Bird & Nature Blog
A clutch of the latest stories from Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance
What a lovely weekend of bird songs and sightings... We are getting excited for our Great Wisconsin Birdathon this Thursday!
All of us at Madison Audubon are animal lovers, and have our own cats and dogs that we could not live without. But science has shown us that free-roaming cats can be a major danger for birds, including those especially bright and colorful passing migrants.
Photo by Kelly Colgan Azar
The migrating birds we love are back in Wisconsin! We share the land—and our backyards and balconies—with these weary, exhausted travelers. Migrating birds fly hundreds and thousands of miles, and it is essential to protect and create areas where they can rely on nutritious food to refuel on their long journey.
Consider making spaces near your home homey for birds too. There are a variety of ways to do this, including keeping natural shorelines, planting native plants, or setting up proper bird feeders when outdoor space is limited.
Photo by Linda, Fortuna future
In the world of Wisconsin conservation late spring and early summer are pretty busy times. Burns have just concluded and some planting is wrapping up. That can range from thousands of trees planted in our national forests to 75 native dogwood shrubs at Goose Pond to provide habitat for Willow Flycatchers. Many volunteers, landowners, and restoration professionals are picking (and absolutely not grinning) garlic mustard. My friends at Trout Unlimited are undertaking stream projects that can be accomplished manually while the DNR is about to start the stream restorations that require heavy equipment. In the not too distant future Madison Audubon, The Prairie Enthusiasts (TPE), and other land trusts will begin the cycle of seed collecting (as I write this, a friend is concluding his collection of Dutchman’s Breeches).
Photo by Drew Harry
Happy Earth Day! In 1970, Wisconsin's own Gaylord Nelson helped launch the first Earth Day with the intent to make a lasting progress toward protecting the planet and its inhabitants.
Change that is authentic. Meaningful. Big-time. With heart and soul.
That's what all of us are working toward too! If you're looking for ways you can meaningfully celebrate the Earth today and beyond, we have eight great ideas for you below.
Photo by Monica Hall
Earth Day is many things to many people but it has been and always will be a political event. While Gaylord Nelson and others created the day to celebrate the natural beauty and vitality of Earth and the steps then undertaken to protect it, another purpose was to mobilize the political will to take more decisive action to protect our environment and natural resources.
With the changed climate severely damaging our earth a bit more every day, we encounter lots of earnest advice to change our ways—for example, stopping or severely reducing our use of fossil fuels, meat, air travel, automobiles. I won't argue with those admonitions but joy is sometimes better motivation than duty.
Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
