Feminist Bird Club - Madison Wisconsin

07/28/2025

We had such a wonderful time at Cherokee North for our Beginning Birding outing with Madison Public Library! The prairies were blooming with wildflowers and the birds were bustling! We saw over 30 species together and got to witness several species that had young fledglings still getting fed by their parents. Thank you so much to everyone who joined us!

If you're curious to try out birding, be sure to check out a Birding Backpack from any Madison Public Library location or from the Dane County Library Service's Bookmobile! There's no shortage of opportunities to borrow some FREE binoculars and a local birding guide. 🎒

Looking to stay in the loop about other FBC events? Stay in touch with our chapter's offerings through our monthly newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hFQ-an

📷: Birders in the prairie at Cherokee North and fledgling birds we saw, including Willow Flycatcher, Marsh Wren, and Sedge Wren. Photos by Caitlyn Schuchhardt and Megan Heneke

07/20/2025

Coming up next Saturday! 👀 Join FBC and our friends at Madison Public Library for another Beginning Birding for Families outing! We'll be exploring the North Unit of Cherokee Marsh together and seeing what resident bird species we can discover.

This is a family-friendly event that is perfect for both kids and adults that are feeling bird-curious and eager to see what species call Cherokee Marsh their home. Binoculars will be provided.

Registration is required on the MPL website: https://events.madisonpubliclibrary.org/events/211058

06/14/2025

We'll be at Tenney Park from 1-3pm today for a stationary birding sit and social, co-hosted with the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin. This is a great opportunity to learn more about our chapter, socialize with friends, and experience the local birds of Tenney Park. 🐦We will also be hosting a food drive for OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center's food pantry during the social, so bring along an item to donate (not required), and come chill with us! 🥫

We will be gathering in the shade of the trees near the basketball court area, on the center island at Tenney. Bring a chair or blanket and binoculars if you have them, though we will have some extras too! 🌳

📷: A previous Tenney Park sit and social! Note that we'll be gathering in a different spot this year. Find a pin in the comments!

06/02/2025

Happy Pride Month, friends! 🏳️‍🌈 We are so grateful for our LGBTQIA+ members who help make our chapter so special. You matter and you will *always* be welcome in our birding community.

To celebrate Pride, we're bringing back our Q***r Nature outing series! Join us later in June to learn about q***r nature, from birds to plants to fungi. 🐦🌿🍄 Same-sex interactions have been documented in more than 1000 animal species, including many of our birds, so we're excited to celebrate nature in all its q***rness! Registration for these outings on June 26 & 28 will open on June 12.

We are also hosting an upcoming stationary birding sit + social event at Tenney Park on Saturday, June 14 with the BIPOC Birding Club. No registration required! This is a great opportunity to learn more about our chapter, socialize with friends, and experience the local birds of Tenney Park. We will also be hosting a food drive for OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center's food pantry during the social, so bring along an item to donate then come chill with us!

Want more details? It's all in our latest newsletter! 🏳️‍🌈
https://mailchi.mp/aa5d7b95ea8d/june2025

📷: One of last year's Q***r Nature outings at Lakeshore Nature Preserve

05/27/2025

We had another phenomenal visit to Friends of Mead & McMillan Wildlife Areas over the weekend, with great weather and a lot of lifers to go around. Thank you so much to the Mead Wildlife Education Team for showing us around on a special haywagon tour!

We saw 91 species on our visit. 🤯 Highlights included getting excellent looks at rare birds like a White-faced Ibis and an Eared Grebe. We also had classic looks at American Bittern poking its head from cattails, baby Double-crested Cormorants getting fed, soooo many pelicans, up close looks at Semipalmated Plover, and a nice amount of warbler and songbird variety!

We're grateful to Sam and Craig at Mead for inviting us back again and treating our chapter to such a fun day. If you haven't visited Mead yet, be sure to put this spot on your list - it offers over 33,000 acres of incredible birding and scenery!

📷 by Caitlyn Schuchhardt and Sam DeRoche

05/18/2025

Looking for plans next weekend? Join us for our day trip to Mead Wildlife Area on Saturday, May 24! We still have a few open spaces in this incredible field trip, where we'll bird by haywagon as we explore this gorgeous wildlife area.

Join Feminist Bird Club members for a special day trip and birding tour of Mead Wildlife Area!

05/12/2025

What a day! Our fifth annual year as team Yes We Pelican! is in the books. Our members saw a collective ✨️130 species✨️ and raised an absolutely incredible $2,500 for bird conservation! 🤯

The funds our team has raised will be split between SOS Save Our Songbirds, a group doing phenomenal work to empower individuals to make small but significant changes that can help protect migratory songbirds, and the Bird Protection Fund, which supports some of Wisconsin's most endangered species and critical bird conservation projects.

Thank you so much to the 50+ members who joined us across our 5 group birding outings, to all our intrepid members birding solo to help round out our count, to all our lovely donors who helped us raise these important funds, and to everyone who cheered our team on today! We appreciate you all so much. 💕

We'll highlight some birds of Birdathon later this week with our full trip report! 🐦

Miss your chance to donate? Help us fly even higher! Our team page will be open for donations through the end of June.

Team Yes We Pelican! is back for our fifth year of the Birdathon! We represent the Feminist Bird Club-Madison Chapter . Can we spot a lot of birds, raise funds for bird conservation, and build an inclusive birding community all at the same time? Yes We Pelican! New this year, we're partnering with S...

05/11/2025

Our last group bird outing of the day at Lakeshore is in the books! We're currently sitting at 120 species for the day - truly a group effort! Highlights from Lakeshore included Baltimore Orioles actively building nests, more Warbling Vireos than we could possibly count, and a very special and silent moment with a Barred Owl.

We've still got some birders in the field, so the tally isn't final yet. We'll reveal our final count tonight at our Birdathon celebration! 🎉 Join us for an informal social at Olbrich Biergarten at 7:30pm tonight to celebrate our epic day, share Birdathon highlights, and finalize our tally!

That means there's still time to make a donation and help us reach our goal by the end of the night! We've raised over $2,000 but are just $500 away from our goal. Donate to our team today and support both SOS Save Our Songbirds and the Bird Protection Fund!

https://charity.pledgeit.org/WIBirdathon2025/teams/-we-pelican

05/11/2025

We just wrapped up at Hoyt Park! Our total is now at an awesome 114 species, with highlights from Hoyt that included Blue-headed Vireo, Tufted Titmouse, and a female Scarlet Tanager. We also saw a Cooper's Hawk on a nest - a fun sight for Mother's Day! 🪺

We're thankful to have helpful FBC members birding solo to help us cover more ground, with lists coming in from Horicon Marsh, Pheasant Branch, and more! Thank you everyone!

We have one more official outing this afternoon at Lakeshore Nature Preserve, where we hope to snag some species we've missed so far. Stay tuned! 👀

Donate in support of our efforts and help us raise incredible funds for SOS Save Our Songbirds and the Bird Protection Fund! We've raised over $1,900 are just $600 short of our goal - every little bit is for the birds!

https://charity.pledgeit.org/WIBirdathon2025/teams/-we-pelican

05/11/2025

The lists are in from Cherokee South and Nine Springs! Our total has skyrocketed to 99 species! Highlights include Black-throated Blue Warbler and Great Horned Owl from Cherokee South and lots of Great Egrets and shorebirds galore from Nine Springs.

We're flying a little closer to our fundraising goal, but not there yet! We've got more birding this afternoon and it's getting a little hot out there. ☀️ Send our team some moral support with a donation!

https://charity.pledgeit.org/WIBirdathon2025/teams/-we-pelican

05/11/2025

The first group report is in! Our early bird team members started at 7am at Cherokee North, spotting 59 species. Highlights included Pileated Woodpecker, a gorgeous male Blackburnian Warbler and Golden-winged Warbler, soooo many Indigo Buntings, and a stunning male Orchard Oriole.

Thank you so much to everyone who cheered us on with a donation this morning. We've now raised over $1,800! We're still shy of our goal. Every little bit counts for our birds! Half of what we raise will go to SOS Save Our Songbirds and half will go to the Bird Protection Fund!

https://charity.pledgeit.org/WIBirdathon2025/teams/-we-pelican

05/11/2025

Today is the day! Our chapter is gearing up for a full day of birding as team Yes We Pelican! takes to the field for the Great Wisconsin Birdathon.

How can you help?

✅️ Donate to our team! We're just over 50% of the way to our goal and are hoping to reach it by the end of the day!

✅️ Bird with us! If you can't join one of our outings, share your eBird checklists with username: FeministBirdClubWI to contribute to our collective species count!

Birdathon is a team effort and team Yes We Pelican! peli-can't do it without you! Stay tuned for more updates as reports from our birding outings soar in throughout the day.

Donate here: https://charity.pledgeit.org/WIBirdathon2025/teams/-we-pelican