Go Birding with Wisconsin's best AND raise money for bird conservation!
Hi Folks! Even though the wet dreary weather is here - it's time to make plans for Spring Birding. See the announcement below for some great field trip opportunities that also raise funds for bird conservation right here in Wisconsin!
Andy Paulios - WBCI Coordinator/WIDNR
Announcing five exceptional birding trips in Southern Wisconsin
- Baraboo Hills & Badger Army Ammunition Plant with Mike Mossman & Todd Persche (May 10)
- Northern Empire Prairie Wetlands IBA with Mark Martin & Sue Foote Martin (May 11)
- Cedarburg Bog and Lake Michigan Shoreline with Tim Vargo & Owen Boyle (May 18)
- Leopold Reserve & Pine Island with Mike Mossman, Yoyi Steele, & Steve Swenson (May 19)
- Horicon Marsh with Bill Volkert (May 19)
The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative are offering five premier “conservation birding” trips – birding to help birds - in southern Wisconsin as part of our Great Wisconsin Birdathon during the month of May. Funds donated or raised by participants will support statewide, collaborative bird conservation programs.
We call these Big Day field trips. Participants will strive to see or hear as many bird species as possible during the course of the day, with help from leading bird experts who have vast knowledge of these birding hotspots and their avifauna. Each of these sites have been designated Important Bird Areas, an international distinction for sites that are critically important to large numbers of breeding, migratory, and/or wintering birds. Wisconsin has 92 Important Bird Areas.
Participants are each asked to pay a $15 registration fee and either donate or raise $100 through the
Great Wisconsin Birdathon at www.wibirdathon.org. Donations will support the following statewide bird conservation programs:
- Bird City Wisconsin – delivering bird conservation strategies and resources to the state’s urban areas
- Wisconsin Stopover Initiative for Migratory Birds – working with landowners to identify and manage migratory stopover areas
- Important Bird Areas Program – developing and implementing conservation strategies for Wisconsin’s Important Bird Areas
- Citizen Science for Birds – monitoring select bird groups and species that are in decline to provide data that will guide management strategies
- Reforesting and preserving Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula – an ecological gem of global importance, 55 species that breed in Wisconsin winter there
- Monitoring and managing federally endangered whooping cranes and Kirtland’s warblers in Wisconsin
Here are brief descriptions of each trip and their leaders:
Baraboo Hills & Badger Ammunition Plant (Friday, May 10, 6:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Begin the day at the Fairfield Marsh near Baraboo, then head to Baxter's Hollow and other warbler hotspots in the Baraboo Hills, and finish at the grasslands of the 7,000-acre Badger Plant. Ornithologists Mike Mossman (DNR researcher) and Todd Persche (artist, avid birder and volunteer) have studied birds of the Baraboo Hills for decades.
Northern Empire Prairies Important Bird Area (Saturday, May 11, 6:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.) This Columbia-Dane county IBA includes Goose Pond, Ostego Marsh, Erstad Prairie, Grassy Lake, Mud Lake, Schoenberg Marsh, and ten Waterfowl Production Areas. Explore it with retired DNR State Natural Areas ecologist Mark Martin and Sue Foote-Martin, creator of the Great Wisconsin Birding & Nature Trail and long-time Madison Audubon volunteer.
Cedarburg Bog and Lake Michigan Shoreline (Saturday, May 18, 6:00 am - 2:00 pm) Search the vast Cedarburg Bog, in Ozaukee County, for forest and wetland birds, then explore the Lake Michigan Shoreline for water- and grassland-loving birds. Tim Vargo is executive director for Milwaukee’s Urban Ecology Center and DNR ecologist Owen Boyle coordinates the Citizen-Based Monitoring Network of Wisconsin.
Leopold Reserve-Pine Island Important Bird Area (Sunday, May 19, 6:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Explore this 17,000-acre complex that straddles the Wisconsin River in Sauk and Columbia counties. Visit river sandbars, wetlands, floodplain forest, savanna, barrens, prairie, and more. This IBA hosts 120+ breeding species and over 3,000 migrating sandhill cranes each fall. Leaders will be Mike Mossman (DNR), Yoyi Steele (DNR, coordinator of Wisconsin’s Important Bird Areas Program) and Steve Swenson (Aldo Leopold Foundation ecologist).
Horicon Marsh Important Bird Area (Sunday, May 19, 7:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.) This 32,000-acre IBA hosts hundreds of thousands of migrating and breeding waterfowl, shorebirds, waterbirds, and grassland birds. And nobody knows the area or its birds better than trip leader Bill Volkert, long-time naturalist for the Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Refuge.
Register for these Big Day Field Trips online at www.wibirdathon.org. Specific field trip details will be sent to participants after they register.
If you are not able to attend these trips, please consider pledging to a Great Wisconsin Birdathon team to support the programs listed above and enjoy following the adventures and results from 42 Birdathon teams all across the state.
We need birds and birds need our support -- now more than ever. Thank you!!
The Great Wisconsin Birdathon Planning Team:
Andy Paulios (Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative)
Karen Etter Hale (Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative)
Sumner Matteson (Wisconsin DNR)
Jim Shurts (Madison Audubon Society)
Barb Barzen (Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin)
Maria Sadowski (Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin)
Paul Senner (Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin)