Critters
Even in an urban setting, many animals make their home in Lakeshore State Park’s prairies and shorelines. Others use the island as a stop over for hunting, or on their migratory journeys. Visit often and at different times of the day to catch each one going about their daily business.

Birds
Year-round residents include Canada geese, ring bill and herring gulls and mallard ducks. Locally-nesting barn and tree swallows fly low over the prairies, dining on flying insects in warm weather. Peregrine falcons and bald eagles are occasional visitors. Several species of sparrows and red-winged blackbirds nest in the developing prairies. Fall and winter bring a large variety of migrating waterfowl that use the island as a stopover. Regular winter visitors include scaups, goldeneyes, buffleheads, and mergansers from the north. Snowy owls make an occasional winter appearance.

Mammals
Both grey and red foxes call the Park their home, and kits of both species were observed at the Park for the last several years. The foxes are often seen at dawn and dusk, hunting, playing or just walking down the trails. Other mammals that live in the Park include mink, woodchucks, muskrats, various mice and voles, and an occasional coyote or deer. Curiously, we have not yet seen a rabbit, perhaps because of the foxes.

Links
WDNR Environmental Education for Kids (EEK)
eBird (search for Lakeshore State park)