This site on the Lake Michigan shoreline encompasses the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center and extends northward for about 12 miles, including Virmond Park and blufftop areas on the Concordia University campus.  Habitats include open Lake Michigan waters, beach, bluffs, upland deciduous forest, shrublands and oldfields, restored prairie, and wetland ponds.

This area is an outstanding migratory stopover and wintering area for waterfowl, landbirds, and shorebirds.  Tens of thousands of scaup, goldeneye, bufflehead, mergansers and other divers congregate in the open waters during the late fall and winter months.  Thousands of raptors can be spotted migrating along the lakeshore from August to November.  Terns, gulls, and other shorebirds use the beaches and shorelines in late fall, winter, and early spring.  Banding and other monitoring efforts at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center have recorded most of Wisconsin’s migrant passerines and other landbirds using the wooded and shrubby habitats close to the lakeshore during fall and spring migrations.

Photo Credit: Bob Bailie