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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. |
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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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