eagles moving down from the north (more on this in a later piece). Remember to visit the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN.
Fall Color will be in its waning weekend the next several days. Oaks are a rich rust color and some of the late coloring trees are still coming into color (it’s all in the genes!)
So hit the road!! There is lots to see! and don’t forget your copy of Discover! America’s Great River Road by River Author, Pat Middleton... your guide to eagle watching, regional history, Treasure Hunting, commercial fishing, and more!!! Order your copy of each of the four volumes which lead travelers from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico by CLICKING HERE!
Had a note yesterday from one of my favorite bird photographers, Alan Stankevitz. He reported the amazing sight of seeing a 1000 Swans or more drop out of the sky onto Pool 8 at Brownsville, Minnesota…
“While spending a splendid afternoon today at the Brownsville Overlook (Hwy 26, 3 miles south of Brownsville, MN) there was a sudden fall-out of well over 1,000 Tundra Swans that dropped from high altitudes and landed on Pool 8. At first, they were just faint white specs way off in the distance, but within a few minutes they were beginning to land. What an incredible sight!
“I would estimate there are well over 10,000 Tundra Swans now on Pool 8 already.”
“I tried to capture the sight of the swans in the photo at left, but it doesn’t do it justice! The entire sky was filled with glittering swans.”
Now is the time to check out Pools 7 and 8 for abundant eagles and Tundra Swans! Swans will leave just before the ice begins forming in the backwaters. Now that leaves are gone, the Bald eagles and their great nests are highly visible in the bare trees.
As we drove Minnesota’s Great River Road from Red Wing to La Crescent this weekend… “indicator species” at various waysides highlighted the arrival of Tundra Swans!
Such clusters of humans with binoculars and cameras announce the “swan song” of 2011. Best viewing of Tundra Swans seemed to be right along HWY 61 just north of Minnieska, Minnesota (Weaver Bottoms) and again just south of Goose Island in Wisconsin. No doubt the Swans are also clustered just outside of Brownsville, Minnesota, and perhaps just north of Alma, Wisconsin at Reich’s Lake.
A word of warning though… I saw two men standing on the railroad tracks engrossed in watching an American Bald Eagle soaring up above.
Not smart.
There is a very real possibility that when engrossed in viewing wildlife, one would never hear the train coming until it is simply too late. Stand well off the railroad tracks!!
The seed islands north of Stoddard have been crowded this week with pelicans gathering for the trip south. With November just around the corner, and our first frosts already in the air, it’s time to start watching for Tundra Swans! I heard from Al Stankevitz that he has seen a very few towards the center of the pool at Brownsville, Mn. So be on the lookout for the long white necks of the Tundra Swans. In a few more weeks we should have many thousands!!
Just a reminder, too, that we have an extensive BIRDING section in the Mississippi River Home Page!
Please use the REPLY link to update our fellow birders on your observerations! This will be a spam-free way to keep one another posted on birding along the Mississippi River!!
Fall Color will be in its waning weekend the next several days. Oaks are a rich rust color and some of the late coloring trees are still coming into color (it’s all in the genes!)
