Muskego Conservation

Join us this Sunday (9/8) at 8am for a morning birding hike around Engel Conservation Area! It is peak fall migration season for many birds which is a great time to get the chance to see the extraordinary birds that pass through Muskego on their way down south!

We have exciting news to share!

Muskego’s ospreys have begun their fall migration. Ospreys are dependent on a fish only diet and must migrate to warmer areas where water bodies do not freeze over and where fish swim closer to the water’s surface. Female ospreys typically migrate earlier than their male counterparts along with wintering further south than males. Three of Big Muskego Lake's ospreys were equipped with satellite telemetry this spring. Of these three, our only female, Kiwi, is currently resting/fishing along the Tennessee River in Alabama! Kiwi’s brother, Rico, has also left Muskego and is currently in central Illinois! Our third osprey, Cole, is continuing to transmit locally around Big Muskego Lake, soaking up his last summer days on his home turf! We can’t wait to learn more about the future of Muskego's raptors!

You can stay updated on the ospreys migration adventure by following this link to a regularly updated digital map. https://muskego.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=f1311f48ed6548539f14a1caf367dde4

Exciting news! Our team discovered a Rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) queen at our very own Badertscher Preserve! Rusty patched bumble bees have been classified as federally endangered since 2017 due to declining population numbers which can be linked to several stressors including pesticides, habitat loss, climate change, and disease. This particular Rusty patched we discovered is known as a “gene” meaning she will be next year’s queen (spring/summer 2025). This time of the year she will mate, then find a safe place to overwinter, and in spring she will emerge from her hibernation and begin creating a nest (hopefully at Badertscher).

Check out the Muskego fall recreation guide! We are hosting multiple outdoor recreation classes including a birding hike, a tree identification class, and a volunteer seed collection day! Hope to see you there!

Our Fall Digital Program Guide is now online at https://indd.adobe.com/view/dbb13a6d-a7c6-46ed-ba9d-dbb3d79aac2a

A PDF version will be on the City website tomorrow or can also be viewed on our recreation software site at muskego.wi.gov/rec and clicking on the Information Drop down and selecting Program Guide.

Printed copies should be available for pick up by Monday of next week.

Our conservation areas are fluttering with a variety butterflies! We have several smaller conservation sites right in the city that have a great showcase of pollinators. Sites such as Kurth Park, Moorland Park, and Bluhm are awesome sites to get a quick and easy nature escape!

WHERE DO MUSKEGO’S OSPREYS GO?

Muskego is fortunate to have nesting ospreys on Big Muskego Lake since the early 2000’s. Each year, raptor researcher Bill Stout bands the young ospreys produced in the nest. This year, three young ospreys have been fitted with a small (GPS) satellite telemetry device to monitor their movements. The device will track local movements and migration patterns of ospreys that fledged from nests on Big Muskego Lake. The data from the telemetry device will provide us with insight into when the ospreys depart Big Muskego Lake for migration, what flight path they take, including if they stop anywhere along their journey, where they overwinter, and where they return to when they come back north. The young ospreys are now flying (fledged) and are honing in on their fishing skills while enjoying the rest of the summer in Muskego before heading south for the winter.

Thank you greatly to the Muskego Kiwanis Club for sponsoring the telemetry for one of the ospreys and thank you to all of the community members who donated and joined us on the trip! Also, a huge thank you to Bill Stout for leading this project!

Our conservation sites are in full BLOOM!! Check out the beautiful display of native flowers that are covering our natural areas. The prairies at Badertscher Preserve and Engel Conservation Area are especially beautiful right now! A vast majority of the forbs that you see in our natural areas are derived from seed that we were able to collect from our other natural sites, we just help Mother Nature a little bit in the dispersal of the native wildflower seed around Muskego :)

With all of the rain this Spring and Summer, there is quite the fungi party occurring in our woodlands! All of these pictures were taken in the oak woodlands at Engel Conservation area within just a few minutes! Go out and see if you can find any mushrooms growing in one of many conservation areas near you, we are sure you will have a fun(gi) time! Apps such as Seek by iNaturalist, Picture This, and Google Lens are great resources to help you identify fungi while out in the field.

Earlier this month we wrapped up our first ever Native Land Management course. This was a 4-session community class through Muskego Parks & Recreation which covered topics relating to managing native plant communities and controlling invasive species in South Eastern Wisconsin. We had a great time getting to know everyone and are looking forward to our future classes! Make sure to check out the Muskego's 2024 Summer Recreation Guide for more outdoor learning classes!

https://indd.adobe.com/view/8be6f073-6e54-423d-9dc2-6acee845738a

The trails at Engel Conservation Area have been mowed and are ready for hikers! Shooting star, Wild lupine, Wood betony, and Golden Alexander are in bloom. Engel is great site for bird watching as it has woodlands, prairies, and a large wetland area. You might even come by a snapping turtle or 2 while on the trails!

Check out the recreation classes we have this summer! For the first time we are offering a multitude of conservation related rec classes to get you in touch with your wild side. 🐾 We have added a bumble bee hike, a wildflower identification course, and a journaling in nature class to get our mind and bodies in tuned with the land that surrounds us! If you are interested in joining any of these classes, head to the City of Muskego’s Park and Rec "Programs and Activities" page to sign up! Hope to see you there! 🐝🌷📖
https://www.muskego.wi.gov/Departments/Rec/Program%20&%20Activities/Program%20Guide%20Summer%202024%20Online.pdf

JOIN US for World Migratory Bird Day!! We will hosting an easy bird watching hike on May 11th 8am-10:30am at Badertscher Preserve. Everyone is welcome, hope to see you there!

World Migratory Bird Day is just around the corner! Come on out to Badertscher Preserve to celebrate!

We had a great time celebrating Earth Day + Arbor Day with the Muskego High School students! Students helped by picking invasive Garlic Mustard and also planting three different native plants in the oak woods at Engel Conservation Area. It’s amazing the amount of work that can be accomplished in such a small window of time! We appreciate all the collaboration over the years with Muskego High School and look forward to future events!

Happy Earth Day from the City of Muskego Conservation crew! We pride ourselves in the work that we do to manage and protect Muskego’s natural areas and love what we do! This Earth Day, we hope you spend time in one of Muskego’s conservation sites or parks enjoying the beautiful nature that surrounds us! You might even find yourself crossing paths with a snapping turtle like our team did last week at Badertscher Preserve!

The Ospreys have returned to Big Muskego!

So far, we have one returning pair that have found their way back to their favorite platform! We are hoping for another great season of breeding. Last season we were able to band 8 (4F/4M) Ospreys fledglings. We are also excited to announce our Osprey telemetry research will be taking place this coming season. We plan on fitting telemetry to 3 Osprey fledglings, if you are interested in learning more about our telemetry research or how you can donate, check out the picture attached!

Happy World Frog Day! This winter into spring season we have been conducting frog / aquatic invertebrate surveys at a few of our sites! Performing these surveys tells us the presence/absence of species in our natural areas. It is important for us to know what frogs are utilizing our natural areas so we can better improve and protect our water ways. Pictured below is a Boreal Chorus Frog we surveyed in one of our natural areas! We are hoping to find more of Wisconsin's native frog species as we continue this research.

We had a great time at our community Raptor event! We learned about the importance of bird banding from our knowledgeable presenter Bill Stout and got a close look at a few beautiful birds including a Northern goshawk, Great horned owl, Screech owl, and Red-tailed hawk that were generously brought by certified falconer Ed and his daughter Jaimie.

If you are interested in joining us for community events like this, check out the City of Muskego's page to learn about the upcoming events we have this Spring.

During these cold weather days, we spend a lot of our time manipulating, organizing, and mixing native seed that we collected throughout the summer and fall season. We have over 150 different species of native flora in our stock, a vast majority which were hand collected. More species were ordered through native seed sites, allowing for the reintroduction of native plants to Muskego’s natural areas where they previously had been extirpated.

A majority of seeding in Muskego’s natural areas takes place during late November through early winter. It is beneficial to spread seed during the winter as the freezing to thawing process of the soil helps to drill the seeds deeper to the depth needed for proper germination. Let Mother Nature do the work! 🌱

If you are interested in planting native seed in your yard, check out these sites!

• https://www.prairiemoon.com/
• https://www.agrecol.com/