Bird & Nature Blog
A clutch of the latest stories from Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance
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
Growing up in Arkansas, we had several informal state mottos. "Quid Pro Quo" for example—pretty self explanatory. Another, "Thank God for Mississippi" requires context. Whenever national rankings came out with measures of human well being in the realms of health, education, welfare, etc., Arkansas was always ranked 49th, saved from the bottom by Mississippi always being ranked 50th. I thought of that phrase upon hearing the report of last week's meeting of the DNR Board.
Photo by Arlene Koziol
"Sumer is icumen in/ Lhude sing cucco" — for those of us with some British ancestry, that's the start of a song our ancestors would greet the summer in the 13th Century. It's charming, important to musicologists, and vaguely familiar to folks who remember Chaucer from their survey of English lit course. We in Madison Audubon would probably agree that the start of summer and any celebration thereof should include birds. Surprisingly, mercifully, and thankfully, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Board probably agrees.
Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
Following my own advice to get out, even if it's only around the neighborhood, I've had some great sights, sounds, and a couple of mysteries.
Philly and Peggy, our two faithful and beloved dogs, led me to one mystery. Two or three times a week, they must go outside at about 3 AM. Several times in the last month, as I've waited for them on the back porch, I've heard a whirring sound that occurs at intervals of several seconds. It does not sound mechanical but has a birdish quality. Not at all the hoot of an owl, which I heard earlier in the fall. I've never heard it at any other time in the day or evening.
Photo by Karen FCC
I took a break from the advocacy blog after the massive push to renew the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program this summer. The conservation community's official position is that we tried hard and that the Stewardship re-authorization was better than it would have been without that extraordinary effort on the part of many conservation organizations and thousands of citizens.
True but not true enough. The re-authorization is inadequate in funding and duration; and any anonymous member of the Joint Finance Committee can, in effect, veto many Stewardship grants. Incredible and incredibly sad.
Photo by Joshua Mayer
