(The sculptures are swallows, btw.)ДЄnd finally, there were a lot of people taking pictures and selfies with the birds this morning-and, well, thatвЂ™s pretty great. Seriously, itвЂ™s pretty cool! Also, hereвЂ™s a red-winged blackbird who was totally hanging out with his giant plastic cousins. Next, thereвЂ™s something undeniably fascinating about looking at the bird sculptures while listening to the chirps and calls of actual birds. Cross the bridge and youвЂ™re pretty much there. WhatвЂ™s become of me?ДЇirst of all, the birds are confined to a relatively small chunk of land on the parkвЂ™s north side. вЂњLakeshore State Park finally has some stuff in it,вЂќ the headline would read, or maybe вЂњWhat is this crap?вЂќ A bunch of people would probably get pissed, but oh well. I planned to snap some pictures, scoff at the people surely taking selfies alongside the infernal flock, and then return home to write a withering takedown.

On their own, the Cracking Art birds are pretty neat! HereвЂ™s a pair across the street from the Milwaukee Public Market:Дowntown? Cool! But in Lakeshore State Park, a stunningly gorgeous and not-at-all-junked-up island of open fields and prairies and actual birds? WHY? My tweet said it all: Why on earth would you take a gloriously open and naturally beautiful expanse of Lakeshore State Park and junk it up withвЂ¦stuff? I always thought this gloriously open and naturally beautiful expanse of Lakeshore State Park needed some stuff When I saw Urban MilwaukeeвЂ™s Jeramey Jannene tweet (ha) a picture of them last night, I had a knee-jerk reaction: Reader, I was prepared to hate these bird sculptures. A bunch of events in Lakeshore State ParkВ round out the project. The sculptures are part of Cracking ArtвЂ™s so-called REbirth traveling exhibit, as well as Black Box FundвЂ™s Out Of The Box series. The chunky and colorful creations are the work of European-based art collective Cracking Art, who were commissioned by Milwaukee-based space-activating nonprofit Black Box Fund. No, not real birds (though youвЂ™ll see plenty of those, too)-twenty-two five-foot-tall plastic sculptures of birds. If you find yourself walking, biking, or skipping through MilwaukeeвЂ™s majestic Lakeshore State Park from now until August 1, youвЂ™ll see some birds.

Junkit bird