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Promoting the enjoyment, study, and conservation of Wisconsin's birds.

WSO seeks Administrative Assistant

The WSO seeks to hire an Administrative Assistant in a part time role. This person will assist us with postal mail and email correspondence, meeting scheduling, member and donor database management, event logistics, third party vendor communications, reporting, website updates and other similar duties. We are looking for someone who has the following skills and experience: Office management... Read More   

Buena Vista Grasslands Field Trip - Feb. 13

Photo taken by Tiffany Biederman -Written by Adam Knueppel- On Saturday, February 13, a group of fifteen, brave birders met in the Buena Vista Grasslands at 8 a.m. Temperatures averaged about –6 degrees and light snow was falling for much of the trip. Adam Knueppel, Tom Schultz, and Jeff Baughman led the trip. The wide-open grasslands, accompanied by northwest winds averaging 8-15... Read More   

WSO Moves Toward Hiring An Executive Director

-By Mary Korkor (WSO President)- The WSO Board of Directors spent much of 2020 exploring what it would take to make the organization more impactful and efficient and how to create a sustainable future. Our primary responsibilities and objectives? Protecting birds, providing opportunities for birders, expanding the community of citizens who are informed and concerned about birds, and becoming an... Read More   

2022 WSO Convention in Two Rivers!

The COVID-19 pandemic will force a two-year delay, but WSO members can still plan on getting ready for Great Birding on a Great Lake! Two Rivers, located on the breezy shores of Lake Michigan, will be hosting the 81st WSO convention, originally scheduled for 2020. The next WSO convention now is scheduled for May 19-22, 2022. Attendees will enjoy a wonderful weekend full of field trips, social... Read More   

Milwaukee Lakefront Field Trip 2021 - Jan. 17

  -Written by Tom Schultz, former Field Trips co-chair- Our group met at South Shore Yacht Club around 7:30 AM on Sunday, January 17. Light flurries were falling from time to time, but the temperature was pretty mild for mid January – right around 30 degrees – and the NW wind was fairly light. The 19 attendees had all pre-registered via the WSO website, and the group was led by Tom... Read More   

Update on WSO Field Trips 2020

  You may have noticed that the December issue of The Badger Birder did not include its usual four-page schedule of field trips for the coming year. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic makes it impossible to plan a regular field trip schedule, so WSO's Field Trip Committee will be scheduling events on an as-possible basis and will continue to use the COVID-19 protocols it implemented for two... Read More   

Superheroes of Science Olympiad’s Avian Challenge

Jenna Castillo and Grace Hasse, juniors at Menomonie High School in Dunn County, with the Silver Medals they earned in the ornithology event of a nationwide scholastic competition called Science Olympiad. -By Steve Betchkal- Grace Hasse and Jenna Castillo are Super Heroes. They can’t sing like a thrush, cross the Gulf of Mexico by flapping their arms, or even fly. But they can tell you how a... Read More   

Winter Finch Irruption Makes ‘Home for the Holidays’ Easier

Evening Grosbeaks can be attracted with black oil sunflower seeds presented on a platform feeder. Photo taken by Ryan Brady. The pandemic may be dictating that this is the winter for the state’s birders to play it safe, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy one of our favorite pastimes. Yes, most birders are staying at home, or close to home, in their birding activities, especially... Read More   

Leaders Ask Skyscraper Owner to Remedy Bird Collisions

                  Photo by Brad Bumgardner. Virginia Rails are low altitude migrants and thus vulnerable to collisions with the Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons. On. Oct. 15, a coalition of the state’s leading bird conservation leaders – led by WSO and Bird City Wisconsin --  sent a letter to Northwestern Mutual executives... Read More   

WSO Seeks to Hire Editor for eHaunts

  In September, WSO announced that it was making the 5th Edition of Wisconsin’s Favorite Bird Haunts available to members on our members-only website at https://wso.wildapricot.org/haunts. We did so with the knowledge that Haunts was last updated in 2009. Over the last 11 years a lot has changed in terms of bird population distribution, relevance of birding sites and accessibility of some... Read More   

Reopened WSO Bookstore Features New ABA State Guide

  Reopened WSO Bookstore features new ABA state guide With appropriate pandemic precautions now in place, WSO has officially reopened its newly-remodeled Bookstore. Orders can be placed from the WSO website at https://wsobirds.org/wso-store  or by mail using the updated order form that appears on Page 14 of this issue of The Badger Birder. The online storefront is all new and... Read More