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The June 24 4th Sunday of the month Bird and Nature Adventure at the UW Lakeshore Nature Preserved featured "Bluebirds and Martins" with about 16 attendees of all ages including some kids. Trip leaders Jeff Koziol and Paul Noeldner explained that the special bird houses for these native cavity nesting species and the weekly monitoring protocol are part of the Preserve's mission to support research, education, and native plant and wildlife biodiversity. Paul handed out a Bluebird Trail Recipe for folks interested in putting up boxes and doing weekly monitoring. Jeff led the walk along fairly accessable mowed nature paths through tall native wildflowers with many already blooming profusely in the Biocore Prairie. The group made frequent stops to look at plants and birds and the sharp eyed kids in the group spotted every interesting bug along the way. Jeff followed monitoring protocols to briefly open some Bluebird boxes for participants to see and learn about nesting activity by Bluebirds as well as native Tree Swallows, Black-capped Chickadees and House Wrens that also benefit from and need human supplemented nesting boxes. Each makes a uniquely different kind of nest. Biocore Prairie Manager and Purple Martin PUMA project team member Seth Magee shared a report that it is already a good year for the apartment style Purple Martin House and hanging gourds atop the Biocore Prairie hill with 52 nestlings already hatched and 23 eggs on the way. One participant shared that she has lived in Madison for 84 years and had only visited Picnic Point. This was her first visit to the Biocore Prairie and she loved it and plans to return to explore more of the 300 acre Lakeshore Nature Preserve. Participants were also encouraged to visit the nearby Birds Eye View public exhibit on the 9th floor of the MRI Medical Research Institute building next to UW Hospital. The exhibit is open from June to September and features wonderful bird photography from the perspectives of local bird lovers and photo artists Arlene Koziol, Paul Ludden, Rob Streiffer and Tom Yin. Take a walk at the Biocore Prairie to see the Bluebird boxes and Martin house any time to enjoy the wildflowers and birds and be sure to stop at the MRI building to see the 9th floor Birds Eye View bird photography public exhibit. Report and photos by Paul Noeldner.
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We are grateful that Phil Fauble took the day off from his work as a hydrogeologist with the state’s Department of Natural Resources to lead this field trip. Sarah Lundquist, the Program Coordinator for the First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour and her assistant, grad student Brenda Owen (Ho-Chunk) worked with our own Signe Holtz, to organize this trip for the group’s training during the week of May 13. The First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour is an award-winning, place-based, walking tour, led by students. Guests learn about the First Nations of Wisconsin and the 14,000+ years of human history along the shores of Lake Mendota in the area known as Teejop (Four Lakes) and Madison. Participants visit UW-Madison campus buildings, historical markers, and archaeological sites to discuss historic – and contemporary – relationships with First Nations. The weather was perfect – sunny and a comfortable temperature –- when we met in the Raymer’s Cove parking lot with the students. Omar Poler (Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), Indigenous education coordinator with the Office of the Provost and Annie Jones (Menominee), a professor with UW–Madison’s Division of Extension, who co-lead UW’s Native Nations Work Group e program also joined us. Kane Funmaker (Ho-Chunk), who is succeeding Brenda in the graduate student role, also came for the tour. After introductions all around, Signe Holtz, Friends field trip coordinator, read a statement acknowledging the ancestral relationship of the Ho-Chunk to the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. Phil has led geology field trips for the Natural Resources Foundation for more than 30 years, primarily at Devil’s Lake, and he had several tips for a successful tour that he shared with the unique group of attendees. He brought his son Nicholas, a rising junior at UW-Stevens Point, to assist him with tree identification and ecology. #1: Tell a story. When the audience learns the overarching story, they can retain the specific details of this rock and that formation. Phil’s story began with the origin of Earth 4.5 billion years ago and he brought it all the way to the present. #2: Keep the group together. That’s more important than hustling to get to every site, but leaving individuals behind. After we walked down the stairs to Raymer’s Cove Beach, Phil pointed out the exposed wall of (Cambrian period) sandstone in the Tunnel City Formation, ~500 million years old, initially created by deposits in a vast tropical sea. Lake Mendota’s wave action erodes the relatively soft sandstone. Phil pointed out the layer above the sandstone, the St. Lawrence Formation. This is a layer of dolomite (= limestone impregnated with magnesium), formed after the end of the Cambrian period during the 42 million years of the Ordovician period. The dolomite layer is much harder, and more resistant to wave erosion. The result is a shelf extending above and beyond the sandstone around most of Lake Mendota. We subsequently walked on that dolomite shelf. But first, Phil took us up a gulley to show us the Jordan Formation, a layer of pure silica sand that lies above the St. Lawrence Formation. Like the Tunnel Formation’s sandstone and the St. Lawrence Formation’s dolomite, the Jordan Formation’s sand was deposited by ancient seas. The three Formations we walked on, namely the Tunnel City, the St. Lawrence and the Jordan, are shown in the lower right portion of this diagram of “Paleozoic Stratigraphy” from Clayton and Attig, 1997. From Raymer’s Cove, we walked easterly on the St. Lawrence Formation above the lakeshore in the Wally Bauman Woods and paused to look across Lake Mendota to Middleton before turning south and up to Lake Mendota Drive. Phil led us across Lake Mendota Drive and into Eagle Heights Woods. He noted the wildflowers in bloom and the overall improvement in the Woods. The map above shows the areas of restoration that have been funded by the Friends, who have provided more than $138,000 for the multiyear project. At the top of the hill, he stopped to point out three large rocks. The gray, sparkly granite and the red rhyolite are both igneous rocks, formed from magma, while the gray-and-white-striped gneiss is metamorphic rock, formed by high temperatures and high pressures on earlier formations. All three rocks are erratics, transported here by the most recent glaciation, less than 25,000 years ago. Phil described how they would have tumbled down the leading edge of the glacier. We also stopped to observe the nearby dolomite outcroppings exposed by erosion. Three Native American mounds lie within a relatively small area at the top of the hill. Their presence will provide opportunities for the First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour guides to educate their guests on the significance of Eagle Heights to the First Nations ancestors and inspire their guests to view the site and its history with reverence. Omar Poler, who had attended a previous tour Phil Fauble gave, volunteered, “Following that tour, I saw the campus landscape in a new way, and for that I am especially grateful.” We returned to Raymer’s Cove and repeatedly thanked Phil. This summary barely touches the breadth and depth of his presentation. For more information, see Prof. Dave Mickelson’s “Geology of Eagle Heights Woods” at http://www.friendslakeshorepreserve.com/geology1.html Report by Doris Dubielzig Ten people, wearing raincoats and boots and carrying umbrellas, gathered in the rain at the entrance to Picnic Point for the scheduled Friends of Urban Nature’s Frog Walk. Unbeknownst to us, the trip had been canceled, as it was down-pouring heavily. Doris Dubielzig, past Friends field trip organizer, learned that one family had come from Portage for the walk and quickly determined that two of the attendees, Amy Schleser of Lake Mills and AJ Sinkula, a UW student, knew frogs. After a few introductions and orientation by Friends host, Diana Tapia Ramon, we splashed through the entrance, past the rain garden, and up the Point paths to Picnic Point Marsh. A significant portion of the main path to the tip of the Point was barricaded closed, due to trees that had fallen during Tuesday night’s great thunderstorm. At the Marsh, Diana advised us to be very quiet so that we could hear the frog calls through the sound of the raindrops. Amy Schleser described the volunteer citizen science work that she has been involved with for the past year. As part of the DNR’s Wisconsin Frog and Toad Survey (https://wiatri.net/inventory/frogtoadsurvey/), she is helping to determine the status, distribution and long-term population trends of Wisconsin’s 12 frog and toad species. Amy’s team goes out three nights a season, each about a month apart, to 10 specific locations where they listen for frogs and toads. AJ explained that because frogs and other amphibians absorb pollutants readily through their skin, they are important “indicator” species. As amphibians are very sensitive to changes in the environment, their population sizes and trends provide insight into the health of the ecosystems they inhabit. Alarmingly, frog populations around the work are declining each year. Consequently, in addition to identifying amphibian species by ear, Amy estimates the population size of each species she hears. She also measures the temperature of the water at each of her assigned locations. Today, AJ put on vinyl gloves, to keep from introducing anything hazardous to amphibian health, and ran her hands through the Marsh water, looking for tadpoles. No luck. From the Marsh, we walked to the edge of Biocore Prairie to see the Purple Martin House and Gourds, where a half-dozen Eastern purple martins flew off as we approached them. Scott Hershberger explained that the Eastern purple martin, the largest member of the swallow family, nests almost exclusively in human-supplied housing. Native Americans encouraged the birds to nest near their dwellings by providing gourds for the insectivores. We returned to the Picnic Point entrance, but most of the group continued to the Class of 1918 Marsh observation deck, hoping to see baby muskrats and to hear more frogs. While we didn’t experience either of those, we saw a few muskrat houses among the cattails, and a lot of duckweed in the water. Doris observed that common duckweed is the second smallest flowering plant in Wisconsin; the smallest is Wolffia. Like stone soup, this field trip succeeded with the good intentions and generous contributions of all who attended. Report by Doris Dubielzig and photo by Diana Tapia Ramon  Participants listen to frog sounds in Picnic Point. Saturday May 4th was a beautiful sunny day in the Preserve. Of the many people out enjoying the wonderful weather, ten of us were gathered at the Picnic Point entrance to go birding with Ashley Olah, UW graduate student and Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance expert. Numerous yellow warblers and goldfinches provided flashy targets as we got used to our binoculars. Then we saw a red-headed woodpecker proudly perched high up on a dead tree. More warblers (including Tennessee and blue-winged) followed, along with some flycatchers and vireos. We were impressed by the beauty of tree swallows in their flights over the rippling water in the clear sunlight. Blue-winged teal, wood ducks, grackles and a sandhill crane greeted us in the marsh. By the time a bald eagle soared high above us, it was nearly time to go. Everyone walked back to the stone wall and went on with their Saturdays. All of that before 10:00am! Report & Photo by Will Vuyk.  Birders watch swallows over lake What’s better than spending the day before Earth Day outside? On April 21st, our field trip leader, Susan Will-Wolf, took participants on a journey to find lichens. Before we began our tour, Susan explained that lichens have three major growth forms: foliose, fruticose, and crustose. We then started our tour at the Rock Wall, where we noticed various lichens, including small leafy and crusty types. As we explored the preserve, we found fallen tree branches covered in lichens. Tip: Bring a hand lens or portable magnifier to see the intricate details of lichens up close! Report & Photo by Diana Tapia Ramon.  A field trip participant found a leafy lichen on a tree branch.  The birding group braving the weather to spot the migrating birds About fifteen intreped bird lovers including one very enthused kid braved a blustery wind and snow flurries to look for "Early Bird Migrants" with leaders Chuck Henrikson and Paul Noelder on the Sunday Match 24 Bird and Nature Adventure at UW Lakeshore Nature Preserve. Popular bird guide Chuck Henrikson magically summoned two bugling Sandhill Cranes for a send off at the Picnic Point kiosk, a Bald Eagle floating effortlessly like a giant kite at treetop height straight overhead at the beach. An enthused kid helped use the scope to view a giant 'raft' of about two hundred cackling Coots, and several dozen beautiful black and white Buffleheads bobbing their somewhat comical mating dances. A half dozen georgeous coloring-picture perfect Wood Ducks flew in to check out nesting areas at Picnic Point Marsh while the group enjoyed hot chocolate by the old Beach House. Everyone shared stories about their love of the Preserve and one participant even had a Picnic Point arm tatoo honoring how special it is to him. They were happy to learn about plans for the new Frautschi welcome education center and everyone expressed hope that the old historic Beach House can be preserved and restored as a nature outpost shelter gathering spot.
Report by Steve Sellwood and Paul Noeldner. Photos by Paul Noeldner. Chuck Henrikson and I greeted each other in the parking lot at 1:10. Sandhill Cranes flew from the marsh to the lake (Their flight & calls recall Jonny Quest's pterodactyl, kind of). We posted a FUN lawn sign and my orange bike pennant near the kiosk, and Chuck staffed the kiosk while I used the FUN little red wagon to take the fire-making and hot chocolate making bins to Fire Circle 2. We welcomed a group of 30 at 1:32, described FLNP, LNP and FUN, and introduced Chuck. The sign-up sheet was sent around while Chuck coaxed everyone into a Jens Jensen full circle. I also distributed FUN binoculars to interested folks.  The birding group at the beginning of Picnic Point. The group totaled 34 as we departed and headed east through the pedestrian baffle/entry. The path had areas with standing water but no deep puddles. Chuck led the group with many stops for water birds (two bald eagles on the thin ice of Willow Bay; Canada geese, various gulls, mallards in the liquid water). One participant noted a redtail hawk circling over the Waisman Center (impressive optics). Chuck demonstrated the Merlin Bird ID app from Cornell University, including calling up the calls of whitebreasted nuthatch and the cardinal. One of the Merlin calls for the cardinal is distinct from any I've ever heard a cardinal make around here.  Group photo at the end of the walk at Swimming Beach. I noticed that a tree was in bloom (already!) with catkins but no showy petals, so possibly a maple of some sort (maybe red maple?) Chuck gradually led the group to the Swimming Beach; I peeled off at Fire Circle 2 and helped Yara Al-Rayyan's younger brother start the fire (about 2:45). Chuck led some of the group to the fire, the partial group staying til about 3:30.
He compiled his bird list in a notebook, using his system of abbreviations (often, two letters + two letters). Yara's brothers drowned the fire around 3:45 and I stayed a bit to put un-used logs back under the log shed. Report by Tom Zinnen, photos by Tom Zinnen and Chuck Henrikson.  The group gathered at the Picnic Point entrance before setting off. Master Naturalist Paul Noeldner, founder and pied piper of the Friends of Urban Nature (FUN) fieldtrips, organizes our 4th Sunday outings. Falling on Christmas Eve this year, a good-humored group happy to get out of the kitchen and into nature gathered in a light mist amid mild temperatures at the entrance to Picnic Point. Paul welcomed the 30 attendees and invited them to share their names and their favorite places in the Preserve. While some visitors were returning to the Preserve after many years elsewhere, a few locals were entering it for the first time. After introductions by President Will Vuyk and Past President Doris Dubielzig, we walked up the service road past Bill’s Woods, where Will described plans for the new Visitor’s Center.  Board member and Biocore student Yara Al-Rayyan explaining the history of the Biocore Prairie. Our next stop was at the Biocore Prairie. There, Friends student board member Yara Al-Rayyan reviewed the history and significance of this tallgrass prairie. Yara is enrolled in the undergraduate Biocore Honors Program. In 1997, Biocore students and staff first planted the prairie on an abandoned and contaminated field. The 11-acre parcel now provides a site for classes and for undergraduate research projects.  The group viewing the mist-enshrouded Picnic Point marsh We walked down the road through Caretaker’s Woods to the old, unused bath house at the end of Picnic Point Marsh. On this quiet side of the Point, some families investigated the sandy beach, while Will Vuyk captivated the group with a description of the two species of frogs that live in the Marsh. The Eastern gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor) and Cope’s gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis), which look identical, can be distinguished by their calls and by observation of their red blood cells. Cope’s gray treefrog (H. chrysoscelis) has 24 chromosomes (2n), while the Eastern gray treefrog (H. versicolor) has 48 (4n)! Paul pulled up their calls on his cellphone and we were thrilled to hear the differences between the two frog calls. Paul then spoke of his hopes for the stone Bath House, which was designed by noted local architect William Kaeser. Kaeser was an admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright though he never studied directly with great man. The attractive building, constructed in 1968, was never used for its intended purpose and is now a locked storage unit. Paul has long contended that it would be a great location for nature and outreach activities.
Walking back toward the Picnic Point entrance, on the right just beyond Fire Circle #2, are five additional mounds. The mound building era is consistent with the age of the ancient canoe recovered from Lake Mendota in November 2021. Doris suggests that the canoe maker(s) would also have been of the mound builder people. After the vegetation covering them dies in the winter, the mounds can be seen more easily from the trail. Guided by a map drawn by Daniel Einstein, retired Historic & Cultural Resources Manager, the children were challenged to find the mounds.  The group congregating around Fire Circle #2 at the end of the field trip. By this time, people were eager to gather around the fire at Fire Circle #2, drink Paul Noeldner-provided hot chocolate and toast marshmallows for s’mores, and gaze on University Bay. Playing his euphonium, Paul led the festive group in some Christmas carols. It was a joyous and friendly way to end the year.  Our monthly 4th Sunday Bird and Nature Adventures are co-sponsored by the Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve (http://friendslakeshorepreserve.org), Badgerland Birding Alliance and the Madison Friends of Urban Nature (FUN). Contact Paul Noeldner at (608) 698-0104, [email protected]. Report written by Doris Dubielzig. Photos taken by Paul Noeldner and Will Vuyk.
On Sunday afternoon November 26 about 20 bird lovers of various ages and skill levels including some UW students enjoyed a "Fun Fall Birding" Bird and Nature Adventure and the season's first beautiful fresh white snowfall at the UW Lakeshore Nature Preserve with popular bird guide Chuck Henrikson to see awesome Tundra Swans with 8 foot wingspans, Buffleheads, Loons and other colorful migrating waterfowl, and Wisconsin winter favorites like bright red Cardinals, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Tree Sparrows and White-breasted Nuthatch, and gathered for hot cocoa around a Picnic Point campfire after the walk. A highlight was a huge Bald Eagle that soared by creating its own white swirling snow flurry of dozens of scattering Herring Gulls in its wake.
Report and photos by Paul Noelder  Phil Fauble explaining the formation of Raymer's Cove's geological features. The Geologic History of the Preserve and Madison Lakes field trip took place on 11/5/2023. The trip was led by Phil Fauble of the Wisconsin DNR. There were 19 attendees. The trip included observation and discussion of geological features at Raymer's Cove and Eagle Heights Woods.  Phil Fauble further explaining geological features of the Eagle Heights Woods. Report and photos by Steve Sellwood
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Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve
P.O. Box 5534 Madison, WI 53705 UW-Madison Lakeshore Nature Preserve website Documents |
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