Bird & Nature Blog

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Binocular Drive!

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Binocular Drive!

Donate new or gently used binoculars, or donate funds to help buy new binoculars.

This year for #BlackBirdersWeek2021, we are supporting and celebrating budding birders in Madison. We partner with Bayview Foundation and Vera Court Neighborhood Center for our after-school and summer programming. These are outstanding community centers that support a diverse population of kids.

Our goal is to collect 20 - 30 pairs of new or gently used binoculars to donate to these community centers. If you have binoculars that need a new home, send them our way!

Madison Audubon photo

Summer at the Sanctuaries

Summer at the Sanctuaries

Bring on the heat, the bugs, the plants, the birds, and the learning. Madison Audubon’s summer ecological restoration internships are now in full session, with twelve undergraduate students learning the techniques, art, and science of ecological restoration at our Faville Grove and Goose Pond Sanctuaries.

Photo by Brenna Marsicek during 2007 summer internship at Faville Grove Sanctuary

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Knowles-Nelson Stewardship = land + birds

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Governor Evers has proposed a 10-year renewal of $70 million a year for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, one of the biggest sources of funding for major land and water conservation projects statewide. In turn, this work protects our wonderful birds and wildlife! Within about five miles of any given Important Bird Area (IBA) in WI, there are 3,500+ Knowles-Nelson projects protecting over 370,000 acres.

Madison Audubon photo

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Stewardship needs you NOW

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As you read the Gathering Waters report and note the positive report on a few Republicans voicing fairly vague support of Stewardship, PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME that Stewardship is secure. We have not lost but we sure ain't won.

So, Mr. Broken Record here, begs you to contact your and any Republican legislator you know really, really soon.

Photo by Jack Dougherty

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Fire Science and the Art of the Burn

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I attended my first “burn” in 1992 while a graduate student at UW-Madison.  I was hooked.  The sights, sounds, smell and the skill exhibited by the burn team made me want to learn more.  Then life got in the way.

Fast forward to 2010.

In 2010 I retired from a career in Landscape Architecture and embarked on a new career path in Photography.  I began an ongoing project documenting the activity of local burn teams throughout the area.

The pandemic put a hold on burn activity for 2020, which gave me the opportunity to review my work and go forward when the world started opening up again.

Last year 2020 (fall) and this year 2021 (spring) I worked with Graham Steinhauer and the team creating imagery from several burns at the Goose Pond Sanctuary.

Photo by Carolyn Knorr

Photo by Carolyn Knorr

The question I get asked the most is “why”.

My reason for making these images is two-fold.  First, I want to document and bring awareness to the public of the importance of the science of burning.  Wisconsin is fortunate to have remnants of prairie, oak savanna and wetlands that are on conservation lands and are managed through burning.  These tracts provide shelter to a rich variety of plants and animals.  Habitats that would otherwise be overtaken by invasive species, if not for the burning.

The second reason I make these images is for the beauty and artistic nature of the burns themselves.  They are a metaphor for so many human emotions.  Life, death, rebirth, renewal to name a few.

My goal with this project is to heighten awareness of the importance of land management through burning and to ultimately present this project in book form and a traveling photography exhibit.

Written by Carolyn S. Knorr, fine art photographer and Goose Pond Sanctuary volunteer