Snapshot Wisconsin: Goose Pond's Bird List

The DNR’s Snapshot Wisconsin website provides information on their program : “Let's discover our wildlife together! Snapshot Wisconsin is a partnership to monitor wildlife year-round, using a statewide network of trail cameras. The project provides data needed for wildlife management decision support. It is also a unique opportunity for individuals, families, and students to get involved in monitoring the state’s valuable natural resources.”

As of February 1st, Snapshot Wisconsin reported that 1,755 volunteers are maintaining 2,147 trail cameras, and returning 38,446,952 photos.  The cameras shoot a burst of 3 photos when triggered that resulted in an impressive 12,800,000 wildlife observations! 

We set up a Snapshot Wisconsin camera at Goose Pond Sanctuary in October of 2017 at the corner of Jill’s Prairie where three trails meet adjacent to restored prairie, cropland, and a food plot.  Last March, the cropland and food plot was flooded due to record high water levels.   

An impressive list of 31 bird species have had their pictures taken between October 2017 and February 2020. Thanks to Bob Benicoff who helped review and classify photos and to Jim Otto for helping tally the bird species and selecting interesting photos.  

Species found are greater white-fronted goose, Canada goose*, tundra swan, wood duck, gadwall, American black duck, mallard, blue-winged teal, northern shoveler, green-winged teal, canvasback, redhead, ring-necked duck, hooded merganser, ring-necked pheasant *, sandhill crane*, killdeer, American bittern, great blue heron, northern harrier, Cooper’s hawk, red-tailed hawk, great horned owl, snowy owl, short-eared owl, belted kingfisher, American crow, tree swallow, American robin, red-winged blackbird and common grackle.  * Broods seen

Click the right and left arrows below to see more photos!

Greater white-fronted goose

Canada goose

Canada geese at night

American black duck

Blue-winged teal

Northern shoveler

Hooded merganser

Ring-necked pheasant

Sandhill crane

Northern harrier

Coopers hawk

Red-tailed hawk

Great-horned owl

Short-eared owl

Belted kingfisher

Common grackle

American crow

Red-winged blackbird

Project birds are divided into three groups - ring-necked pheasants (175 individual photos), sandhill cranes (80 photos) and other birds (over 700 photos).  Some birds are like people who like to have multiple images taken to make sure they have the perfect photo. The camera takes photos when ever there is motion including waves and vegetation blowing in the wind.  We have deleted thousands of “blank” photos. The most unusual bird seen was an American bittern sneaking past the camera last October.

Oh bittern, where are you?

The photos help to document changes in wildlife species and numbers, observe changes in habitats and the seasons, and also record changes from dry to water and snow depths.  

The high number of wetland bird species is the result of the high water last year.  Raptors are drawn to the treeless site hoping to use the camera post as a hunting perch.  

The Breeding Bird Atlas II is looking for volunteers to help classify over 50,000 bird photos on the Snapshot Wisconsin website that could provide atlas records.  Jim Otto is one of the 108 current volunteers. The site has a tutorial section but Jim would be willing to answer questions and provide tips if you would like to volunteer: jeotto@wisc.edu 

It will be interesting to see how many other species are added to the list.  Our guess is that we may reach 35 species but it may take a few years. Candidates to be added include wild turkeys, morning doves, American kestrels, and northern shrikes. 

Written by Mark and Sue Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers, and Graham Steinhauer, land steward  goosep@madisonaudubon.org

Northern Shrike

One of the most striking birds of winter resides on the shrubby grasslands and savannas of southern Wisconsin. In this habitat, you can find wild plum, hawthorn, black locust, or barbed wire. The common link is spikes, thorns, or barbs. In winter in Wisconsin, if you search these spiny spots, the unsettling link might be impaled microtine voles. The uninitiated might look to the sky, wondering if a hawk dropped its prey randomly onto a plum bush. The answer comes from the sky, though not from a raptor species dropping the vole. Instead, you are on the wintering range of the northern shrike, a passerine, or songbird, (the only passerine in Wisconsin to regularly eat vertebrates) which actively stuck the vole in its place. The purpose of this act is to consume prey efficiently over the course of the winter. At any point, a northern shrike will cache, or save, up to seven prey items.

An impaled vole is cached for a northern shrike’s next meal. Photo by Drew Harry

Impaled voles, mice, and other small mammals are common indicators that you are on shrike territory, which can range from 500-1,000 acres over winter. Another interesting prey item are species of its own order—songbirds! Shrikes will consume birds like horned larks, dark-eyed juncos, house sparrows, American robins, red-winged blackbirds, pine grosbeaks, and red crossbills. Many of these birds are much bigger or quicker than the shrike, and thus shrikes will take other birds in surprise attacks. In a twisted move, shrikes will even mimic the calls of other songbirds to lure them into area where they ambush an unsuspecting sparrow.

In February, I often start getting concerned about the house sparrows looming around bluebird boxes around my house, although this year they have been noticeably absent. The reason might be a shrike that I’ve spotted a few times around the house. Shrikes typically sit for 1-2 minutes on the tops of trees, perched, and waiting to strike. A week ago, I was able to get some decent pictures through my window of an immature northern shrike as it moved from bur oak tree to pear tree and again back to the bur oak trees scattered about the yard; each time sitting for 1-2 minutes and allowing me to capture a few shots.

A northern shrike is spotted at the top of this oak tree at Faville Grove Sanctuary. Photo by Drew Harry

A northern shrike scouts the landscape to make its next move. Photo by Drew Harry

A northern shrike sits perched on the tip-top of a tree, giving nearby humans a minute to get a good look. Photo by Drew Harry

The immature shrike shows gray barring on its chest, a white eye-ring, and like adult shrikes has a light underside with a blue-gray top and a narrow black mask across its eye. The hooked bill is also diagnostic.

Barring, eye ring, and mask are all visible in this shot of a northern shrike. Photo by Drew Harry

For me, the most fascinating part about the northern shrike is its winter diet. While impaled small mammals steal the show, over 60% of an individual bird’s winter diet is composed of arthropods. A study in Idaho analyzed the regurgitated pellets of northern shrikes and found an average of 2.8 prey items per pellet. Overall, 33 species were identified in pellets for a wide and diverse sampling of food. To follow a shrike in winter is to understand the surprising breadth of prey items active through winter.

You might ask, aren’t arthropods dormant during winter? For the most part, yes. However, many species will stay active, and on slightly warmer days the south-facing slopes, rock outcrops, or other exposed areas can heat more quickly than other areas and cause some invertebrates to become active. In southwestern Idaho, rimrock areas are preferred by shrikes presumably due to the higher arthropod activity on these exposed rock areas.

Faville Grove has exposed rock—1.8 billion year old quartzite—perhaps a source of arthropods for the local shrike? Each winter we often see a shrike in the western part of the Sanctuary, hanging out in the tops of tamarack trees in the Diedrich-Alexander Wildlife Area along North Shore Road. You might find a shrike anywhere within Faville Grove Sanctuary, but your best bet is to keep looking at the tops of trees, or look for indirect evidence on spiny trees and bushes.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Cover photo by Eric Ellingson

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