Bird & Nature Blog

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Great American Outdoors Act & #FundLWCF

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Great American Outdoors Act & #FundLWCF

Almost 60 years ago, Congress and President Kennedy had a great idea. Let's, they said, in a fabulous moment of collective wisdom, create a big, stable, and permanent source of conservation funding for the entire nation. It will help fund everything from the acquisition of a national park to the development of a county park. It will be available to every part of the country.

They so created the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), funded by fees paid by the oil industry for offshore drilling. We need your help to support it. The Great American Outdoors Act would direct the full funding amount to LWCF annually. Your legislators need to hear from you. Call them. Email them. Share about it with your friends via email and social media. Use the hashtag #FundLWCF. More resources are listed below.

Madison Audubon photo

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Preparing for Fall Migration (It’s Sooner Than You Think!)

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Welcome back to the Entryway to Birding blog! Another week has gone by and these hot temps are still lingering. We’re definitely in the thick of summer and the birding can feel a bit slow. Have you been finding ways to get out and bird, despite the heat? Or have you switched your attention, like many do, to the gorgeous butterflies and dragonflies that abound? I’ve still been chasing that perpetual breeze and birding by bike—read more about some of my favorite destinations in last week’s blog!

In this week’s post, I’ve got some suggestions for how new birders can take advantage of this summer birding lull to get prepped and ready for fall migration.

Wait, what? Fall migration, you say? Isn’t that, like, two months from now?

No, my friends. Fall migration begins sooner than you think. It’s just around the corner, and it will bring some new birding challenges that you’ll want to be prepared for. Let’s take a look!

Photo by Brandyn Kerscher

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Keeping Your Summer Birding Fresh

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Welcome back to the Entryway to Birding blog! It’s now July—can you believe it? I hope everyone reading was able to celebrate a safe and healthy 4th of July.

With the heat of summer setting in over the last week, my birding habits have been changing. I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a wimp—I don’t like getting eaten alive by mosquitoes nor do I handle heat and humidity well. Our current stretch of hot and humid weather has me looking for some more creative ways to bird, since sweaty, irritable birding is not my best birding.

This week’s blog post is for those of you who still want to get outside, get active, and enjoy those birds, but aren’t feeling inclined to stand around in the humidity while getting eaten by mosquitoes.

Photo by Caitlyn Schuchhardt

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Three Friendly B's

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Three Friendly B's

The harvest season has begun in earnest at our house with a quick flurry of honeyberries followed by the start of the juneberry and raspberry seasons with a few pie cherries thrown in for good luck.

I must start with a thank you to the bumblebees. As far as I can tell, they are the only pollinators of honeyberries and the principal pollinator of the raspberries. I'm not as sure about the juneberries but they probably help there too.

Photo by Hirotomo Oi

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What came first: the bug or the song?

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What came first: the bug or the song?

Looks like the summer will be wet and warm—good news for my nominee for the most fearsome of Wisconsin's animals. No, not our two rattlesnakes… no, not ticks as loathsome as they are… no, not our most dangerous mammals, the Holstein or Jersey bulls. Ladies and gentlemen, meet, if you dare, North America's largest mosquito, the gallinipper.

I don't think they are new to Wisconsin but I'm betting they are much more common. I speculate that our changed climate is the reason. The bugs need hot, muggy weather, and water standing in those pastures where their prime prey lives. The changed climate reliably produces that weather and those conditions.

Photo by Carl Wycoff

 
 
 
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