On a lovely Sunday afternoon, Chuck Henrikson and 35 birding enthusiasts gathered to learn about and spot some feathered friends in the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. 
 
Chuck first talked about owls and their diets. Owls eat rodents and other small birds. Some animal matter— like bones and hair— are not digested by the owls, so they regurgitate this in the form of a pellet! Chuck showed attendees intact pellets, as well as the individual bones taken from other owl pellets he had found. Interestingly, Chuck mentioned that the size of the pellets varies across owl species and is correlated to the size of the owl (so Barred Owls tend to make larger pellets than Eastern Screech Owls for example). Chuck also showed attendees some feathers from Wisconsin birds and discussed properties of these feathers (like how some bird species have wing feathers that are frayed on the edge to allow birds to travel silently through the air). 

Throughout the field trip, seven bird species were spotted: Hairy Woodpeckers (2 males), Downy Woodpeckers (1 male, 1 female), Herring Gulls (2), White-breasted Nuthatches (2), Black-capped Chickadees (3), Northern Cardinal (1), and a beloved Barred Owl (1)! Chuck also informed attendees about resources like eBird where you can upload your birding lists and contribute to citizen science efforts to track bird species’ temporal movements in the Lakeshore Nature Preserve, Wisconsin, and beyond! ​Report and photos by the Friends host Olympia Mathiaparanam

Early last year, Olympia Mathiaparanam, Board Member, had the idea that we could harness the power of the humanities in inspiring connection to nature. The “It’s in Our Nature” open mic event held in the BioCommons in the Steenbock Library on Thursday, February 25 was the result of that idea. We asked Robin Chapman, poet, Emeritus faculty of the UW-Madison, and Friends member, to be the Master of Ceremony and featured poet. Robin has written ten books of nature-inspired poetry and has received recognition and honors for her work including the 2010 Appalachia Poetry Prize, and a Wisconsin Arts Board Literary Arts Fellowship. Robin, Olympia, and Lillian Tong, also a Board Member, met together to plan the details around this experimental initiative months in advance. Because of the need to reach a broader audience than our usual field trips, the team created and distributed posters around campus and in local coffee shops and establishments.