I make a local food buying swing most Saturdays that sometimes takes me to the Hollandale Grocery Store in, what a surprise, Hollandale. In business for 50 years, you should stop there someday (Hollandale is about halfway between New Glarus and Dodgeville on STH 39). John and Amy, the owners, are super nice and it has an amazing selection of just about everything you'd expect in a grocery store, including a fabulous meat counter and original recipe Coke and Dr. Pepper.

The store was abuzz with a wildlife sighting last Saturday. Just off one of the highways sits a dilapidated grain shed. On its snow-covered roof, folks were seeing a magnificent, gorgeous red fox, napping on the roof. He apparently enjoyed his siesta for hours and everyone in the store was thrilled to have seen him. Folks were speculating he might be the happiest fox in Wisconsin, thinking that he'd dash into the shed for a quick breakfast or lunch of a mouse or two. Then back to the roof to enjoy the sun and a nap.

However, the day continued to improve when I stopped at a trout stream that I should probably not identify. A Madison Audubon volunteer for the Bald Eagle Nest Watch program was looking for an eagle's nest that he and another family were to monitor. A rare day, indeed. I could actually help him and pointed out the nest immediately. I hope eagles do nest there. For years, eagles successfully nested in that valley until a windstorm knocked the nest tree over three years ago. I heard one eagle calling from mid to late summer last year and clearly there's a new nest in town. Good luck, eagles.

Bald Eagle nest. *Photo by Candy Chambers/USFWS*

Back home I pondered what I had seen over the last few months in the neighborhood. The most striking was a huge bird of prey that swooped in and landed in the yard and on the roof of the house across the street. I know it pretty much had to be a Red-tail, but this bird was huge with what struck me as scimitar shaped wings. Big, big, big. I was too stunned to be a careful observer and the bird did not linger. But wow.

On an entirely different scale and earlier in the year, I was watching a couple of mullein plants in a neighbor's yard. It's a handsome invasive. Unlike some invasives, it doesn't seem too aggressive. Our stewards at Goose Pond don't seem to be as exercised about it as many other invaders. Maybe birders can find a reason to tolerate it. One day I watched three Downy Woodpeckers slowly working their way up and down all the plants. They found something of value there. It was deliberately imported to this country for medicinal and fishing purposes. Apparently it'll knock fish dead. I'd better not see anyone with stalks of mullein near my favorite streams or lake. Out west, its nickname is the Cowboy's Toilet Paper, attesting to its soft leaves and another use.

Downy Woodpecker on mullein. Video by Danielle Brigida FCC

Other sightings were nocturnal, including another red fox heading into a cemetery and a robust coyote exiting Oscar Mayer. No hot dogs to scavange, alas.

Sometimes I even blunder into interesting sights during unpleasant outside chores. I was shoveling the wet, heavy, very heavy 7.7 inches of snow last week. I noticed gratefully that the snow was much shallower in some places on the sidewalk. A look upward revealed the reason. Amazing amounts of snow were clinging to the branches of the hardwood trees above the sidewalk. The difference in snow depth was 2-3 inches, which seemed a lot to me. I wondered if that had any significance in a southern Wisconsin hardwood forest during such a snow. There'd be a lot less snow on the ground during and right after the storm, which might make foraging easier for some animals. Or not—this could be an example of well-intentioned but goofball speculation.

Just this morning, some House Sparrows reminded me that spring was on the way. Thanks to the UW Credit Union on Northport they had no shortage of nesting sites. They had staked out the C, D, and O on the neon signs as future homes. House Sparrows are ambitious home builders. The 4-5 inch birds were flying foot long strands of dead grass into the alphabet. And stealing the strands from one another. If I were caring for a bluebird house trail, I'd have a grim, dim view of house sparrows. But on this February morning, with a snow and ice storm brewing, they were interesting to watch.

Turkey Vulture overhead. *Photo by Mick Thompson*

The hits kept coming. When I stepped out of the house on Tuesday morning, I was circled by three Turkey Vultures. They seemed interested in watching from the tops of big conifers across the road but finally flew off. Pondering this rare sighting for the neighborhood I had to consider: an omen? If so, about what? Perhaps I thought, a warning about shoveling all the sleet and snow that was about to fall. Two inches of sleet are amazingly and painfully heavy. I had an important meeting to protect a stream that afternoon—a sign that it would not go well? The birds, alas, were right about that. They drifted downstream and eyed our polling place. Good Lord! Is our democracy as imperiled as many believe? Not yet. We had a good turnout in this area and no glitches. Certainly we'll face an important election in April with a clear choice between judicial values. Finally, they were probably out for breakfast in the form of delicious, nearby roadkill.

You never know what you'll see outside, which is one of the best reasons to be there as often as you can. It sure beats word-processing in the basement bunker.

Take care,

Topf Wells, Madison Audubon advocacy committee