Aug. 22 field trip to Dane County Humane Society's Wildlife Center spotlights the deadly toll of birds hitting windows and how to prevent it

Get a rare behind-the-scenes look at healing injured birds

Lisa Gaumnitz, SOS Save Our Songbirds Coordinator, lisa.gaumnitz@sossaveoursongbirds.org, 608-235-2201

Paige Pederson, Wildlife Operations Supervisor, Dane County Humane Society’s Wildlife Center, ppederson@giveshelter.org, 608-838-0413 ext. 213

MADISON - Dane County Humane Society's (DCHS’s) Wildlife Center has admitted more than 2,000 birds for rehabilitation for confirmed or suspected collisions with windows over the last decade or so.  On Saturday, Aug. 22, people can get a behind-the-scenes look at the Wildlife Center’s bird rehabilitation facilities in a new field trip from the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

“Bird migration is starting to ramp up and we’re excited this new field trip spotlights the serious threat window collisions pose for birds, how we can all make our windows safer for them, and the heroic work by Dane County Humane Society’s Wildlife Center to save birds lucky enough to be brought into their rehabilitation facilities,” says Lisa Gaumnitz, who coordinates SOS Save Our Songbirds, one of the groups organizing the field trip.

The “Wildlife & Windows: Preventing Bird Collisions” field trip costs $20 and runs 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22 at the Wildlife Center, DCHS training room, 5132 Voges Rd, Madison, WI 53718. To register for the field trip, you must be a member of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin. Register for the field trip, #217, and become a member of NRF now. Registration closes at 11 p.m. Aug. 20.

The field trip features presenters from the Wildlife Center, SOS Save Our Songbirds, and a Monona Grove High School junior who installed window treatments to make DCHS windows safer for birds and monitors the windows during migration to see how the treatments are working.

Paige Pederson, the center’s Wildlife Operations Supervisor, will lead the tour of the facilities and talk about the bird species commonly brought in, the kinds of injuries they suffer, and the work and costs associated with Wildlife Center staff and volunteers trying to save the birds.

Ellie, a junior at Monona Grove High School who has been volunteering to reduce bird collisions at the Wildlife Center, will talk about why birds collide with windows, the serious toll on birds, and ways to treat home windows to make them safer.

A member of the Badgerland Girl Scouts, Ellie has been working toward a Gold Award by helping install treatments on some windows at Dane County Humane Society. She also monitors those windows during bird migration, and talks to community groups about the issue. The Gold Award requires 80 hours of community service through an educational and sustainable project. Ellie is working in collaboration with Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance’s Bird Collision Corps.

After brief indoor presentations, field trip participants will move outside to view display windows showcasing different treatment options for making windows safer for birds, and tour the rehabilitation facilities. Due to the Wildlife Center’s license, people will not be able to enter rooms where wild animals are recovering but will be able to watch through viewing windows.

DCHS is a privately operated and funded nonprofit that is accredited, and licensed through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. They do not receive any state or federal dollars and instead are fully funded by grants and donations from the public.

The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin offers 280 Field Trips in Wisconsin exploring Wisconsin’s state’s lands, waters and wildlife with top-notch leaders. Register for other available field trips.

SOS Save Our Songbirds is a Wisconsin, volunteer-based campaign to empower people to take three actions at home to help save our declining songbirds, including treating windows that birds fly into.