Going deer hunting this November? This is all about switching to lead-free ammunition and all the reasons why. You've got plenty of time to purchase some copper ammunition before November.

Radio interview, Dave Clausen DVM and Dr. Susan Davidson (high risk obstetrics physician) 

about 14 minutes. Thanks to WUWM Milwaukee 89.7FM

North American Lead-free Partnership

The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota

raptor.umn.edu

They have a great film, 'Lead It Go'

The Peregrine Fund

Peregrinefund.org

Sources of copper ammunition

Ammo.com

Remington.com

The Raptor Center list

A shorter interview with David Clausen DVM and Dr Susan Davidson

thanks to WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio.

Two fun topics today, how to build a simple effective turtle nest protector, something very important to have on hand even if you think you'll never need it.  The need is so great because the raccoon population is soaring and they love nothing more than to dig up freshly laid turtle eggs for a meal. It's a fun easy project. Check out turtlesfortomorrow.org for lots of information by Wisconsin's experts on turtles.

And have you ever wondered which woodpecker you hear drumming?  Here are nifty tips and audio about telling the difference between the downey and hairy, and the flicker, sapsucker and pileated are sounded out here too. After hearing and reading this from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I think I can tell these birds by their drumming.!

The black-billed cuckoo and yellow-billed cuckoo are marvels of the bird world, I am besotted~! and then a fun way to enjoy bees in a pile of wood and rocks in your garden, bee hotels.

The birds we see so many of in summer, the cliff swallows, fly long distances to come to North America to raise their young. They nest under bridges and culverts and have many fascinating secrets. I'll read from a wonderful book, Swallow Summer by the researcher who has studied these fascinating birds for many decades, Charles Brown.

Neil Diboll of Prairie Nursery has a 600 plus page book, The Gardener's Guide to Prairie Plants. I'll read a review by Laurel Bennett,  

https://theprairieenthusiasts.org/book-review-the-gardeners-guide-to-prairie-plants/and I'll read about the nifty tool for quickly killing parsnip without chemicals, , the Parsnip Predator, invented and made by the Prairie Bluff chapter of TPE.I use mine more and more. It's very handy,,look out burdock too!~

We will delve into the reasons for prescribed burning of various landscapes;  prairies, wetlands, sedge meadows and oak forests are fire dependent and will lose native species over time if fire disappears. Thanks to Mississippi Valley  Conservancy and The Aldo Leopold Foundation for information about their burning activities.

Fire is an essential tool to restore Wisconsin’s fire-adapted ecosystems.

from the WI DNR :

Prescribed fire is the intentional application of fire to a specific pre-planned area, under specific environmental conditions, to accomplish planned land management objectives. Without the use of prescribed burning as a management tool, Wisconsin could lose many of its native grassland, wetland and savanna plant communities.

And Brent Anderson has written on theprairieenthusiasts.org website, about a molecule found in the smoke of burned native grasses and forbs called karrikins.  These molecules trigger seed germination and enhance seedling development. Identified in 2004, these compounds act as signaling molecules at very low concentrations, acting as chemical cues that prompt "fire-followers" to emerge after wildfires

I'm looking at The Prairie Enthusiasts website, theprairieenthusiasts.org and finding a wealth of stories, information, identification help, management tips and techniques, and have picked 2 to read, one about the timber rattlesnake by Brian Bielema, and the other about the carrot family host plants of the black swallowtailed butterfly, among that family is the problematic plant the wild parsnip. Should we worry when we try to get rid of the parsnip? We hear Dan Carter, the TPE Ecologist's,  response to this question. 

From Bielema's article, "One surprising benefit rattlesnakes provide humans is that eating their main food species, white-footed mice, reduces Lyme disease. Up to 90% of white-footed mice carry the Lyme bacteria, and tick larvae and nymphs become infected by biting the mice. If the mouse is consumed, both the disease carrier and its tick load is eliminated. It’s estimated a single rattlesnake may consume more than 1,000 ticks annually, thus reducing Lyme disease in rattlesnake inhabited areas."

Two great stories, the first by Kenny Salwey, The Gray Shadow; we spend a year with a gray fox vixen; a beautiful written portrait, published Big River Magazine,  November December 2016.

www.bigrivermagazine.com

Then, the many trials, errors and successes of a man who bought a rundown farm in the 1950's and discovered many beautiful butterfly weeds with their bright orange blooms, seen brightly a quarter mile away. He became devoted to finding out how to get more of these plants, how to get the seeds to germinate?  He tackled spiderwort and lead plant propagation,,this before the internet--imagine that!  This was the beginning of Prairie Nursery in Westfield. I'm reading the fascinating introduction from The Prairie Garden 70 Native Plants You Can Grow in Town or Country, published in 1980 by University of Wisconsin Press.

Also mentioned; The Prairie in Seed, Identifying Seed-bearing Prairie Plants in the Upper Midwest, by Dave Williams, published by University of Iowa Press, 2016

One of the most important topics for us to be aware of, the impact of the relatively new and pervasive insecticide, neonicotinoid seed treatment; persistent in our water, wind and soils.  Farmers have little choice, in the seeds they buy, to avoid it. This is the terrific article in Big River Magazine issue Jan-Feb 2025, "Where are the Mayflies" by John Lyons with a fascinating introduction my Reggie McLeod. Also we hear from Ellen Voss of the River Alliance of Wisconsin and her talk recently in Boscobel about neonics. She is the Climate Resilience Director with the River Alliance of Wisconsin and 

From the Xerces Society, and xerces.org  my favorite group of insect lovers, here are some fun things they suggest we can do to create some simple habitat for our native insects; make a rock pile, and a mud puddle!

These are great things to do with kids. Butterflies will love the water and mineral source, and many insects will hide out in your rock pile.

And "Leave the Leaves" 

Don't let our fastidious human nature have sway in your garden, let it be messy!  Learn more here!