Bird & Nature Blog

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Help birds: prevent window collisions

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Help birds: prevent window collisions

The big Birdathon day for team All About Aves is just around the corner, this Thursday! We are sharing an important action you can take today #ForTheBirds.

Did you know up to one billion birds die from hitting windows each year in the U.S. alone? New buildings are going up every day, using increasingly more glass and making migrations more dangerous. Show your support for Madison’s Bird-Safe Glass Ordinance and learn about the influential work done by the volunteers in Madison Audubon’s Bird Collision Corps!

Photo by Linda Crubaugh

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Help birds: bring cats inside

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Help birds: bring cats inside

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

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Help birds: go natural in your yard!

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Help birds: go natural in your yard!

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

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Staying focused in a busy spring

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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

Lucky Madison Audubon

Lucky Madison Audubon

Please use this link to read the Wisconsin State Journal's recent "Know Your Madisonian" column featuring Madison Audubon's very own Matt Reetz. Matt is our current Executive Director. The column tells you lots about Matt and you can infer that Madison Audubon is lucky to have him.

You'd be right. Madison Audubon has made lots of progress on all fronts since Matt became ED: education, conservation, land acquisition and management, financial stability, protection of birds and other wildlife.

Photo courtesy of Wisconsin State Journal