Bird & Nature Blog
A clutch of the latest stories from Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance
Birds are awesome. Some of the people they’re named for aren’t.
Birds should have their own descriptive names. And as of March 26, 2021, Madison Audubon joins 10 other organizations rallying behind the Bird Names for Birds movement, which pushes for birds with honorific names (like Henslow’s Sparrow and Cooper’s Hawk) to be renamed with names that describe the bird.
Madison Audubon is now an official supporter of Bird Names for Birds!
This week's post is a celebratory one, as the blog is approaching its very own bird-iversary. One year ago this week—on March 30th to be exact—this blog came to life with our very first entry, titled Look to the Birds.
And that's what we've done. Every week for fifty-two weeks. We've looked to the birds.
In an unprecedented year filled with uncertainty, fear, and loss, birds have been my solace. I hope you can say the same. Join me in this week's post to look back on our shared year of birds and beginnings, of adventures and growth, of mis-IDs and birding blunders, to see just how far we've come.
Photo by Caitlyn Schuchhardt
This yellow warbler is one of the lucky ones. It struck a window, but unlike the hundreds of millions of birds that die after colliding with windows, this warbler was able to recover and fly away. We love these happy endings! And, we can make more of them by working together. Join the Bird Collision Corps this spring to help learn more about bird-window collisions and how we can best prevent them.
Or if you can't volunteer but want to help, you can sign our petition in support of Madison's Bird-Safe Glass Ordinance!
Photo by Crystal Sutheimer
Earlier this month, as we snowbirds and many other types of birds, were beginning to think about migrating back north, I ventured out to a local park with my camera to see what I could find. I decided to concentrate on a large group of Northern Cardinals that were flying and chasing each other. As I focused in on their activity, I saw two females land on the ground right in front of me and started to stare each other down. Their intensity was palpable.
Photo by Terri Bleck
If the photo above gave you heart palpitations: never fear. It’s burn season (and that’s a good thing!).
Burning is key for many reasons to the health of prairies and savannas. These systems are fire dependent. Fire renew fertility, spark the reproductive cycle of some plants, suppress woody vegetation, and control some invasive species. No fire = no prairies, no savannas.
Photo by Roger Packard
