Bird & Nature Blog

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Watching big fish and big birds

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The six faithful readers of this blog (and thanks to all of you) know I can't resist streams and fish. I should probably be reminded that I write for Madison Audubon, not the Izaak Walton League. But I recently visited a special place where you can watch some of the most spectacular fish and birds in Wisconsin.

You can walk a beach to the dam on the Wisconsin River at Prairie du Sac. You'll notice the star bird right away—American White Pelicans. They swim, rest, soar, and fish in small and large groups. They fly majestically. You have a good chance of seeing Great Blue Herons near some of the dam's outfalls or on the shore. Bald Eagles fish there regularly and enough fish perish to bring in Turkey Vultures.

Photo by Arlene Koziol

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It's Alive: Stewardship Lives. Mostly.

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It's Alive: Stewardship Lives. Mostly.

Yesterday the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) voted to reauthorize the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program for four years at $32 million per year. Please see this link for another thorough report from Gathering Waters, which led the well-conceived and well-executed plan for reauthorization.

Before I descend into editorial comment, some prognostication. This may well be the decisive action regarding Stewardship in this budget.

Photo by Joshua Mayer

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Knowles-Nelson vote on Thursday

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Please see this link to the latest news on the Stewardship program. Besides the political news as to the schedule and significance of votes in Joint Finance, the Gathering Waters report also links you to:

  1. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau issue paper which describes Stewardship funding and duration options in detail.

  2. Information on how to contact legislators.

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Altitude, Attitude, and Stewardship

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Altitude, Attitude, and Stewardship

With the fate of Stewardship to be decided in the next few days (please use this link to read the latest detailed report), we can learn from the birds and use higher ground to our advantage. When humans are encouraged to take the higher ground or the higher road, we face a moral responsibility; to deal with folks fairly and honestly. That's our task with specific Republican legislators who will have a lot of influence on the fate of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program.

Photo by Drew Harry

#BlackInNature: Top birding spots

#BlackBirdersWeek2021 wraps up today, and Saturday’s theme is #BirdsOfAFeather! Black birders all over the world are invited to go birding and submit eBird checklists of the birds they see. Scroll down for virtual events.

If you’re looking for some great local places to explore, check out these favorite birding spots preferred by our friends Dexter Patterson (@wiscobirder on Instagram, he’s awesome) and Jeff Galligan (educator, photographer, naturalist, one of our amazing board members).

Photo by Dexter Patterson