Entries Tagged 'Nature Conservancy' ↓

Nature Conservancy Site of the Week #3

Name: Nachusa Grasslands
Location: Northern Illinois near the city of Oregon.
Size: 2,500 acres

Nachusa Grasslands is one of the local Nature Conservancy sites I’ve been to quite often. I participated in a prescribed burn a few years ago and thought the place was truly awesome. Since returning a few times over the last years, I have been somewhat disappointed in the birdlife there. In fact, we found a new bird species there - the Prairie Flicker (actually, the Northern Flicker). We saw tons and tons of Flickers but not really any other birds.

However, the birdlife at Nachusa is wonderful. I’ve heard that Grasshopper and Henslow’s Sparrows nest there along with Dickcissels. I also believe Upland Sandpipers nest at Nachusa and apparently there is a healthy population of Badgers. Other wildlife includes a smattering of rare butterflies and a great variety of prairie plants.

Nachusa is like a blast from the past. This is how great expanses of Illinois used to look like before the land was ruined. Vast prairies full of life, color, and birdsong (and Flickers!). Volunteers at Nachusa also collect seeds to use for replanting there and elsewhere. Overall, Nachusa is great, even though I have been unsuccessful there. There’s always next year!

Nature Conservancy Site of the Week #2

Located in South Central Wisconsin, Baxter’s Hollow, near Baraboo, provides for excellent birding in a hidden away place. The preserve is just shy of 5,000 acres and has some 40 species of breeding forest birds. The most sought after birds at Baxter’s Hollow are the rare (for Wisconsin) Worm-eating Warbler and the Hooded Warbler.

The last time I visited (also the first time) we did not see either rare warbler but were delighted by a gang of Blue-winged Warblers that nearly danced on our heads with warbler delight. We walked up a large portion of the narrow road leading into the actual trail and were inundated with birdsong the entire time.

The best time to visit would be early morning in spring to find nesting and migrating birds. An afternoon at the International Crane Foundation north of Baraboo would make for a wonderfully complete day. I plan on returning to Baxter’s Hollow in spring of ‘07.

Worm-eating Warbler - courtesy of Flickr photo sharing

Hooded Warbler - from Flickr photo sharing

((Side note - a few pictures I was linking in from Cornell but thought better of it…so I put them on my site and kept copyright and all that. The more I thought about it, I figured I shouldn’t do that either so I got a couple of photos from Flickr. I don’t sell anything on this site but just want to show viewers the beauty of birds.))

Nature Conservancy Site of the Week - #1

Kicking off a weekly feature of this blog is the first Nature Conservancy Site of the Week, the Central Selva Protection Area. Located in the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru, the Central Selva Protection Area includes Yanachaga-Chemillen National Park at almost 300,000 acres.  The Conservancy also has an influence on almost 5 million acres of land in this area that helps preserve more than 500 species of birds including the Harpy Eagle and 85 mammal species. Some 2,500 species of trees and shrubs have been classified in the area, a number that is estimated to be much higher (closer to 6,000).

What makes this area so great and especially important to me is that I fantasize daily about traveling to Peru and that many cool birds we have in the U.S. winter in the area: Blackburnian Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Kingbird, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

You can read more about this area in Parks in Peril and the Yanachaga-Chemillen National Park site.

I recommend buying the Birds of Peru (link to the American Birding Association) because whether you’re going to visit or not, it is an awesome book to study.