Goose Pond Sanctuary Update: September 11, 2025
Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance’s Goose Pond Sanctuary always has a ton going on. Bird conservation, habitat restoration, research, and outreach are always in season here. Learn more about Goose Pond through the update below, by visiting our Goose Pond webpage, or by exploring our Goose Pond StoryMap.
Cover photo: Monarchs on liatris (photo by Arlene Koziol).
Whooping Cranes at Goose Pond
Back in May, Calla Norris and I (Graham) hiked up the hill that overlooks Goose Pond for an evening walk, and saw two white figures gliding over the surface. We assumed they were pelicans, as several had been occupying the pond, but then we realized they were a little too thin when they landed on shore. I’d never seen a pelican land like that. After straining our eyes in the dying light for several minutes of hopeful skepticism, we confirmed that it was a pair of Whooping Cranes! This pair only stayed for a couple of days, but a new visitor appeared a few weeks later.
Whooping Crane at Goose Pond Sanctuary. (Photo by Ralph Russo)
There are about 810 Whooping Cranes in the total global population, which is a huge increase from their low point of 20 in the 1940s, but each crane is still so important that most have color bands on their legs. The specific combination of colors corresponds to an individual. A lone Whooping Crane was first seen at Goose Pond in early June, and the International Crane Foundation (ICF) confirmed that her name is Styx. She was born in 2024 to a wild pair, costume-reared at ICF, and later released at Horicon Marsh. During her two-week stay at Goose Pond, Styx was not shy. She often mingled near Goose Pond Road with her Sandhill cousins and foraged conspicuously in nearby crop fields. We wanted to share this with you all earlier, but due to the federally-endangered status of Whooping Cranes, ICF reasonably advised us not to share the location of Styx while she was still present at Goose Pond.
Summer Interns
Andy Smith, Logan Bahr, and Becca Black work at Goose Pond Sanctuary. (Photo by Tucker Sanborn/SoWBA)
Each summer, Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance (SoWBA) employs motivated and enthusiastic interns to assist sanctuary staff during the bustling summer, while learning the art and science of ecological restoration. This year, Becca Black, Logan Bahr, and Andy Smith (returning for a second year) worked full time as ecological restoration interns at Goose Pond Sanctuary. Juanita Duarte, an intern from the Natural Resource Foundation of Wisconsin’s Diversity in Conservation program, joined the Goose Pond team for a week.
Our interns worked diligently to remove wild parsnip, sweet clover, honeysuckle, and many other invasive species despite weather that was often hot, wet, and/or buggy. In addition to pulling weeds, they collected seed from over 20 species, conducted Karner blue butterfly surveys, assisted with banding American Kestrels and Purple Martins, and went on several educational field trips. This season, the interns also worked at SoWBA’s newest property, Hillside Prairie Sanctuary, removing invasive plants, putting out signage, taking down deer stands, and removing a dumpster-load of trash (literally) from the property. Oftentimes, it’s the little things that make working in the heat, swatting bugs, or wringing out soaking wet socks worthwhile. See our recent Friday Feathered Feature, A summer on the prairie (2025), to hear what kept this season’s interns going.
Russ Hefty
Mark and Sue have known Russ for 46 years. One story involves cream gentians, formerly a state-threatened species. Twenty years ago, Russ called and reported that a population of cream gentians in the Madison area was going to be bulldozed at a gravel pit. Russ contacted the gravel company and secured permission to move the plants to protected locations. One location was Goose Pond Sanctuary, where we now have cream gentians from three local genotypes to provide genetic diversity for this species. When Russ retired, one of his major focuses was on helping Purple Martins, a passion he worked on up to two weeks before his passing. To read more about Russ, visit his obituary page or check out the blog post by Topf Wells, “A good guy gone”.
Sunflowers and Sorghum
In past years, we’ve either planted sorghum or simply left standing corn as food plots for birds. These areas attract Dark-eyed Juncos and many other species of migrating sparrows, plus Ring-necked Pheasants. Our food plots have been responsible for hosting Goose Pond AND Columbia County high counts on eBird including nine Lincoln’s Sparrows, two Harris’s Sparrows, four Nelson’s Sparrows, 323 American Tree Sparrows, 54 White-crowned Sparrows, one LeConte’s Sparrow, 700 American Goldfinches, and 250 Bobolink.
This summer, we planted two food plots with sunflowers and grain sorghum totaling 11 acres. The sunflowers provided nectar for thousands of bumblebees and other pollinators, and they were solid blocks of yellow when in full flower. We look forward to counting raptors, Mourning Doves, Ring-necked Pheasants, sparrows, and other birds to see how successful we’ve been and to get some solid numbers for the Poynette Christmas Bird Count. If you would like to help count birds contact goosep@swibirds.org.
Sunflower food plot. (Photo by Arlene Koziol)
Opportunities, Articles, and More
There is still space for folks to sign up for monarch tagging at Goose Pond! We have tagging sessions with openings on September 10 (Wednesday) and September 13 (Saturday) , and you can register here.
Join us for an open house near Cambridge at Hillside Prairie, SoWBA’s newest sanctuary, on September 19 and 20.
Check out Goose Pond’s recent Friday Feathered Features: A summer on the prairie (2025) (Aug. 29) Red-headed Woodpecker (Aug. 8), Overwater Nesting at Goose Pond Sanctuary (June 27), 2025 Birdathon: Reckless Wrens (June 6)
Wisconsin DNR’s Snapshot Wisconsin just reached 100 million photo observations! We monitor a camera at both Goose Pond and Otsego Marsh, and our Belted Kingfisher photo is featured for Columbia County.
SoWBA recently cohosted a webinar series called Mighty Migrations on monarchs, Chimney Swifts, and Ruby-throated hummingbirds. The series has concluded, but you can view all of the recordings here.
Tom and Mary Lou Nicholls run the Nature Education Center in Fifield, Wisconsin. Read their recent eNature Reports from July 4 and August 1.
The Prairie Enthusiasts are holding a Basic Prescribed Fire Crew Training on September 27, and you can sign up here.
Join us for seed collecting most Saturday and Wednesday mornings. If you would like to hear about upcoming seed collecting events, contact Graham Steinhauer at gsteinhauer@swibirds.org.
Richard Armstrong
Mark and Sue met Richard when he was taking photos at Goose Pond, and he has been a great friend and volunteer since then. He spent endless hours taking tens of thousands of photos of the flora, fauna, and landscape and processing them for our use.
Richard loved photographing Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers at Otsego Marsh from an observation blind. Dorothy Haines liked to share the time Richard took her to the observation blind when she was in her late 80s or early 90s. Although the pair found about eight inches of water leading to the blind, Richard was prepared—he gave Dorothy two large garbage bags to use like hip boots.
Goose Pond staff has assisted with the capture of eight Snowy Owls, and each received a band and GPS transmitter. A particularly fond memory of Richard was in Green Lake County, during an outing to capture, band, and place a GPS transmitter on Snowy Owls for Project SNOWstorm. Mark’s team had captured one owl when Richard and Gene Jacobs (bird bander) pulled up. Each of them was holding their own Snowy Owl!
Richard was also a member of our odonate group that identified 58 species of dragon and damselflies at our sanctuaries. Richard's skill in taking photos helped with their identification. He then produced a poster of dragonflies of the Goose Pond area using 24 photos by four photographers.
We have many great memories being with Richard. Richard and Mark photographed a Great Gray Owl near Mauston, a Northern Hawk Owl at Baileys Harbor, and a Pileated Woodpecker nest with young at Otsego Marsh. One special trip was when we photographed the courtship display of Spruce Grouse. The female, followed by the male, walked within 10 feet of us. Richard’s life will continue on through our memories and excellent photos. Read his obituary here.
North American Butterfly Count - Mud Lake
Participants photograph a butterfly during the 2025 Butterfly Count. (Photo by Emma Raasch/SoWBA)
The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) launched the Butterfly Count Program in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 1993. Its model is similar to the Christmas Bird Count. Circles that are fifteen-miles in diameter are spaced across the continent, and volunteers have one day to count as many butterflies in their 177-square-mile circle as they are able. Our circle, which contains Goose Pond Sanctuary, Otsego Marsh, and Erstad Prairie, is centered around Mud Lake Wildlife Area. Karl and Dorothy Legler have coordinated this survey for over 30 years.
Goose Pond staff and volunteers conducted the count at the sanctuary since 2014, and we’ve found 6,835 individuals representing 33 species since then! The count this year took place on June 30. We found 21 species, including strong numbers of black swallowtails (66), great spangled fritillaries (10), and monarchs (90). Data from these efforts are used to fuel high-level scientific papers about population trends, threats, and other aspects of butterfly lives. Thanks so much to the volunteers who assisted with the count this year!
Bird Banding
When we’re not pulling weeds or collecting seeds, you may see Goose Pond staff with a special pair of pliers and a bird in hand:
A Mourning Dove that was just banded. (Photo by Graham Steinhauer/SoWBA)
Mourning Doves
This was the second year that we helped DNR staff meet their Mourning Dove banding quota in Columbia County. Since Mourning Doves are a game bird in the state, Wisconsin became a cooperator in the National Harvest Strategy for Mourning Doves which, in part, uses banding data to monitor dove populations and inform harvest management. The DNR used Goose Pond as a trapping location for 12 years before we assisted with banding due to our large flocks of doves. After receiving training, we started banding the doves ourselves to reduce the birds’ time in the cage and the many drives to and from Goose Pond for DNR staff. The 2025 quota for Columbia County was 75+, or as Columbia County’s wildlife biologist, Savanna Hartman, put it, “as many as possible.” By early August, we had banded 87 Mourning Doves, most of which were hatch-year birds gathered in the sunflower and sorghum food plot.
Purple Martins
Goose Pond staff, interns, and volunteers also met Dick Nikolai, a Wisconsin Purple Martin Association board member who has studied the species for four decades, to band 510 Purple Martin nestlings at three properties. In eight years, we assisted Dick with banding 4,506 Purple Martins and look forward to reaching the 5,000th Purple Martin banded in 2026. The 2022 feature on Purple Martin Banding provides information on the banding process. We wish them well on their upcoming journey to Brazil, and hope that some may find their ways back to the new gourd racks that will be erected at Goose Pond and Wildland, LLC.
American Kestrels
Since 2016, SoWBA has made an effort to band all the kestrel nestlings and breeding females (and occasional males) in our kestrel boxes. With three banders—Brand Smith, Kurt Reed, and Emma Raasch—visiting 69 active boxes, we banded 266 nestlings, 48 adults, and recaptured an additional 37 adults. Read more about SoWBA’s American Kestrel program in the recent FFF: American Kestrel: 2025 nest box and banding report.
Intern Becca Black releases a banded adult American Kestrel. (Photo by Emma Raasch/SoWBA)
Bat Roost Monitoring
Each summer, Goose Pond staff position themselves to keep a watchful eye on as many buildings as possible, preferably with a light backdrop, during the Great Wisconsin Bat Count. Monitoring the summer roost at Goose Pond has been disappointing the last few years, with only a handful of bats to count. However, on July 22, Miles and I (Emma) were thrilled to count 28 big brown bats emerging from the corn crib! It’s likely that the true number of bats roosting in our buildings is greater than 28 since we know they roost in the barn, but we do not have a foolproof way of counting the tricksters as they sneak into the night.
The 2025 Great Wisconsin Bat Count was not just good news at Goose Pond, but throughout the state. Despite the devastating impact that white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that can cause 95% mortality at a site, has had on Wisconsin’s cave bats, it seems like their populations may be rebounding. Heather Kaarakka, DNR bat biologist, reported that 2025 was a record-breaking year, with some little brown bat roosts reaching pre white-nose syndrome numbers!
Written by Graham Steinhauer, Goose Pond Sanctuary land steward; Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary managers; and Emma Raasch, Goose Pond ecological restoration technician
