Volunteer opportunities abound with Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance

We share a love for birds; do you have time to share to protect them? Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance (SoWBA, formerly Madison Audubon) is a small non-profit, which was 100% volunteer-run until the early 2010s. Though our staff is mighty, it is small—your help makes a huge difference in achieving our shared vision: protecting local habitat, teaching local kids, and conserving local birds.

Whether you want to help with a project, drop in for a pre-scheduled volunteer event, or something else, we appreciate your time and look forward to working with you!

Current volunteer openings (project-oriented)

Sew a bird

Enjoy sewing and want to help with bird outreach? We have a great project for you! We need a whole bunch of these bird bodies sewn up so community members can decorate them. Then, the birds will be shipped to Chicago for the “Bird Collisions in the Anthropocene” project. Template for sewing is provided. Done in partnership with SOS Save Our Songbirds.

Email Brenna at bmarsicek@swibirds.org to get involved.

Upcoming Volunteer Events

Featured
Madison-area Christmas Bird Count
Dec 14
Madison-area Christmas Bird Count

Madison is home to thousands of bird-lovers, just like you. The annual Christmas Bird Count is a great citizen science project that involves meeting other enthusiastic birders and helping collect important data about birds in the at the same time!

Photo by Monica Hall

Indoor Sit & Birdwatching Event
Dec 14
Indoor Sit & Birdwatching Event

We invite you to join the Madison-area CBC Indoor Sit & Bird-watching event—an accessible, inclusive opportunity for folks of skill levels to enjoy some birding and camaraderie while contributing data to the count.

Photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Waterloo (Faville Grove Sanctuary) Christmas Bird Count
Dec 15
Waterloo (Faville Grove Sanctuary) Christmas Bird Count

The Waterloo Christmas Bird Count is coordinated by Karen Etter Hale, and includes a section that encompasses most of our Favile Grove Sanctuary. We are looking for volunteers to count birds at Faville Grove Sanctuary in Jefferson County to help tally birds at that site to contribute to the broader Waterloo CBC. We will go out in groups to various parts of the sanctuary to document the birds we see and hear in those areas.

Photo by Brenna Marsice/SoWBA

Fair Meadows Christmas Bird Count
Dec 17
Fair Meadows Christmas Bird Count

Penny and Gary Shackelford, resident managers of Fair Meadows, have been tallying birds at the sanctuary since the early 2000’s, concurrently with the Fort Atkinson CBC. Now for the second year, they are offering a separate and fun Fair Meadows Christmas Bird Count! Although Fair Meadows does not have its own CBC circle, we will submit data to eBird as CBC data anyway.

Photo by Gary Shackelford

Poynette (Goose Pond Sanctuary) Christmas Bird Count
Dec 28
Poynette (Goose Pond Sanctuary) Christmas Bird Count

Southern Wisconsin is home to a wonderful diversity of habitats and birds, including in winter! The annual Christmas Bird Count is a great citizen science project that involves meeting other enthusiastic birders and helping collect important data about birds at the same time. Join the Poynette Christmas Bird Count and help count birds at Goose Pond Sanctuary!

Photo by Arlene Koziol

Madison Audubon volunteers help with prairie planting at Goose Pond Sanctuary. The buckets shown here are filled with native seed collected from Goose Pond earlier in the fall by volunteers, and are spread by volunteers as well! MAS Photo

SoWBA volunteers help with prairie planting at Goose Pond Sanctuary. The buckets shown here are filled with native seed collected from Goose Pond earlier in the fall by volunteers, and are spread by volunteers as well! (SoWBA photo)

Banner photo: Native Indian grass on a cool autumn day at Faville Grove Sanctuary. Photo by Emily Meier.