Bird & Nature Blog

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Mark and Sue, recipients of Lifetime Achievement Award

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If you know Mark Martin and Sue Foote-Martin, you know they live, breathe, talk, and dream about conservation. Independently, their careers have made a huge difference in how Wisconsin values and manages natural resources. And together, their impact as long-time Goose Pond Sanctuary managers is almost immeasurable. Almost.

This past Wednesday, we joined Gathering Waters and the conservation community in celebrating Mark and Sue, recipients of the 2021 Harold "Bud" Jordahl Lifetime Achievement Award. Congratulations to Mark and Sue!

Photo by Arlene Koziol

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The quest for Milkweed Seeds this fall!

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Milkweeds are the host plant for monarch caterpillars, making them essential for healthy monarch populations. This fall, Madison Audubon and in particular our staff at Goose Pond Sanctuary have established a goal for volunteers to collect 50 pounds of milkweed seed for the butterflies, and we need your help!

The primary focus is on common milkweed since it is indeed common and found in old fields, along roadsides, and possibly in your yard. We also would like people to collect butterfly, whorled, and swamp (red) milkweed seed as they are highly desirable species that are not easy to locate in large numbers.

Madison Audubon photo

So long pond, hello great habitat!

A bulldozer on a prairie is not a common sight, nor a vision that comes to mind when one thinks of habitat restoration. But it is often a necessary tool in the process of bringing the land back to its previous state. Over the past 20+ years at Faville Grove Sanctuary and 50+ years at Goose Pond Sanctuary, we have put bulldozers, backhoes, excavators, and many other heavy machines to work filling man-made ditches, re-grading large areas, re-installing wetlands, and more. Our goal is always to bring the land back to its native and former glory.

Photo by David Musolf

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Join us this fall at Faville Grove!

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Join us this fall at Faville Grove!

It’s been a hectic summer at Faville Grove with lots of neat wildlife sightings and tons of brilliant wildflowers, as always. Canadian wildfire haze and drought have settled in from time to time, but plants keep blooming and birds keep moving; asters, goldenrods, and goldfinches are making their mark as summer fades.

Join us for weekly seed collecting beginning September 8th through the end of October. Our meeting point is the kiosk on Prairie Lane every Wednesday from 9:30-noon, and for two separate work parties every Saturday from 9:30-noon and 1:30-4pm. We need all of the help we can get!

Photo by Drew Harry