The mystery carpet of green (which turned out to be watercress!) is not the only hint of spring my friend and I saw at Governor Dodge State Park over the weekend. We also came upon a large flock of robins—Wisconsin’s state bird and our official sign of spring each year. Yes, many robins stay in Wisconsin all year-round, but we rarely see them in the winter. When they start hopping around in our yards again looking for worms, we know it’s truly spring.
At first the birds we spotted stayed in the trees scavenging for berries, but eventually they started to forage by the side of the road near a temporary stream of melting snow. One bird even yanked a night crawler out of the ground causing pandemonium as all the other birds tried to steal it away from the successful hunter.
Not long after, a half-dozen or more of the birds flew or hopped to the tiny stream and started bathing. All those wings flapping in the water at the same time made a great sound.
We watched the flock from the comfort of our car for about 30 minutes. Because robins are everywhere in the spring, summer and fall, I take them for granted. In fact if this had been May, we probably would’ve driven right past—“What are those?” “Oh, just robins.”
It was fun to actually spend some time watching and appreciating our state bird.
