The (ongoing) tale of the elusive Whooping Crane and Goose Pond Sanctuary

On October 2nd, a friend of Sue’s left a message on our phone that he had seen a whooping crane with sandhill cranes about three miles from Goose Pond, about 100 yards from the intersection of Kampen and Harvey Roads, east of Highway 51. He had an excellent look could see that the whooping crane was banded with colored bands.

A sandhill and whooping crane fly overhead. Photo by Arlene Koziol, taken in 2014

Mark checked out the area the next day and finally found the whooping crane about a half mile south of Kampen Road not far from Highway 51 along with 230 sandhills. At that distance, the whooping crane easily stood out.  

The following day, Mark found the whooping crane late morning within a few yards of where it was the previous afternoon. He called Graham and the seed collecting fall employees, and they were all treated to a life bird. At that time the color bands were recorded and reported to the International Crane Foundation. Later that afternoon, Mark was lucky to see the whooper flying about one mile to the east.

A closeup of a captive whooping crane, taken at International Crane Foundation. Photo by Arlene Koziol

Most people know that whooping cranes reached a low of 15 birds in the wild in the 1940s and were close to extinction. This population of cranes nests at Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada and winters at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Last winter, that population totaled 504 birds including 13 young. We really enjoyed our visits to Rockport, Texas to view the whooping cranes up close.

In 1991, Sam Robbins wrote in Wisconsin Birdlife that there were a few bird whooping crane records from southeast Wisconsin in mid 1800s along with enormous flocks of sandhill cranes. Kumlien and Hollister spoke of “unquestionable breeding to some extent,” however nesting was never confirmed. Sam mentioned that the last historic whooping crane record was from 1878 in Green County that included a specimen.

The next record for Wisconsin was in April 1959 when Owen Gromme observed two birds in Waukesha County. The wild population was still very low and these birds were about 500 miles east of their migration route.

The Robert Lerch family sold Madison Audubon the first parcel of land at Goose Pond Sanctuary in 1968. We remember Robert talking about seeing a whooping crane in back of their house in 1959. The only record of that sighting was Roberts note of the sighting on the back of the passage door for their garage. Robert was a waterfowl hunter and trapper with very good observational skills.

On October 4, 2010 many bird watchers observed and photographed three adult whooping cranes about five miles southeast of Goose Pond at the farmed wetland at Harvey Road and County DM.

Three whooping cranes stand in the shallows. Photo by Arlene Koziol, taken in 2014

A few years after that we spend many evenings looking for the whooping crane that spent the summer at the Anderson Waterfowl Production Area on Highway K, east of Highway 51.

On March 26, 2014 Matt Giovanni, Wildlife Biologist, and Richard Armstrong, Wildlife Photographer were out searching for snowy owls around Goose Pond and both reported spotting a whooping crane. The next day we observed the whooping crane with 10 sandhill cranes just north of the Goose Pond. That evening, Mark was heading out looking for snowy owls and he ran into George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation.  

George was out with three Russian crane researchers looking for snowy owls. Mark told them he was searching for a whooping crane. They were surprised to learn of a whooping crane at Goose Pond. The Russian researchers had never seen a snowy owl and one had not seen a whooping crane. Mark and George split up to search a larger area. Not long after that Mark called George and said he found a snowy owl that was in the farmed wetland in Jill’s Prairie. Mark called George and when they arrive they set up their scope and everyone had excellent looks at a whooping crane. Mark said, “I thought you were interested in seeing a snowy owl.” George said they “were interested in seeing a snowy owl and wondered where the owl was that you reported.”  Mark said look in your scope at the whooping crane but look past the crane and you will see a snowy owl! They were thrilled to see a snowy owl and shortly after that two more owls were found including one they photographed from their van at 40 feet.

The International Crane Foundation, the Department of Natural Resources, and Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership has worked from many years restoring a population of whooping cranes in Wisconsin. The International Crane Foundation reported, “The [September 2019] estimated population size is 85 (40 F, 42 M, 3 U). This includes three wild-hatched chicks from 2019. To the best of our knowledge, as of October 1, at least 73 Whooping Cranes are in Wisconsin, 4 are in Michigan, 1 is in Iowa and 1 is in Illinois.”  There is a long story with the reintroduction history with this population that would take pages to cover.

We hope that you visit Goose Pond area in the next month and hopefully you will find a large population of sandhill cranes and one white crane.

Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Resident Managers, Goose Pond Sanctuary

A whooping crane soars overhead. Photo by Arlene Koziol

Lincoln's Sparrow

Imagining a new world sparrow brings about that old form, a brownish bird smaller than a robin, moving about in flocks; a bird mostly unnoticed and unheralded—not a bird often enthusiastically photographed, or one most people would go to great lengths to see. For those trying to keep track of sparrows, you could witness at least 20 different species in Wisconsin. For those keeping track of sparrows, the subtle variations in coloration, song, and habitat make for interesting study.

Take the Lincoln’s sparrow, for instance, with its overall buffy chest, light brown streaking fading to all white on the breast, a buffy mustache and eye ring, and gray eyebrow. None of these characteristics on its own necessarily makes a Lincoln’s sparrow, though a careful study of the combination of characteristics will reveal a Lincoln’s. The problem, at least for observers, is that the Lincoln’s sparrow rarely makes appearances unobstructed. When it does, the bird quickly drops to the ground at any appearance of a threat. Thus, the Lincoln’s sparrow is one of the more difficult sparrows to observe in Wisconsin.

Lincoln’s sparrow, photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Breeding pairs occur in northern Wisconsin, mostly in tamarack and spruce swamps. Nesting occurs on the ground in grass or sedge dominated areas. This habitat selection increases the difficulty of seeing this bird during a northern Wisconsin summer, as tamarack and spruce swamps can be incredibly difficult to access in non-winter months.

On these breeding grounds, researchers have discovered that females will select mates based on the quality of their song. Male song with more syllables and phrases, and song that is consistent and long, will heighten female activity compared to males with the opposite song characteristics.

These birds are migrating through southern Wisconsin now, and a week ago, Lincoln’s sparrows were spotted down Prairie Lane at Faville Grove Sanctuary. With the onset of freezing temperatures, Lincoln’s sparrows are actually considered neotropical migrants, making it all the way to southern Central America. At the same time, some birds on the northern edge of their wintering range will spend months in far southern Wisconsin.

Lincoln’s sparrow, photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Population indices of the Lincoln’s sparrow indicate a stable or increasing population, both continent-wide and in Wisconsin. Close to 1 million acres of tamarack and spruce swamp, and open bog areas exist in northern Wisconsin, providing ample habitat for Lincoln’s sparrows.  

 Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Cover photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Welcome to Fall Migration

There is an abundance of “welcoming” habitat at Goose Pond for the fall migration.  Today, there are 660 monarchs still roosting in spruce trees and one white pine in the yard at the Kampen Road residence.  The monarchs are nectaring on large patches of the colorful purple New England aster and showy goldenrod flowers.

Monarchs on New England aster, photo by Monica Hall

Grassland birds can still be seen fliting around in the prairie or in the shrubs including silky dogwood.  Sedge wrens, common yellowthroats, and a few eastern meadowlarks along with warblers are with us now.

Sedge wren, photo by Arlene Koziol

Water levels are at a record high for this time of the year.  Usually the shallow wetlands are dry with much of the area planted to corn or soybeans. However, this year instead of seven-foot high corn plants there is a diversity of emergent vegetation including water plantain, smartweeds, barnyard grass, bidens, softstem bulrush, cattails, and the first wild rice plant seen at Goose Pond.  Many of the emergent plants, especially those in bold above are providing an abundance of high energy food for migrating ducks.  Goose Pond is about seven-feet deep and most of the wetland birds are feeding in the 100 acres of shallow wetlands on Audubon property and adjacent landowners.

The southern shorebird migration began in July and there are still flocks of migrating shorebirds including yellowlegs.  The shorebirds love the mud flats where they are busy searching for invertebrates.

Great egret, photo by Monica Hall

Fish eating birds, including great egrets and double crested cormorants are feasting on abundance of fat head minnows.  It has been reported that female fat head minnows can spawn every week when the water temperature is between 64 to 85 degrees.  Goose Pond may contain hundreds of thousands of minnows.  The downside to having minnows in the pond is that they also feed on invertebrates, frog, and salamander eggs.  Ducklings need an abundance of invertebrates to feed on.  

The record number of 95 great egrets has declined however over 20 egrets and great blue herons can still be photographed as they fish. Arlene Koziol photographed an osprey on the causeway.  We assume the osprey would rather feed on large fish and quickly moved south.

Other raptors observed recently include northern harriers, American kestrels, a peregrine falcon and a record number of five bald eagles seen by Arlene Koziol.  The peregrine is probably looking for shorebirds and ducks and was last seen in the tree on the Goose Pond Road causeway.

Bald eagle, photo by Monica Hall

The pair of bald eagles whose nest is about three miles north of Goose Pond are frequent visitors.  It is not hard to tell when eagles are present as they flush egrets and ducks.  Sue was rewarded by seeing the flock of 95 great egrets overhead after they were flushed by the eagle.  Recently Mark and Graham observed two flocks of 30 blue-winged teal in the open water and then spotted the bald eagle.

The last of the migrating bobolinks will be moving south shortly after feeding on smartweed seeds and seed in our sorghum and sunflower food plot.  Red-wing blackbirds, mourning doves, and American goldfinch numbers are increasing in the food plot.

Pied-billed grebe, photo by Arlene Koziol

There are over 30 pied billed grebes present and they will remain for a couple of weeks.  Canada geese, ducks, and American coot numbers will be increasing.  

We welcome you to come out and enjoy the habitats and birds.  You can visit the Wingspan viewing area on Prairie Lane or enjoy the views from the benches and newly landscaped area along Prairie Lane adjacent to the spotting scope, or hike the trails, especially the trails that begins at the Browne Prairie parking.  

Come take a seat at the beautiful south edge of Goose Pond. Photo by Arlene Koziol

Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers

Golden-winged Warbler

Though lacking much worthwhile recognition in Wisconsin, the golden-winged warbler could amply serve as the state bird. While mostly a breeder in the northern half of the state, this warbler does migrate through southern Wisconsin about this time to wintering grounds in Central and South America. Its buzzy and conspicuous song in spring “Piiiiii zaaa zaaaa zaaa” deserves investigation, and often my first golden-winged warbler of the year catches me off guard when I realize the buzzy trill is not an insect but a bird on a flight to the northern forests and shrub swamps of Wisconsin.

Golden-winged warbler sings in a tree. Photo by Drew Harry

It is said that Wisconsin hosts approximately 1/5th of the US breeding population of this species, and this bird makes its distinctive mark on the habitats it occupies in Wisconsin. While preferring shrub swamps and clearcut stands near water, this bird is rather cosmopolitan in its use of habitat. Some research suggests that golden-wingeds need mature forest nearby, in addition to grassy areas for nesting, and shrubby areas for foraging . On my family’s cabin near the Pine River in Florence County, a popular activity is floating the oxbow of the river for 2-3 hours. On a June float, it’s typical to hear multiple golden-winged warblers along the way, and the mix of habitat and structure along the river—from white cedar swamps to alder thickets to open areas with standing dead elms—seems to make for excellent golden-winged warbler habitat.

Human-caused disturbance was the result of a population increase and range expansion in the early 20th century due to logging and clearcutting. Today, this trend continues. Golden-winged warblers will occupy powerline rights of way, brushy pastures, and clearcuts (especially aspen). Historical disturbances that still favor golden-winged warblers include beaver ponds, windthrown areas, and forest fires.

Beavers are extremely important diversifiers of habitat, creating early successional openings that will favor species like the golden-winged warbler. You might think of beaver dams as small-scale projects, but the largest beaver dam in the world can be seen from space!

Windthrown trees seem like another insignificant event, but satellite images of Menominee and Langlade County show the path of a tornado from 2007, still visible today.

From nasa.gov

In fact, I drove through this area on a trip over Labor Day, and young aspens dominate this swath (which stretched for 40 miles and reached 3/4mile wide in spots). This storm caused millions in property damage over its course. Yet, in uninhabited forested areas, it created excellent Golden-winged warbler habitat.

At Faville Grove, you might be able to see Golden-winged warblers in savanna and woodland areas. There’s no perfect spot to see these birds, but areas of heavy warbler activity might turn up a golden-winged; and if you do see that bird, consider how much more distinctive it is than our current state bird, the robin.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Cover photo by Melanie Underwood

Monarch Mania

The massive movement of butterflies has been called by some as “one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in the world.”  Since we began tagging monarchs in 2012 and recording their numbers, this has been a record year for monarch abundance at Goose Pond Sanctuary during their fall migration to Mexico.

Sue first noticed the monarchs roosting in the large spruce trees in our yard on September 4, and we ended up counting 800 monarchs that morning. Three days later, we had a sighting that we will long remember of 1,800 monarchs all in the western most spruce tree where they were trying to be protected from the east winds.

Gobs of monarchs roosting in the trees begin increasing their internal temperatures by pumping their wings. Photo by Arlene Koziol

Monarchs do not move much in the roost until the sun appears. However, sometimes a monarch flies by and the nearby monarchs welcome or signal to the monarch by opening their wings with a brilliant orange. They usually fly to nearby white cedar, dogwoods, and other shrubs, open their wings and dry off before heading to the prairies for nectaring.

We have conducted eight roost counts that include the Kampen Road residence, the spruce/white cedars in the Jackson winter cover unit, and the spruce at the Manthe farm on Goose Pond Road. Today we found 1,600 and yesterday’s count was 1,500.  See more roost photos in Arlene Koziol’s photo album here.

In addition to having high roost counts, we are finding large numbers of monarchs in the prairie and many to tag.

Goose Pond Sanctuary’s Browne Prairie is a sea of yellow this fall, full of goldenrod which monarchs love to nectar on. Photo by Madison Audubon

Recently we walked about one-half mile on trails through the prairie and counted monarchs within 40 feet of the trail. We ended up with 42 monarchs per acre. It is an impressive to see the prairies ablaze with yellow flowers and brilliant orange monarchs.

On a recent day Arlene Koziol, her grand daughter Ella, and Mark found JD Arnston near the Browne Prairie parking lot tagging a large number of monarchs. We thought that this might be a day for seven-year-old Ella to see if she could set a “world record” for releasing monarchs.

Monarchs in a net will be carefully extracted and tagged with a unique identifier sticker. Photo by Ruth Smith

A monarch with a tag will continue its journey to Mexico. Photo by Madison Audubon

We set up our tagging operation by the Browne Prairie bench and in one-hour J D netted 69 monarchs within a half an acre of prairie! Mark placed the tag on a toothpick and handed it to Ella. Mark then removed the monarch from the net, tagged it, had Ella determine the sex (she was 100% accurate), and then she released it saying to each “have a safe journey to Mexico.” Arlene recorded the data. This was a day Ella will never forget. She later sent us a thank you note and an excellent drawing of a monarch and a milkweed. Ella’s record of releasing 69 monarchs in one hour will be hard to beat.

Two monarch tagging participants scout their approach for their next target. Photo by Ruth Smith

We also had 17 people on a monarch tagging field trip and they ended up tagging 215 monarchs in about one hour and forty-five minutes.

The yellow color in the prairies is mostly from stiff, Canada, and showy goldenrod, along with patches of sawtooth sunflowers. The monarchs have been nectaring on all those species.

Monarch butterflies are easy to find in Goose Pond prairies right now so come and see them for yourself! As a bonus you many see many of the 95 great egrets that are still with us.

NOTE: There is still space for tagging monarchs on Saturday September 21! Come join us for an unforgettable experience on the prairie! Register here.

Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident co-managers

Cover photo by Arlene Koziol