From the August 2022 Newsletter: Brenna Marsicek, director of communications and outreach, shares an update on our programs: Bald Eagle Nest Watch, Kestrel Nest Box Monitoring, and Bird Collision Corps.
Photo by Kaitlin Svabek/Madison Audubon.
Recovery: Wildlife
Today, we’ll continue our look at Art Hawkins’ “Wildlife History of Faville Grove” and compare it to what we’re seeing on the land today.
In 2019, mere feet from that pasque flower we visited last time, I relocated the nest of an American Woodcock that we had found (and protected) during a prescribed burn. I went to check on the pasque flower, and while there, I thought to check if the woodcock nest remained intact. As I approached the nest site, the hen kicked up and hit my shoulder as it flew away. I stopped, took a look down at the ground, and after careful scrutiny found four woodcock chicks frozen on the ground.
Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
A different sort of restoration
Recently I read a fun and fascinating account of a successful introduction of another lovely species with a great name to new, happy, and much needed homes. Please use the following link for this story concerning the starhead topminnow. And that photo on p. 1; isn't that a cute little fish? John Lyons and his "Topminnows For Tomorrow" team (this blog is full of great names and titles) worked incredibly hard over years on this introduction and then wrote a lively article on that process and its results.
Photo by Joshua Mayer
— Meet a Birder — Hywania Thompson
Recovery: Plants
Ecology is generally understood as the relationships between living things. One interesting way of adding a dimension is by incorporating time. The relationship between a mouse population and a weed outbreak analyzes this relationship at one point in time. But adding a series of observations strengthens the inferences that are possible to draw between mice and weeds, in addition to factors like weather, land-use, predators, and disease.
Photo by Peter Gorman
