Bird City, Milwaukee County is a monthly column celebrating the 11 cities, towns, and villages that have achieved Bird City status within Milwaukee County. Citizens of these locations have made bird conservation a priority, protecting land, writing ordinances, and educating the public on issues concerning our avian neighbors. You can learn more about the Bird City Network by visiting its website. This month: the Village of Whitefish Bay.
Summer may be over, so consider this month’s column an ode to summer. We’re celebrating the Village of Whitefish Bay, which means we’re going to the beach—and highlighting some friends you can go birding with all year round: the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin. This club has been ever-growing since its inception and my interview with their Milwaukee Area Coordinators is chock full of important and useful information. So let’s bust out those swimsuits one last time, pack the binoculars, and go have ourselves a beach day with good people!
Klode Park is our main highlight of the month. The Village and Whitefish Bay Garden Club have made it an area of focus in their Bird City application, bringing back native plants and capturing stormwater runoff. The entrance sits atop a hill providing a nice open look down below and out into Lake Michigan. Taking the pathways down the treelined bluff will net you day-to-day songbirds. Black-capped chickadees, common grackles, and Baltimore orioles are just a few of the staples seen at this park any given summer. Beachside is where things are always interesting. Ring-billed gulls dominate the skies and rock walls while American coots, geese, and waterfowl make appearances, and in the summer there’s always a decent chance of spotting a morning heron in a secluded area.
Black-Capped Chickadee
Common Grackle
Male Baltimore Oriole
Ring-Billed Gull
Throughout the rest of the year, Klode Park is a spot for a smattering of different visitors. It’s a minor stopover site for migratory birds in the spring and the fall. Birds of prey are not uncommon in the winter. A trio of common redpolls were spotted at the park back in 2022, which was an irruption year in Whitefish Bay for the species. Common redpolls usually stay north but food scarcity or drastic population changes will drive species southward, creating irruption years. In 2022 a flock chose Whitefish Bay and the surrounding areas as their winter staging ground.
Common Redpoll
Common Redpoll
Everyone needs a cool down after walking and counting gulls, and luckily Whitefish Bay has a homegrown popsicle shop. Located at the old Fox Bay movie theater, Pete’s Pops is a brand most Milwaukeeans first encountered at a farmer’s market. As a UW-Milwaukee film student I was sad when Fox Bay Cinema closed shop, but it’s refreshing to see Pete’s Pops expand into physical locations. This spot is open from April to November and they have a wide variety of flavors to choose from. I’m a basic bird, so I went with the classic fudgsicle and downed that thing before I made the walk back to my car. Their popsicle stick reminded me to “keep pushing” this article along, so on to it.
Big Bay Park is another birding spot in the area with great views and sightings similar to what you’ll experience at Klode Park. Right now, this park is closed due to construction. A massive sinkhole appeared earlier this summer, a reminder of the negative effects stormwater runoff and erosion have on coastline parks. According to a recent update from the Village, one can expect the park to be open to the public in winter, which will be a great time to spot scaup or two.
Lesser Scaup
As stated at the top of this article, this month’s Q&A is with representatives of the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin. If you’re interested in getting out into nature and exploring birds with an enthusiastic, diverse group of people, I recommend reading this interview and checking out their organization. One thing I’ve certainly noticed covering our bird cities is that they are predominantly located in whiter areas of the county, which I believe comes from long-running systemic issues of segregation and racism within Milwaukee. Rita Flores Wiskowski and Yesenia Villanueva Rodríguez do a great job breaking down how some of these problems have cascading effects. At the same time, their enthusiasm for nature shows why their club has become so successful in Wisconsin.
Q&A with Rita Flores Wiskowski and Yesenia Villanueva Rodríguez, Milwaukee Area Coordinators for the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin
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Milwaukee Record: For those who do not know about the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin, can you tell me a bit about the club and its origins?
Rita: The club was co-founded by Dr. Jeff Galligan and Dexter Patterson in the summer of 2021. It was started in part as a response to the incident in Central Park when a white woman tried to weaponize the police against Christian Cooper, a black man who was birding. That summer the nation was also dealing with the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others. People of color were not feeling safe and many of us who enjoy the outdoors were also feeling vulnerable. Dr. Galligan had long envisioned a birding club for BIPOC birders and the time was right, so he and Dexter talked about what the club could be and made a plan. The first BIPOC Birding Club event took place in Madison in July of 2021.
MR: How did you both come to be Milwaukee Area Coordinators for the club and what has being a part of the club meant to you?
Rita: I have long struggled with how to create a more diverse birding community and have tried to lead efforts to that goal, but I was not successful. I was missing the secret sauce that the BIPOC Birding Club has—and that is a community. Jeff and I have been friends since 2012. We met looking for a yellow-crowned night heron at Veterans Park. So when he contacted me in October of 2021 and told me about the club he and his friend Dexter just formed and asked if I wanted to be one of the leaders, I jumped at the opportunity. I absolutely love being part of the BIPOC Birding Club! I’ve made so many friends. I’m building community. I have ideas of what we can do to be a better club and reach more people and now I have a group of friends who have that same vision and we are working together—building partnerships, building community, and birding! I’m having a blast.
Yesenia: Birding for me began during the pandemic when I was in a deep depression since I didn’t feel like I had access to people and community. I found a group in Chicago who was open to teaching me about birds and I started feeling a sense of community, but most of the folks were older, white people and there were microaggressions every now and then. That kept me from going birding with them sometimes. When I moved to Milwaukee, I looked up birding clubs in the area and I was so lucky to run across the BIPOC Birding Club! I’m actually embarrassed that my first question to the group was if anyone wanted to start a birding club in Milwaukee because I saw that many of the events were in Madison. I attended a few events in the Madison area and I kept hearing about someone named Rita, the Milwaukee Area Coordinator. It happened that we kept missing each other, but eventually we met at a café and we spent hours chatting about our experiences with our families, immigration, Chicanx identity, access to nature for BIPOC, and so many other things! I felt seen by and connected to Rita. I became a Milwaukee Area Coordinator soon after.
This club has meant so much! Like Rita said, we’re building community. I cried during an event in collaboration with our friends at Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance and the Feminist Bird Club of Madison for an awesome Black Birders Week event celebrating black birders and the birds we all love at Fair Meadows Sanctuary near Milton. I saw beautiful melanated people and folks of marginalized identities laughing, taking up space, and nerding out about birds. It overwhelmed me in a beautiful way and it validated my presence, especially because I often hear that being outside is a “white people thing” and it couldn’t be farther from the truth.
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MR: Milwaukee has an unfortunate history of being one of America’s most segregated cities. What role has segregation played in diverse communities’ enjoyment of local nature?
Rita: For many reasons, people of color are less represented in the birding community. And from my experience, it isn’t because birders aren’t welcoming. It is because we are a segregated community, where many black and brown people don’t have family or neighbors who are birders or nature enthusiasts, so they are not exposed to those activities and don’t see people who look like them partaking in these activities. Green spaces and lakefront areas aren’t as accessible to some neighborhoods. But just as segregation has played a role in keeping many people from enjoying nature, BIPOC Birding Club and many of its partner organizations have a unique opportunity to bring people of many backgrounds and cultures together around a joyful activity.
Yesenia: Yes to everything Rita said. Also, as I mentioned above, being outside is sometimes seen as something BIPOC don’t do because many of us have been pushed into hustle culture where we’re working two or three jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, and chasing a fake American dream. Part of privilege is having increased opportunities for leisure and BIPOC have been systematically kept from this. Segregation alone hasn’t kept us from enjoying the outdoors. A combination of both segregation and capitalism have played a huge role in keeping BIPOC from being outdoors and leaning into leisure activities.
MR: What Milwaukee area events do you have coming up (September through November) and how can people join you?
Rita: The BIPOC Birding Club events, and field trips are open to all BIPOC birders at any level, and allies. Many people come with kids. If you are just a beginner, we have binoculars you can borrow. Our events are listed on our website: https://www.bipocbirdingclub.org/events. Or you can follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
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MR: Finally, as local birders, what are some of your favorite Milwaukee County haunts?
Rita: There are so many to list. Milwaukee County is lucky enough to have many lakeshore parks and every one is a birding hotspot. Havenwoods State Forest, Hopkins Hollow, and Wehr Nature Center are other favorites. And now with Yesenia as our newest Milwaukee Area Coordinator, who works at the Urban Ecology Center, we’re looking forward to getting to know the three branches of the Urban Ecology Center.
Yesenia: I love Grant Park and all three UEC locations, but I might be biased with the latter, haha. I want to emphasize that people don’t have to leave the city to experience beautiful green spaces. As Rita said, we’re very lucky to have so many spots in Milwaukee County!
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