 Leader Susan Will-Wolf displays a stick covered in lichens at the entrance to Picnic Point. On a beautiful sunny Sunday, leader Suzan Will-Wolf introduced us to the corals of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. Well ... they're not really corals. Corals are a composite organism made from symbiotic algae and Cnidarians (think jellyfish). These little specks are actually a symbiotic friendship between fungi and algae, so, similar in form but not evolutionary history. Does it matter? All 17 of us in attendance were really lichen the field trip regardless.  Off in search of lichens! Lichens come in three main forms - crustose, foliose, and fruticose. Crustose lichens are flat and leafless, foliose lichens are flat but have leaf-like structures, and fruticose lichens have protruding stalks, tufts, or strings. Lichens of all forms tend to be scrappy survivors that eke out a living where other organisms - like plants - can't. There are thousands of different lichen species around the world and over 100 in Wisconsin. Only 10 different lichen species are reported in the Preserve on iNaturalist today (4/9/23) but I bet one motivated friend could double that count in a single outing - try it! We saw a whole spattering of lichens just on one boulder. If you want to learn more about lichens, you must read Suzy's guide linked here. Please also see pictures of the lichens we saw walking up the access road from the Picnic Point entrance taken by attendee Sean Sanders. Thank you for the photos, Sean, and thanks Suzy for all your lichen enthusiasm and expertise! Crustose lichen photos by Sean Sanders: Foliose lichen photos by Sean Sanders: Report by Will Vuyk; photos by Will Vuyk, Glenda Denniston, and Sean Sanders.
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 A late-march snowstorm the previous day deterred neither bird nor birder! We had a great turnout of 24 attendees to this trip led by birders Dane Gallagher and Chuck Henrickson. This included families, couples, and age range from 9 to 70+. Several had learned about the trip from the web, others joined in when they saw us gathering up at the Picnic Point entrance. It was several folks’ first visit to Picnic Point! We saw a great variety of species of early spring migrants, as advertised, including: redhead, ring-necked duck, common goldeneye, mallard, wood duck, bufflehead, coot, bald eagle, RWB, and a few resident winter birds, like American tree sparrow, black-capped chickadee, hairy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, and brown creeper. The weather was favorable, mild and calm, certainly better than the blizzard yesterday. Chuck and Dane, thank you for leading! And thanks to Doris for schlepping all the supplies down to Fire Ring 2, setting up and lighting the fire! Report by Josh Sulman   UW Historic & Cultural Resources Manager Emeritus Daniel Einstein led a fascinating and informative field trip on the effigy mounds of Observatory Hill and Willow Creek. Full report incoming!
 Field trip leader Chuck Henrikson and Friends host Diana Tapia Ramon greet people as they gather around Paul Noeldner's FUN set up. About 30 people including several UW students and families with kids enjoyed taking part in some or all of the February 26, 2023 1:30pm 4th Sunday "Winter Birds" Bird and Nature Adventure at UW Lakeshore Nature Preserve led by Chuck Henrikson. Participants included several people from outside Madison and Monressori teacher who enjoys connecting kids with nature. A UW eye researcher shared the interesting fact that hawks have two fovea (concentrated eye receptors) for both far and close focus which contributes to their 20-2 visual acuity (8 times sharper than human) as a Red-tailed Hawk perched nearby to greet the group at the Picnic Point entrance. On the walk a winter-only visitor to Wisconsin the Dark-eyed Junco, also affectionately nicknamed the Snowbird, was spotted along with a number of year round resident species and early migrants including Sandhill Cranes and Red-winged Blackbirds.  An Eastern Towhee at work! The highlight was an almost invisible until pointed out well cameoflaged Eastern Towhee busily kicking aside snow dusted leaf litter to rustle up some grub for lunch right next to the Picnic Point Path only 20 feet or so from the enthralled flock of birders. The outing ended with a welcome campfire to cap a beautiful winter walk and count up the bird sightings. Everyone is already looking forward to next month's 4th Sunday Bird and Nature Adventure, "Early Migrants". Report and photos by Paul Noeldner.
 Featuring poets of all experience levels, our "It's in Our Nature" events bring writers together to share their small curiosities, sweeping odes, or any piece of environmental writing in between. By writing we can capture the imagery of our mind’s eye, looking inward to draw emotion, beauty, and truth from the outside world. The theme of our event this year was “Insight.” Every day our minds sift through a sea of thoughts and sensory impressions, casting the world around us in vivid shades of feeling only we can experience. What marvels exist only within our own heads! We asked poets to share the beautiful singularity of their mind’s eye with us on February 25th.
The Madison Journal of Literary Criticism joined us this year to co-host the event, and will be publishing a two page spread on the Friends, the Preserve, and featuring poems from the event. I look forward to working with them further as we continue to expand the "It's in Our Nature" poetry audio trail initiative. Our 2021 trail can be found here and our unfinished 2022 trail can be found here. Stay tuned for more soon on our updated 2023 audio trail! Report by Will Vuyk, with photos from Paul Noeldner.
 Leader Paul Noeldner puts on his fox hat to talk tracks. On a Sunday afternoon freshly dusted with snow, Paul Noeldner led 14 of us on an exploration of winter's magic. As if seeing the icy, snow-covered ground as the perfect opportunity for some putting practice, Paul started the field trip by pulling out a bag of golf clubs. These were no ordinary golf clubs, however, as each shaft ended in an assortment of trays, utensils, and wooden cut-outs rather than a head. An eager attendee arrayed the spoons on one club just so, and then struck the ground. A birdie! Indeed, there on the ground was the imprint of a turkey track. Paul had a "deer" club, a "duck" club, a "fox" club, and a club that mimicked a mysterious 5-toed creature that could just as well have been 5 separate toads hopping in formation.  Paul examines the evidence left behind by what we believe was a hunting coyote. Once we got out on the trail we found many real tracks in the snow. Upon the discovery of some fresh fox tracks, Paul replaced his blue googly-eye bird hat with his orange face-hugging fox hat, and talked to us about canids in the area. On the north side of the peninsula, right by the bathrooms, we found much more obvious evidence of canid activity. It appears that a coyote was after something and dug up whole swaths of the sandy bank in pursuit.
We were all chilled by the wind, so we took that as a queue to head back to fire circle #2. There we saw two white-breasted nuthatches, which including two blue jays we saw before the trip started, were the only birds we noticed the whole time. Folks enjoyed warming up and conversing around the fire. As the fire burned low, Paul took the opportunity to warm up the valves on his euphonium and play a farewell tune. Report and photos by Will Vuyk.
 Leader Philip Fauble explaining the history of Raymer's Cove's rocky cliffs. Cool fall weather provided the perfect backdrop to Geological History of the Preserve and Madison Lakes on November 13th. 31 guests wandered through the Preserve under an overcast sky with Philip Fauble, geologist with the Department of Natural Resources and a passionate teacher of local geology. Philip began our hike with a crash-course on geoscience; before we could understand how the rocks in the Preserve reached their current form, we needed to learn a bit about how rocks move, their timescales, and the idiosyncratic geological history of the Madison lakes. We learned that the majority of the Preserve is comprised of Ordovician- and Cambrian-age bedrock, with much of it belonging to the Tunnel City Group rock layer, defined by its very fine-grained quartzite sand. Different glacial movements across the area cut into this bedrock throughout the last couple hundred thousand years, both creating the basins in which the Madison lakes could form and exposing the outcroppings which we observed with Philip.  A handsome rock face posing for the tour. Our hike took us to the Preserve’s highest point (the bluff in Eagle Heights Woods) where we studied glacial erratics—large boulders cut and picked up by glaciers and deposited by way of glacial recession, often hundreds of kilometers away from its source rock. Philip estimated the erratics on Eagle Heights Woods bluff were 2.4-billion-year-old gneiss from southern Ontario! Other highlights included Philip showing us evidence of the ancient seas which once covered the land we know call Wisconsin, including the presence of stromatolites in our rocks – fossilized microbial mats which thrived in the shallow waters of Cambrian and Ordovician Wisconsin. We express our deep gratitude to Philip for filling in on such short notice – we hope he’ll join us again on a geologic excursion in the Preserve!  Attendees walking across land shaped by glaciers. Report written by Cole Roecker, photos by Signe Holtz.
 Intrepid attendees brave the cold mist and scan University Bay for birds On a dreary, drizzly weekend afternoon, about 15 people joined this trip co-hosted by the Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve and the UW-Madison chapter of the Audubon Society. Led by Friends board members Anne Pearce and Cole Roecker, the birders set their sights on University Bay from the Walnut St. boat launch, in search of winter waterfowl. Early birds to the field trip were greeted by a northern harrier flying along the lakeshore right in front of us, followed not too long after by a great blue heron. The warm weather, lack of ice on the lake, and calm water meant that waterfowl were not as concentrated in University Bay as they often are in December. But when we set our eyes, binoculars, and a few spotting scopes on the water, we had two rafts of waterfowl to look at on either side of the boat launch. Among the easier birds to identify were the tundra swans and coots, as they were present in large numbers. Several people stuck with the challenge of trying to get a good look at a few nearby buffleheads through binoculars as these small waterfowl kept diving under the surface of the water. Others were able to pick out a handful each of northern shovelers and redheads further away from shore. Given the relative quiet near the boat launch, we decided to walk toward Willow Creek, after admiring a muskrat swimming along the shore.  Co-Leader Anne Pearce (left) sets up the viewing scopes while Co-Leader Cole Roecker (Center) addresses the group A few passerines grabbed our attention as we went toward the creek, including downy and hairy woodpeckers and dark-eyed juncos. Once at the creek, we scanned the large group of ring-billed gulls with some larger herring gulls to see if there were any unusual visitors. No such luck! Two favorite sightings from the mouth of the creek were the great blue heron standing along the shoreline and a belted kingfisher perched in a tree with a fish in its mouth for several minutes.  A lone blue heron was spotted among a sea of gulls in the Willow Creek delta Thanks to the several members of the UW-Madison chapter of the Audubon Society for joining us! We can’t wait to see what people find on the next birding field trip! Thanks to Cole for the eBird report:
25 Canada Goose 25 Tundra Swan 3 Northern Shoveler 25 Mallard 4 Redhead 10 Bufflehead 100 American Coot 100 Ring-billed Gull 10 Herring Gull 1 Great Blue Heron 1 Northern Harrier 1 Belted Kingfisher 3 Downy Woodpecker 2 Hairy Woodpecker 1 American Crow 7 House Finch 6 American Goldfinch 10 Dark-eyed Junco 2 Song Sparrow 19 Taxa Observed Report by Anne Pearce and photos by Signe Holtz.  About 30 enthused bird lovers of all ages including several UW students and a couple kids joined the Sunday November 27 "Fun Fall Birding" Bird and Nature Adventure at UW Lakeshore Nature Preserve to follow beloved birding Pied Piper Chuck Henrikson along the Picnic Point path and excitedly help spot and observe lots of waterfowl and other birds.  The forecast weather of dreary clouds and drizzle gave way to blue sky and bright sun that flashed on white spots on the water as dozens of beautiful Buffleheads dove briefly and popped up again among rafts of hundreds of cute squeeky toy Coots and common but still stunningly colored Mallards bobbing and dabbling for duckweed. Some more difficult to spot Merganzers and Loons took turns doing longer dives. Overflight sightings of two Bald Eagles, a Coopers Hawk and a Red-tailed Hawk rounded out the Raptors and a friendly Red-bellied Woodpecker and some Blue Jays brought flashes of color to the winter trees.  The outing wrapped up at fire pit 2 with hot chocolate and smores around a campfire with lots of talk about the day's birding adventure, future plans for the Preserve and opportunities to engage and help out. Mark your calendar for Sunday December 25 1:30pm for a Christmas Day "My Favorite Places" Bird and Nature Adventure to share stories and visit favorite places at the Preserve!
Here is the Nov 25 eBird report - 45 Canada Goose 60 Mallard 100 Bufflehead 2 Hooded Merganser 1 Common Merganser 1 Mourning Dove 400 American Coot 2 Sandhill Crane 25 Ring-billed Gull 2 Common Loon 1 Cooper's Hawk 2 Bald Eagle 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 3 Blue Jay 2 American Crow 4 Black-capped Chickadee 1 White-breasted Nuthatch 3 American Robin 2 American Goldfinch 2 Northern Cardinal Number of Taxa: 22 Photos and report by Paul Noeldner  Friends President Will Vuyk led a group of 12 students and adults on a "Poetry in the Preserve" walk October 23 for the 4th Sunday Bird and Nature Adventure at Picnic Point. The sun-warmed fall day, wind-cleared blue skies, pulsing waves on the lake and spectacular fall colors provided a beautiful and inspirational backdrop as participants took turns along the trail reading favorite nature poems from Friends Poetry Nights and composed several new haikus.  Afterward Will and others shared thoughts around a campfire circle about how poetry encourages us to look at nature in new and interesting ways and triggers empathy and curiosity that inspire us to look deeper which interestingly puts poetry hand in hand with doing good emperical science. Like falling leaves we each fluttered away leaving behind fresh new buds of ideas ready to bloom. Report and photos by Paul Noeldner. Haikus from our insightful attendees!
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