The tree has just started blooming with a most pleasant and lovely surprise. This abundance has produced temporary exhaustion. I've been running back and forth from the tree to the computer in the basement bunker, trying to identify these beautiful butterflies.

Photo by Pat Hasburgh

In Wisconsin, the Conservation Congress rises every spring, this year from April 8–13. Please consider this the annual plea from the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance asking you to participate in the process.

Photo by Arlene Koziol

The Wisconsin Conservation Congress (WCC) and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Annual Spring Hearing gives members of the public the opportunity to provide input on a variety of questions. We encourage you to take the time to fill out the survey—many of the questions impact ecosystems and wildlife both locally and throughout the state.

Photo by Grayson Smith/USFWS Midwest

Middleton, WI is the newest municipality in the country to adopt a bird-safe glass ordinance as of February 20, 2024. The ordinance, which matches the one implemented in Madison in 2020, requires buildings over 10,000 square feet to use bird-safe design or bird-safe glass.

Photo by Steve Kersting FCC

If you saw our action alert last week, you know that the Wisconsin legislature was discussing a set of bills that would remove WDNR-imposed restrictions on hunting dogs accessing public lands during spring. I’m sorry to say both the Assembly and Senate passed the bills, but it’s not too late to voice your concerns! Governor Evers needs to hear from you if you want to prevent these proposed laws to take effect this spring.

Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren

Middleton, WI residents have an important, time-sensitive opportunity to support the proposed Bird-safe Glass Ordinance on or before the February 20, 2024 public hearing. Please submit comments using the information below by 1:00pm CT on February 20, 2024, and if you’re able, join the meeting to voice your support for bird-safe glass and responsible development!

Photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

A bad and dangerous bill will come before the Wisconsin State Assembly on Tuesday, February 13. We cannot let this bill pass as it endangers the lives of bears, bobcats, foxes, raccoons, cranes, deer, and other wildlife.

AB-512/SB-545 will repeal all the regulations that currently prohibit hunting dogs from pursuing wild animals in northern Wisconsin in late spring and early summer. This will wreak havoc with many wildlife species but we are especially concerned with the effects on nesting and young birds.

Photo by Carolyn Byers

This prairie is owned by Iowa County and is open to the public for a wide variety of outdoor public recreation. Iowa County has opened a planning process for the property, probably caused by the closure of the county nursing home, the centerpiece of the property.

Please never, ever assume that a planning process for public lands will go well.  Lots of well intentioned folks will have many other ideas for the property with the possibility of  more extensive agriculture or, Heavens to Betsy, sale of some or all of the land.

Photo by Arlene Koziol

Bird conservation groups are celebrating the survival of Madison, Wisconsin’s bird-friendly building ordinance after years of legal challenges from developers. Following the ruling, the City will continue to require bird-friendly building designs that prevent window collisions. American Bird Conservancy (ABC), Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance (formerly Madison Audubon), and Wisconsin Society for Ornithology are encouraging municipalities to move ahead with their own efforts to assure building designs protect wild birds from colliding with windows.

Photo by Larry Master, www.masterimages.org

Wisconsin bird lovers can learn how to attract and feed our feathered friends and keep them safe around their home at the PBS Wisconsin Garden and Landscape Expo Feb. 9-11 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.

Avian experts from across the state will offer tips on everything from gardening for hummingbirds and songbirds, to attracting Eastern Bluebirds and Purple Martins with nest boxes and martin houses, respectively, to easy home solutions to prevent birds from colliding with windows.

There is lots of good news to share. The first occurred a couple of weeks ago when stalwart volunteers gathered at Goose Pond Sanctuary to plant a new prairie. The land was the last gap, 16 acres, in the northern half of the Goose Pond lands. Mark, Graham, and Emma, the wonderful Goose Pond team, had scheduled it after light snowfall, which makes it much easier to see how effectively one is scattering the seeds.

Photo by Brenna Marsicek / BBA

Will Rogers famously said, “God isn't making any more land.” In other words, we'd better take care of what's there. Thank goodness, the Wisconsin DNR, Dane County, and Madison Audubon are listening, and just stepped up to do just that.

Photo by Gary Shackelford

Since I don't tie flies and since TU chapters always have some highly skilled tyers donate some great collections, that's what I try to win: a truly lovely collection of flies by a member of the Leopold Chapter. I paused, though, when I realized most of the flies imitated the gorgeous mayflies that used to inhabit southern Wisconsin streams. You probably noticed that sad word, "used." They don't anymore and I realized I'd never use those flies.  

Photo by Aaron Carlson FCC

A couple of advantages of growing your own fruit. From the Madison Audubon perspective, many of the plants are great for pollinators, especially the early bumblebees. In our yard, the honeyberries, blueberries, raspberries, and black currants are bumblebee favorites. We split the June berries (service berries) with the neighborhood birds, They get the berries on top and we get the ones I can reach by hand. This is not pure altruism. Such an arrangement keeps me off the step ladder.

Photo by Liz West FCC

Please see this link for another key group of folks for any organization, including Madison Audubon, that cares for remnant or restored lands, VOLUNTEERS. This DNR report outlines and illustrates the work of 100s of volunteers across the State Natural Areas. I thought you might be interested in this report as a reminder of what wonderful places the SNAs are and its examples of some of those folks. And, as we'd expect, it has some Madison Audubon connections. 

Photo by Ruth Smith

That's part of our job as Madison Audubon staff, volunteers, members, and friends. We have to hope and act on the hope that we can preserve, protect, and strengthen much of our natural world.  

The natural world shares that hope. Think of what our bird friends are up to these days. What's more hopeful than nesting?

The 55 fourth graders of Madison's Lincoln Elementary School celebrated Earth Day a day early on Friday, April 21. They planted dozens of oak trees along Black Earth Creek and saw some of the storied inhabitants of the creek up close and personal.

Photo by Brenna Marsicek / Madison Audubon

We all need more hope these days, with or without feathers. Spring gives us a shot of it. Bird sightings, turtle crossings, volunteering, and more.

Photo by Arlene Koziol

I think Madison Audubon's grappling with the John James Audubon legacy and deciding to change the Chapter's name is also motivated by kindness, love, and care. We want to reach out to everyone in our community with care and kindness and share our love of the natural world. We can't share that love and extend a hand of kindness and camaraderie if we ignore the effects of Audubon's cruelty and racism. Madison Audubon’s staff and board have certainly been extraordinarily careful in their consideration of Audubon's history and the pain it still causes today.

Photo by Arlene Koziol

On Dec. 27, Governor Evers announced that he appointed Adam Payne the new Secretary of the DNR.

Mr. Payne might be appropriately named because he has a lot of that awaiting him. The DNR always has contentious issues and he'll step into two of the most controversial: wolf management and water pollution, PFAS  immediately and agriculture-related run off soon thereafter. Powerful legislators and lobbyists for some business and agricultural interests don't want much, if anything, done about the pollution. Wolves always evoke passion; I don't know if any management plan will achieve a consensus among the folks for whom the plan is important. Plenty of other tough issues will arise.

Photo by Karen Viste-Sparkman/USFWS

Charles Carlin and our good friends at Gathering Waters are fighting the good fight to preserve the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program. Click here to read the latest update from their team. You'll recall how an anonymous member  of the  Joint Finance Committee (JFC) was destroying the Pelican River conservation project in NE Wisconsin. The linked article shows that JFC did not even follow its own bad rules and that Governor Evers might have the chance to save the project.

Photo by Joshua Mayer

The faithful six readers of this blog know that one of my perennial concerns has been the threats facing the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. The most insidious of these is the power the Joint Finance Committee has exercised. Currently, any member of the Joint Finance Committee can anonymously stop any Stewardship grant that comes before the Committee without stating any reason and without any public hearing on that action.

Charles Carlin of Gathering Waters offers an effective description of the latest abuse of power by some JFC member. That legislator has stopped the Pelican River conservation/timber easement of 70,000 acres in northeast Wisconsin.

Photo by Joshua Mayer

The Wildlife Society has a great article on the Recovering America's Wildlife Act (RAWA) and the need for Congress to pass it before the end of the year. The bill is broadly (and fervently) supported by dozens of local, regional, and national conservation organizations. Contact your senators today!

Photo via Pixabay

I went seed collecting at Goose Pond with a focus on two goldenrods: stiff and showy. All were in abundance at a prairie that several of us collectors had sowed the seed four years earlier that transformed it from row crops to prairie.

Photo by Brenna Marsicek / Madison Audubon

Apparently birders prize sightings or listenings of the Connecticut Warbler. A rare bird, it is secretive ("skulky" is the Wisconsin DNR's word) and breeds in stands of black spruce or mature jack pine in far northern Wisconsin, the southern end of its breeding range.

Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren

Sometimes a friendship takes time to develop. I planted sawtooth sunflowers in my front yard years ago. They proved to be an aggressive neighbor and have occupied swaths of the front and back yards. I really was upset with myself until I noticed three years ago, the goldfinches and some other birds swarmed the seeds. Last year, dozens of bumblebees spent much of August and mid-September on the blooms. This year, I've decided the sawtooth sunflowers are the best thing since ice cream and lots of pollinators agree.

Cover photo by Peter Gorman