This entry is part of the ongoing series exploring at the ecological history of what is now Faville Grove Sanctuary.
RECOVERY AT FAVILLE GROVE PART TWO: WILDLIFE
Today, we’ll continue our look at Art Hawkins’ “Wildlife History of Faville Grove” and compare it to what we’re seeing on the land today.
In 2019, mere feet from that pasque flower we visited last time, I relocated the nest of an American Woodcock that we had found (and protected) during a prescribed burn. I went to check on the pasque flower, and while there, I thought to check if the woodcock nest remained intact. As I approached the nest site, the hen kicked up and hit my shoulder as it flew away. I stopped, took a look down at the ground, and after careful scrutiny found four woodcock chicks frozen on the ground.
American Woodcock chicks. Photo by Drew Harry / Madison Audubon
In his time, Hawkins noted that the Woodcock was probably an irregular breeder in the area. Even in 1838 he noted the species to be regular and/or uncommon. Today, with ample prairie restorations and savanna landscapes at Faville Grove, the Woodcock has made a triumphant return. In spring, you can hear the “peenting” of Woodcocks on almost any parcel within the sanctuary. Certainly, Aldo Leopold would delight in the confident strut of this shorebird at Faville Grove.
Canada Goose family. Photo by USFWS Midwest
Among waterfowl species Hawkins observed no Canada Geese or Wood Ducks, and he called Blue-winged Teal and Mallards uncommon. His concern over the status of these species led him to some amazing (and hugely successful) efforts to restore Canada Geese and Wood Ducks. Hawkins reared Canada Geese, on the verge of extinction, from a game farm in Minnesota. Of course, no one thinks of the demise of Canada Geese today. You can read more about that incredible story in Roger Packard’s newsletter article here. In addition, after managing the Faville Grove Wildlife Experimental Area, Art went on to work for the Illinois Natural History Survey where he constructed the first wood duck boxes in the nation, 700 of them, laying the groundwork for a recovery of the species.
Among birds more broadly, in Jefferson County, Hawkins noted 171 breeding species from 1844-1903, but only 120 from 1913-1918. In Wisconsin’s first Breeding Bird Atlas from 1995-2000, atlasers confirmed 102 species; in the second Atlas, 122 species were confirmed. It’s not a direct comparison, with different time periods and different efforts and abilities to chase birds, but those numbers probably line up with what we might expect. The number of breeding bird species may have bottomed out in the 1990’s. Near the turn of the twentieth century, most forests and savannas had long been cleared for agriculture. Most wetlands had been ditched, tiled, modified, and degraded. Most grasslands (or surrogate grasslands like pastures and hay fields) after the World War Two-era were converted to conventional high-intensity farming. With those big three habitats mostly destroyed, not much is left for birds.
However, since the turn of the century, some large-scale wetland restoration projects within the county have probably added species to the count. Looking at the top 10 birding sites by number of species on eBird, almost all of them have involved a huge ecological restoration effort, with the exception of Lake Koshkonong. This, of course, includes the wetland and prairie restorations at Faville Grove Sanctuary.
The top birding spots in Jefferson County. eBird
Pelicans flying over Faville Grove Sanctuary. Photo by Drew Harry
A species that needs that wetland habitat, the American White Pelican, has soared in recent years. Hawkins described Pelicans: “once common on Rock Lake, but since 1913… none has been seen.” With improved wetland habitat throughout Wisconsin, and the banning of DDT, Pelicans have recovered to breed in the state since the 1990’s. Now, every summer the birds loaf throughout Faville Grove Sanctuary, sometimes in the hundreds, sometimes a dozen birds; doubtless finding fresh fish on the many ponds and wetlands here, wading their way through a hazy summer sky, dreamlike, but very literally recovered to be a part of the ecosystem.
While the pelican represents wetlands and clean water, perhaps the Short-eared Owl represents grassland and voles. Out of all the grassland birds of the 2015-2019 Breeding Bird Atlas, the Short-eared Owl was among the most selective about where it nested. The birds averaged the highest amount of grassland habitat within a 770-acre radius of their confirmation site.
According to Hawkins, a couple of Short-eared Owl pairs would stay and nest on the Crawfish Prairie each summer. In the book The Vanishing Present: Wisconsin’s Changing Lands, Waters, and Wildlife, David Sample and Mike Mossman remark in a small feature on Faville Grove that resurveys in the mid-1980’s failed to turn up many grassland birds. They found no Northern Harriers or Short-eared Owls. They concluded at the time, “it was apparent that without a renewed effort to bring grassland back onto the Faville Grove landscape, even the remaining prairie–though rich floristically–was doomed ecologically.” Today, with expanding restoration lands totaling about 1,200 acres, the Short-eared Owl has returned to the burgeoning grassland habitat, along with Northern Harriers. Neither have been confirmed breeding within the sanctuary, but both can reliably be seen most months of the year. Just the other day, a “gray ghost,” the male Northern Harrier, was seen back on the prairies at Faville Grove.
Short-eared Owl at Faville Grove Sanctuary. Photo by John Wethall
Famously, egrets helped launch the conservation movement in America. With women at the forefront, Audubon chapters around the nation started campaigning against the killing of egrets for feathers in hats. This campaign, alongside the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, likely saved the species, but recovery took a long time. Hawkins saw 22 egrets along the Crawfish River in September of 1938. The only other records were a decade apart, in 1925 and 1935, which were the only records Hawkins could find since 1900. Today the Great Egret is common in spring migration, and tends to mass at Faville Grove during fall migration. Late August into early September is a good time to see the birds roosting in trees overnight, like ornaments, and making their way to ponds and wetlands during the late summer days of goldenrods and sunflowers.
Egrets during late summer. Photo by Brad Webb
The feather trade decimated birds, and the fur trade was likely among the first exploitative activities initiated by European invaders on the continent. Even the early settlers of the region, in Hawkins’ interviews, could not recall a single beaver. With 200 years of ongoing harvest, and wanting European markets, beavers didn’t stand a chance. The Lacey Act of 1900 banned interstate commerce of illegally harvested wildlife, and likely helped stabilize the beaver population. Again, recovery took a long time. Today, beavers are re-colonizing the landscape. In some areas across the United States, the beavers received a helping hand. For instance, in Idaho, problem beavers in agricultural areas were relocated to remote forested regions, accomplished–in a way that could only be dreamt up in booming post-war America–by dropping the beavers from planes with parachutes.
Photo: Beavers air-dropped in Idaho
Other relocation projects took place in the 1950’s in Wisconsin, and beavers were able to colonize new areas along riverways and streams. Even metropolitan Chicago has a thriving beaver population today. At Faville Grove we have a beaver dam that’s been occupied for almost a decade now on a small natural dam along the banks of the Crawfish River. With trees in the river floodplain invading prairie restorations, perhaps an increased beaver population (parachuting in?) could help control some of the woody vegetation along the river.
Beaver dam along the Crawfish River. Photo by Drew Harry
Otter slides in winter at Faville Grove. Photo by Roger Packard
Another furbearer decimated by overharvest, the otter was uncommon in the Faville Grove area during settlement and into Hawkins’ time at Faville Grove. Today, it’s still difficult to see the actual animals, but we see indirect evidence–scat, tracks, slides–all the time. Left, we see the joyous return of otters on the winter landscape at Faville Grove.
Finally, we arrive at one of the most impressive and shocking wildlife stories: the white-tailed deer. Art Hawkins reported, “I could find no find no records of deer for the 70 year period of 1867 to 1937, but in 1938 a [deer sighting] appeared in the Lake Mills Leader. To my knowledge they are the first deer seen in the region since the spring of 1867 when Mr. Fred Seaver saw two deer on the west shore of Rock Lake.”
Obviously, today it’s rare to drive at dusk and not find a deer. In the 1890’s the total population of white-tailed deer in North America was estimated to be 300,000. In Wisconsin today, the population is estimated to be five times that: 1.5 million deer. The Lacey Act, along with regulated harvests and seasons, led the population to increase. While the recovery was slow, the population has increased to problematic levels today, with documented negative impacts on certain plant species like orchids in Wisconsin. Of course, it’s a good thing to recover wildlife for future generations to enjoy, however, as witnessed with the white-tailed deer, these recoveries can shape ecosystem recoveries and processes.
White-tailed deer. Photo by Monica Hall
These accounts highlight a mere fraction of the biodiversity that has returned to Faville Grove since restoration efforts began. We’re overlooking butterflies, moths, beetles, and thousands of other species that help to make the ecosystem whole. However, the return of relatively large fauna at Faville Grove shows something Art Hawkins figured out a long time ago with wood duck boxes–if you build it, they will come.
Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward
Cover photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
