Bird & Nature Blog
A clutch of the latest stories from Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance
On Wednesday afternoon, I found myself with a dozen other volunteers, properly masked and distanced, at Otsego Marsh facing the top of the new property. About 5 or 6 acres are covered with trees. Of those acres, the bottom half has the remains of an oak savanna; a pine plantation, mostly red pine, covers the upper half. Our mission was to continue our just-started revitalization of the oaks.
Photo by Mark Martin / Madison Audubon
In June 2020, Madison Audubon purchased a 36 acre parcel across the road from our Otsego Marsh property. The new parcel didn’t come pre-loaded with increidble diversity and beautiful vistas. It was mostly soybean fields, a woodlot chocked full of big oaks and invasive underbrush, and a small wetland with great potential. One needed a creative imagination to envision what it could be — and fortunately our visionary staff, board members, volunteers, and donors had a vision!
The resident managers and land steward at Goose Pond Sanctuary coordinate the restoration work at Otsego Marsh, and began getting the new parcel into shape by removing a bunch of the brushy, invasive buckthorn in the woodlot’s understory that was choking out the good native species. And beginning on January 6, 2021, we began installing wetland scrapes!
Photo by Brenna Marsicek / Madison Audubon
This year and next year we're going to put a special emphasis on dragonflies and damselflies. Our goal with your help is to find as many species as possible at Goose Pond, Erstad Prairie/Schoenberg Marsh, and Otsego Marsh.
Could you help us search, identify, and tally them? This is an independently completed citizen science project. Details and guidance are below!
Photo by Graham Steinhauer
The harvest season has begun in earnest at our house with a quick flurry of honeyberries followed by the start of the juneberry and raspberry seasons with a few pie cherries thrown in for good luck.
I must start with a thank you to the bumblebees. As far as I can tell, they are the only pollinators of honeyberries and the principal pollinator of the raspberries. I'm not as sure about the juneberries but they probably help there too.
Photo by Hirotomo Oi
On June 9, the Madison Audubon office staff donned face masks and binoculars and headed out to tromp around Madison Audubon’s Otsego Marsh and tour our newest land acquisition, the Reierson parcel.
Before we talk about the new land purchase, I just have to share a little about the pre-existing natural area, in particular, Hawkos Pond. This 32-acre marsh is the the centerpiece of the Otsego Marsh preserve and is not only gorgeous, it’s vibrantly alive with native wildlife, along with the woodlands surrounding it.
Madison Audubon photo
