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Visitors from 9 to 99 at Otsego Marsh and Goose Pond

Dorothy Haines, a Madison Audubon member for over 50 years (recently featured in our Meet a Birder series), and eight residents of Oakwood Village East visited Goose Pond today and were greeted by thousands of waterfowl and ring-billed gulls and mid-October weather. Dorothy enjoyed stopping at the Browne Prairie and at the Kiosk.

Columbus Grade School has been frequent visitors to Goose Pond and Otsego Marsh this fall. A class visited Otsego Marsh today and as they hiked up the trail a teacher said, "We are going to see what has changed since we were here last."

Coronavirus, the elderly, and birds

My mother- in-law Lucille had a full life before her cognitive functions began their long, cruel departure. Now she has family she is mainly restricted from seeing in person, and… bird feeders.

At first, the feeders were not an easy sell. Lu lives on the second floor, and our first attempt—attaching a feeder to her window- was not successful. Birds didn’t come, Lu kept opening the window and knocking the feeder off, and she complained constantly about its presence. We gave up on the window feeder and planted two feeders on posts in a small patch of ground under Lu’s window.

Photo by Eric Bégin