Two Decades of Christmas Bird Counts at Goose Pond Sanctuary

Poynette Christmas Bird Counters for 14+ years, Jim Hess (left), Bill Walters (middle), and Mark Martin (right).

For the past two decades I have had the pleasure of surveying Goose Pond Sanctuary and surrounding area as part of the Poynette Christmas Bird Count (CBC). Our group size and participants vary each year (we enjoy and are grateful for everyone’s involvement!) but Jim Hess and Bill Walters have been part of the team for the past 14 years. That’s pretty good!

In 2000, we split the Unit 7 block into two parts and formed part of it into a block 12 which includes Goose Pond Sanctuary and the surrounding area for a total of 5.5 square miles. Most of the birds are on or adjacent to the sanctuary. We decided to form a new block so we could see the impact that land acquisition and habitat restoration were having on bird numbers and also have a historical perspective on changes to bird numbers.  

American tree sparrow, photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Much of the habitat outside of the sanctuary is open fields with a few residences. In the first decade of the new century, we acquired more land and have been restoring additional habitat still in 2019. At the end of 2019 there are over 450 acres of restored prairie at Goose Pond Sanctuary, on Judi Benadi’s property, and on the Roland & Lynn Manthe farm. Bird numbers also are impacted by our food plots, bird feeders at our residences and at Judi’s residence, and with open water years in 2015 and 2018 probably due to climate change. Weather conditions also vary year to year and impact bird numbers. Over this time we tried to conduct the count around the last Saturday in December. Our long-term goal is to have a data set that will track bird species and numbers for decades to come.

Rough-legged hawk, photo by Phil Brown

The effort expended in the 20 years includes field observers that walked 47 miles and drove 193 miles over 95 hours. We also spent nine hours searching for owls. 

Our Goose Pond unit CBC checklist contains 42 species found on count days. An impressive 22,620 individuals were found with five species being counted each year. The number of species found each year ranged from 13 to 27 with an average of 19 species.

Red-bellied woodpecker, photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Species found in lower numbers or in few years are cackling goose 3 birds - 1 year, trumpeter swan 8 - 1, tundra swan 192 - 2, American black duck 3 - 1, northern pintail 2 - 1, northern harrier 8 - 5, Cooper’s hawk 21 - 15, bald eagle 6 -5, red-tailed hawk 132 - 17, rough-legged hawk 19 - 14,  great horned owl 12 - 10, snowy owl 2 - 1, short-eared owl 11 - 5, red-bellied woodpecker 6 - 5, downy woodpecker 39 - 14, hairy woodpecker 10 - 5, American kestrel 21 - 15, northern shrike 2 -2, blue jay 59 - 13, American crow 128 - 19, horned lark 93 - 7, black-capped chickadee 115 - 13, song sparrow 15 - 7 swamp sparrow 1 - 1, northern cardinal 70 - 15, red-winged blackbird 1 - 1, purple finch 1 - 1, and common redpoll 2 - 1.

The two snowy owls were sitting about 12 feet apart in the cropland south of the Bicentennial Prairie in 2014. Raptors have increased in the past 30 years due to an increase in prey. It was nice to find three short-eared owls this year and we hope to see more short-ears on future counts.

Thanks to everyone that has helped with the 2019 count and in the past. Every year I look forward to conducting this count with Jim and Bill.

By Mark Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident co-manager, goosep@madisonaudubon.org

Canada Warbler

Adorned with a black necklace of spots on its chest, this warbler resembles the magnolia for its intricate jewelry. A curious white eye-ring resembles a Connecticut warbler without the temperamental dark grey head. Cheeky black markings resemble a Kentucky warbler or even a hooded warbler. Together these markings, with the addition of a wondrous blue-gray back, provide evidence of a Canada warbler.

Canada warbler peeks out behind a tree. Photo by Drew Harry

This bird mostly migrates through southern Wisconsin, preferring the boreal forest elements of northern Wisconsin. Its continental range extends well into Canada and includes the northern tier of most Midwestern and eastern states, extending down into the Appalachian range. These warblers breed preferentially in wet areas like spruce and tamarack swamps, and are thus a difficult bird to monitor and document breeding. The Canada warbler’s range does reach into southern Wisconsin; in areas with extensive forest cover like the Baraboo Hills and areas with large undisturbed blocks of tamarack swamp like Cedarburg Bog, the Canada warbler can be a surprising summer find.

As a member of the boreal forest birds, the Canada warbler may be especially susceptible to a warming climate. According to Audubon’s climate scenarios, under warming of three degrees Celsius, the Canada warbler will lose 95% of its current range. Range expansion north could result in a 63% gain in habitat, but overall a net loss of a huge amount of habitat and birds is possible.  Boreal forest birds are especially susceptible to a changing climate because they are at the northern reaches of forested cover in North America. If the climate of these forests becomes uninhabitable, there is a lack of forest cover to the north for them to inhabit. Of the 48 boreal forest species identified by Audubon, 47 face moderate to high vulnerability.

Photo by John Sutton

While the long-term prognosis may be grim, Canada warblers have seen small population increases in Wisconsin over the last few decades, according to breeding bird survey data. Finding suitable habitat in southern tamarack swamps, the birds will build a nest on or near the ground in dense shrub thickets, producing 2-6 eggs.

Fall migration begins in August and stretches into September, and the birds will make a long flight to the Colombian Andes, where over 50% of the over-wintering population resides. On these slopes, the birds prefer elevation between 3,200 and 6,000 feet and also prefer mature and large forest blocks. Research from Laura Céspedes and Nicholas Bayly indicates that 14% of overwintering range in the Colombian Andes is currently protected, and these unprotected areas could be prime for conservation and restoration.

Your best bet for finding Canada warbler at Faville Grove Sanctuary is during spring of fall migration. In the middle of May, areas along the Crawfish River may be an excellent spot for finding mixed flocks of warblers, including the Canada. The foraging behavior of Canada warblers is unique, and you can find the birds low in the understory, moving quickly, often with its head cocked.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

We Named Her "Columbia"

Dec. 2, 2020 update: Columbia is back in the US! Her latest recorded location (with a 3 day delay) is in North Dakota. Track Columbia's movements and progress here.

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Snowy owls make their way to our neck of the prairie each winter. Some years we host a half-dozen or more, while others it can be tricky to find just one. This year, the snowys have been pretty darn elusive, but we have good news on that front!

This lift-off was caught on camera on Dec. 11 near Goose Pond. Birdwatchers were hopeful that we’d get to meet this snowy owl again! Photo by Arlene Koziol

The Project

We are close partners with Project SNOWstorm, which is a non-profit organization that studies snowy owls’ ecology and migration each year (Dave Brinker, co-founder and Wisconsin native, will give a presentation for Madison Audubon on April 21 — plan to attend!). They do this by outfitting owls with GPS transmitters that collect data on their location regularly. Those data upload to the database whenever the transmitter has reception, or stores the data until the owl “has service” again (a handy feature when most of the year the owl is in the Arctic!). The transmitters are feather-light, solar powered, and do not impact the owls’ flight or behavior.

We have successfully caught and outfitted two snowy owls in the past — Goose Pond in 2015 and Arlington in 2018. In addition, we caught and weighed Quarry in 2018 at the same time as Arlington (but we had only 1 transmitter). Finally, a snowy that was caught in central Wisconsin used one of our previous transmitters making Coddington in 2019 our third outfitted owl.

The Lead-up

On December 11th, Mike Bertram, UW Arlington Research Station Manager reported the first snowy owl sighting for the winter on Badger Lane at the station.

On January 16th, owl volunteers assembled with high hopes of locating and trapping at least one and maybe two snowy owls.  Lowell Wright, Noise/Environmental Officer with Dane County Regional Airport, set up trapping operations at the airport where there were two snowys residing, but he had no luck catching them that night.

On the same evening, Gene Jacobs set up his traps on Ramsey Road at the Otteson family residence near Highway 51.  Steve Otteson had reported that for the past week a snowy owl had been seen perched on the electric pole at the corner of their yard in late afternoon.  This owl was probably the 1.5 year-old female that first showed up on December 11th. Snowy owls like the openness of the Ramsey Road area.

The owl searchers drove a large area before and during the trapping operation and only found three short-eared owls. People were disappointed that the snowy did not appear that night, especially because Richard Armstrong stated that he’d “bet $100 we that we would see the owl.”

On January 20th, three snowy owls were reported at the Dane County airport and some of us thought that the owl on Ramsey Road was now  at the airport. However, on January 24th, our neighbor Judi Benade, sent us an email titled "Owl" along with a photo of the bird and this comment "Still owls around ... this one on Kampen Rd on the 4th phone pole west of County I."   This pole is near the northwest corner of Browne Prairie.

This unexpected snowy owl gift was a good omen on Jan. 28! Photo by Stacy Taritas

Today’s the Day

The owl was also seen on the 26th and 27th in the same area so plans were made to trap on the 28th. Stacy sent us this image on the morning of the 28th with this caption, “When my first grade student gifted me this snowy owl this morning, I of course hoped it was a sign that today is the day.”

Searchers again worked in vain before Gene arrived.  With no owls spotted in our area Gene and all our volunteers headed to the airport except for Mark and Fred Dike who continued searching for the owl around Goose Pond.  Vice President Pence was in Madison that day and Lowell informed us that we could not drive around the airport area searching for owls until the the Vice President left. 

Arlys and Curt Caslavka and Dennis Schenborn were a search  team. Arlys wrote,

“After two hours of searching at Goose Pond and the airport with only seeing the owl at the airport that we couldn’t try and trap, it was exciting to get the call that a snowy had been spotted on an electric pole near Goose Pond. The site was perfect for setting up the caged live pigeon about 60 yards from the pole. The snares made of fishing line on top of the cage were easily visible from where we sat. 

And then the tense waiting.  Five cars facing the space between the owl and the cage lined up like at an outdoor movie…for 30 minutes. Was she hungry? Interested in the pigeon? Too smart for us? Waiting for dark?  At 5:07 p.m. she swooped down and landed near the cage. And for about eight minutes she hopped, walked, bounced, and danced around the cage. She puffed up her feathers and lifted her wings to move close in and out, looking in all directions, obviously cautious and assessing the situation.  We didn’t want to blink for fear of missing something. Suddenly she leaped up above the cage and began flapping as the snare caught hold of her, but only by a single toe. In a second, Gene and Richard Armstrong were out of the car and heading up the hill to the trap. A minute later the owl was freed, calmed, and safe heading back in Gene’s arms. What a beautiful owl and what a heart-thumping experience this was. Lucky us!”

The beautiful snowy owl caught near Goose Pond Sanctuary on Jan. 28, 2020. She was outfitted with a transmitter for research purposes and release back into the wild. Photo by Monica Hall

Everyone returned to the Kampen Road residence to the laundry room to help process, photograph, and observe the banding and attachment of the transmitter.  After processing the owl she was released at the capture location by Graham Steinhauer. Everyone wished her good luck.  

Gene Jacobs examins the snowy owl to determine her age. Photo by Dennis Schenborn

Meet Columbia

The marvelous snowy owl weighed a hefty five and a quarter pounds. Later Gene examined wing photos and found that she was the same 1.5 year old that Arlene photographed on December 11th. Project SNOWstorm likes to name owls after a location. Our first owl an adult male caught on February 13, 2015 was named Goose Pond. Arlington, a juvenile male, was our second owl so Sue said “Let’s name her Columbia.” Thanks to everyone that has provided us with owl sightings, photographs, and assisted with searching and trapping. 

Third time’s a charm?

After Arlington passed away in 2018, his transmitter was recovered, refurbished, and placed on Cottington, an adult male, in 2019 at the Buena Vista Marsh southwest of Stevens Point.  Unfortunately Cottington ended up getting covered by manure at a farm and had to enter rehab. He was cleaned up and released without the transmitter. So Arlington’s transmitter was placed on Columbia making this the fourth Madison Audubon owl of Project SNOWstorm’s 100 owls.  We wish Columbia well on her journey to the arctic and hope that she helps researchers learn more about snowy owl ecology and also provides an educational opportunity for the public to appreciate these magnificent animals.

Leslie, a mother of two children and a grade school teacher wrote the following note after her visit with the kids the day before Columbia was caught. 

“On Monday afternoon my children Wally (7) and Cece (5) and I set out to explore Goose Pond for a great outdoor winter adventure looking for snowy owls. We'd been following the pictures and stories about the snowys on the Madison Audubon Facebook page and tracking the owls on Project Snowstorm for the past few winters. We LOVE snowy owls at our house, so we came prepared! We brought our three stuffed animal owls - 2 snowys and their friend, the barn owl.  

We were very fortunate to encounter Mark & Graham in the first few minutes of our search. In fact, we hadn't even gotten out of the car when they found us and lead us to a nearby area where they had just recently seen the bird we now know as Columbia. We could hardly contain our excitement at having found some guides who might lead us to see the snowy ourselves. When we pulled into a driveway, we could see the snowy owl right at the top of the hill. We were absolutely thrilled. This was a huge highlight of 2020 thus far! We stayed probably 45 minutes and watched the bird through binoculars. The kids squealed with delight when it seemed as if Columbia looked right at them! Watching the snowy owl fly was incredible for all of us, too. Just stunning. The following day in school, Wally was inspired to write a story about snowy owls here in Wisconsin and teach his classmates all we know about the snowys.

Columbia sits and waits for supper (taken on Dec. 11, 2019). Photo by Arlene Koziol

What a treat! Thanks so much to Madison Audubon for your incredible work. And special thanks to our tour guides on this special day! We'll not forget it and we'll look forward to tracking Columbia and to more adventures in the beautiful Goose Pond area.”

Within a week or so, anyone will be able to track Columbia’s whereabouts on the Project SNOWstorm website. The project protects the birds by delaying the release of locations by 3 days, so keep that in mind as you watch her move around Wisconsin and eventually up to the Arctic.

Bon voyage, Columbia!

By Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers, goosep@madisonaudubon.org

Northern Goshawk

The northern goshawk is a fierce bird, the largest of the Accipiter genus in Wisconsin. With a Holarctic distribution, the goshawk glides through coniferous and hardwood forests of boreal and northern temperate regions across the world. The face of northern goshawks is dark grey, with a white eyebrow slashing across its side, contrasting its red eyes. The belly is finely barred grey in adults.

Juvenile goshawk in the nest, photo by Andrey Gulivanov

Goshawks in Wisconsin prefer mature forest, and will often find the largest tree in a tract to place their nest. Hunters of the forest, these birds tend to prefer open understories free of brush where they can hunt with more airspace. For Wisconsin birds, diet includes ruffed grouse, red squirrel, blue jay, crow, and eastern chipmunk. A majority of the North American breeding population of goshawks resides in Canada, but most northern Wisconsin counties have nesting pairs, and the birds will migrate into Wisconsin in great numbers every 8-10 years when the abundance of ruffed grouse and snowshoe hare declines in the Canadian boreal forest.

Nesting pairs will produce 2 to 4 eggs, though research from northern Wisconsin suggests that the fisher (a small carnivore of the weasel family) will prey upon goshawk eggs and reduce reproductive potential. Nests in northeastern Wisconsin that produced 2.3 fledged young per nest from 1971-1981 only produced 1.3 fledged young per nest from 1982 to 1992 as fisher populations increased. Goshawks are known to fiercely defend nests, but fishers ambush the nest as can humans. Goshawks are valuable in falconry, and multiple nests in Wisconsin were found to be illegally captured for this purpose. For an excellent read about a singular goshawk, you might check out H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald’s memoir about raising her goshawk Mabel.

The fierce look of a northern goshawk, photo by Zweer de Bruin

There remains some concern about the future of the goshawk in Wisconsin. As a northern bird, climate change may push this species to the brink. Even under the most conservative estimate of 1.5 degrees Celsius warming, the goshawk is projected to lose its entire breeding range in northern Wisconsin and most of the eastern United States, according to Audubon’s “Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink.” The northern goshawk ranks as one of 44 high vulnerability species in Wisconsin.

These fierce accipiters should be enjoyed while they still inhabit Wisconsin. A quick look at current sightings on eBird reveals birds at Wehr Nature Center near Milwaukee and at UW-Madison’s Arboretum.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Cover photo by Martha de Jong-Lantink

Common Raven

Common raven photo by Mick Thompson

The highlight for the annual Poynette Christmas Bird Count (CBC) held on January 4 was finding the first common raven in the 49 year history of the count. Diane and Becki Tomlinson had reported hearing a pair of ravens this fall from the woods that runs east of the DNR MacKenzie Environmental Education Center for about 1.25 miles. Finding the bird was a focus for this CBC. In the morning Jeff and Caleb Lang surveyed for birds in that area, but were not able to find any ravens.

After lunch Dory Owen and Galen Hasler headed to the MacKenzie Center to look and listen for ravens. Dory and Galen had hardly gotten out of the car when they heard a raven calling. There was a Boy Scout troop exploring the MacKenzie Center, and Dory immediately deputized them to help find the raven. After scouring the woods for a short time, a pair of confused looking Boy Scouts exclaimed, “We found it!” Dory followed them down a trail to an enclosure marked Common Raven. This was a captive exhibit bird. We did not think National Audubon Society would accept that observation even though Dory took a short video, and we had 100% documentation. 

Mark then called Becki Tomlinson who took a hike in the wooded area on Tomlinson land, and a calling raven flew over her within the hour. The first “wild raven” for the Poynette Christmas Count was in the record book!

The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology writes about ravens that, “ravens are the largest-bodied of all passerines… This large, black, majestic bird is geographically and ecologically one of the most widespread naturally occurring birds in the world. It is distributed throughout major portions of North America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and in all terrestrial biomes except tropical rain forests. The North American Breeding Bird Survey found raven numbers to be increasing from 1966-2014, and Partners In Flight estimated the global raven population at 20 million birds with about 1.8 million in the United States.

Common raven range map, courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology

In the 1991 publication Wisconsin Birdlife, Samuel Robbins Jr. wrote that, "The earliest settlers found common ravens present throughout most of the state, wherever forests prevailed. Hoy recorded them at Racine where they sometimes outnumbered crows." It is likely that they were widespread throughout southern Wisconsin, especially in the southwest and along Lake Michigan. Ravens were much more restricted by 1900, and they were only found in the north and central regions save for a few outlying observations in the south. By the 1940's their range contracted even further into the northern third of Wisconsin. 

eBird map of common raven breeding. Black = confirmed, dark purple = probable. See more: https://ebird.org/atlaswi/map/comrav

In the recently completed Breeding Bird Atlas II, observers in Columbia County confirmed ravens nesting in four blocks, probably nesting in two blocks, and possibly nesting in two more blocks. These observations are the southernmost raven records in Wisconsin and a southern expansion from current range maps.

In May of 2016, Mark, Heather Iznalaco, and Jim and Kathy Shurts were doing a Birdathon. They stopped north of Rio along a red and white pine plantation to listen for ravens since Mark and Sue had heard then in the local area. “We just got out of the car and a raven was calling from the pines. Mark secured permission for the group to hike the pines and look for the raven nest. We were lining up and spread out ready to start walking when Mark saw a raven sitting on a stick nest in the pines about 30 yards from the road.”

In Columbia County crows are more common than ravens.  If we see large black birds and can not hear them we assume they are crows.  Ravens are a large, thick-necked bird with a hefty bill, a shaggy neck, and wedge-shaped tail. While appearances are similar at a distance, the low gurgling calls of a raven are easily distinguished from the crow’s familiar CAW! 

The raven seen on the Poynette CBC is 5.5 miles north of Goose Pond.  Ravens can fly long distances in their daily movements, and we hope to have someone report a raven at Goose Pond and add it to the bird checklist as bird species number 264.

Written by Mark Martin and Sue Foote-Martin, Goose Pond resident managers, and Graham Steinhauer,  land steward

• Cool Facts from Cornell Lab of Ornithology

  • The Common Raven is an acrobatic flier, often doing rolls and somersaults in the air. One bird was seen flying upside down for more than a half-mile. Young birds are fond of playing games with sticks, repeatedly dropping them, then diving to catch them in midair.

  • Common Ravens are smart, which makes them dangerous predators. They sometimes work in pairs to raid seabird colonies, with one bird distracting an incubating adult and the other waiting to grab an egg or chick as soon as it’s uncovered. They’ve been seen waiting in trees as ewes give birth, then attacking the newborn lambs.

  • They also use their intellect to put together cause and effect. A study in Wyoming discovered that during hunting season, the sound of a gunshot draws ravens in to investigate a presumed carcass, whereas the birds ignore sounds that are just as loud but harmless, such as an air horn or a car door slamming.

  • This species has long been a part of the folklore of many cultures. Native Americans of the Northwest revere ravens as being the creator of earth, moon, sun, and stars, but also regard it as trickster and cheater. 

  • People the world over sense a certain kind of personality in ravens. Edgar Allan Poe clearly found them a little creepy. The captive ravens at the Tower of London are beloved and perhaps a little feared: legend has it that if they ever leave the tower, the British Empire will crumble. Native people of the Pacific Northwest regard the raven as an incurable trickster, bringing fire to people by stealing it from the sun, and stealing salmon only to drop them in rivers all over the world.