Every year the Friends of Cedarburg Bog and UWM Field Station host an annual winter event starting with a walk through the Cedarburg Bog to Long Lake. This year it looks a little different, with only a few board members joining but the beauty of the Bog in winter was still present!
Owls are extraordinary animals. They have many unique adaptations including their outstanding eyesight to catch the smallest prey in the dead of night. By swallowing this prey whole, they depend on their gizzard to sort out the nutritional components from the bones and fur. Pellets are the biproduct of this organ and can tell us a great deal about the owl, it’s diet and the habitat it resides in.
In total, FOCB manages 23 wood duck boxes. These boxes are not just used by wood ducks. They can house Hooded Mergansers as well as provide Eastern Screech Owls a protected roost in the winter. Every nest box has a story and these stories are told best by John O’Donnell, resident bird expert for the Cedarburg Bog. In Part One, we checked in on the waterfowl cavity nest boxed in Mud Lake during summer. Part Two takes place during the winter months, where John show us how to record nest box usage for the year, clean the boxes, and prepare them for the next brood in spring.
The Bog’s expert birder, John O’Donnell takes us along to check two of the 26 nest boxes for cavity nesting waterfowl that the Friends have installed throughout the Cedarburg Bog and neighboring properties. In this first video we will kayak out into Mud Lake to see if there is any activity in the nest boxes. John will explain how to properly identify eggs of various bird species who utilize these boxes to rear their young.
Every January, the UWM Field Station and FOCB put on a special event to take people out into the Cedarburg Bog to Long Lake and Donut Lake. 2021 would have been the 40th year doing this hike! For the safety of all, we opted for a virtual hike instead. Jim Reinartz will start the hike out by talking about the Bog in Winter from the birds that migrate south to spend the winter in our area to which mammals are active in the winter at the Bog.
Cedarburg Bog is home to a wide range of diverse habitat. Just like so many other natural areas, it is threatened by the encroachment of invasive species, especially common and glossy buckthorn. The best time to control these invaders is when the wetland is frozen. Join us as we venture out into the rarely seen depths of the Bog with the stewardship crew that is so passionate about promoting the diversity of the rare ecosystems of the Bog.
Join our Admin Assistant, Danielle Bell, as she guides us on a tour along the trail to Watts Lake to explore the trees that inhabit the various plant communities of the Cedarburg Bog.
Join FOCB Director, Julia Robson, as we learn about the fierce predators of the sky that inhabit the Cedarburg Bog. She will teach us about the different families of odonata, how to identify different species and explain their life cycle.
The Cedarburg Bog was once a large lake. Today it is a 2,200 acre wetland complex composed of multiple smaller lakes. Mud Lake is on the southern end of the Bog and is the largest lake. Within Mud Lake there are multiple geological features that make it unique such as the glacial till islands. Learn about the geology of Mud Lake and the wildlife that inhabit it as we are guided by John O’Donnell, FOCB Director, in kayaks.
Our annual members meeting is being held virtually this year during the month of September. Our Director’s will be presenting their annual reports for their respective committees of FOCB in a series of videos. In this video, Jim Reinartz will present the Stewardship Report, Julia Robson presents the new Scholarship Committee, John O’Donnell explains how FOCB has dealt with the struggles of hosting events during a pandemic for the Events and Education Commiteee, Tim Vargo describes the vacancies in the Governance Report and finally Danielle Bell talks about moving FOCB into the digital realm in the Communication Report.
Our annual members meeting is being held virtually this year during the month of September. Our Director’s will be presenting their annual reports for FOCB in a series of videos. In this video, Jim Ellis, FOCB President and Andy Holman, FOCB Treasurer, share their reports with our membership.
The final segment of our drone flight sends us deeper into the wetland gem of the Cedarburg Bog. Long Lake is one of the most secluded lakes in the Bog and is surrounded by a unique ecosystem defined as a String Bog.
The second flight over the Cedarburg Bog explors the shallow lakes that can be found within this large wetland complex. In this video, we will explore Mud Lake from the sky. Mud Lake provides a major stopover habitat during bird migrations and provides ideal habitat for many different waterfowl and other native species.
The Cedarburg Bog is a 2,200 acre wetland complex that is mostly inaccessible during the growing season on foot. Join FOCB on a drone video through the Cedarburg Bog narrated by one of our Board Directors and Professor Emeritus, Jim Reinartz. This first video explores the northern portion of the Bog and a portion of the UW Milwaukee Field Station property.
Two-Leaf Miterwort is a dainty spring flower that you need to get up close to really appreciate the flower’s beauty. But the flower isn’t the only amazing feature of this plant, check out how it uses rain to disperse it’s seeds!
Painted turtles in Wisconsin hatch in the fall and over winter as babies in the muck of ponds and lakes. We spotted this little fella crossing the trail heading to the marsh while heading out for a morning hike
Have you ever been out looking for frogs and find one you would like to get a closer look at but they jump away too fast? There is a proper way to hold our amphibian friends that won’t hurt them but will give you a chance to get a closer look before releasing them back to their home.
While we are unable to gather as a group, join us virtually for a spring time hike through the Cedaburg Bog State Natural Area with Jim Reinartz, proffessor emeritus at UWM and Board Director of FOCB.
