Wisconsin Center for Wildlife

08/25/2026

What happened to this cardinal?

Here at the WCW, we sometimes get calls from people who are concerned about a bald cardinal visiting their feeder. We admit, northern cardinals look quite strange without their head feathers, and we understand why you'd be worried!

But worry not! This bird doesn't need any help. Some cardinals go bald during the normal annual molting process, a time when they shed and replace all their feathers. While many cardinals molt slowly, some individuals shed all their head feathers at once. This is healthy and normal. The new feathers begin to grow, and the bird will be restored to their former glory before winter.

Blue jays are also known to show up bald from time to time. They too, sometimes shed their head feathers all at once.

Have you seen a bald cardinal at your feeder! Let us know!
Share your pictures in the comments!

08/24/2026

Migration Monday is back!

We will continue to highlight a fall migrant each week until the migration season ends.

Today, we introduce you to a relatively common, but rarely seen bird.

Meet the sora!

An intensely secretive marsh-dwelling bird, soras are heard more often than they are seen; they have a unique, descending, whinnying call. These birds mostly stay hidden among dense cattails and grasses of wetlands, foraging for seeds of wetland plants. Soras don't visit bird feeders and are rarely seen away from marshes.

So, image our surprise when we heard a sora showed up this morning in our outreach specialist, Jennifer Summers's front yard! They aren't typically seen among landscaping rocks and garden hoses. This bird is likely just starting to migrate south, and is looking for a place to hang out and fatten up for a while before continuing its journey.

We are doubly excited to see this bird because Ava Cross-Weisbeck, our Director Jason Riddle's graduate student, studies secretive marsh birds, including soras!
Ava's research mostly focuses on how bitterns and rails, including soras, use restored and existing wetland habitats. Ava uses call-broadcast surveys paired with acoustic monitoring, which involves using a special recording device left out in the marsh for weeks or months at a time to record the birds' calls. So far, Ava has learned how different survey methods can help us better understand these elusive birds.

Ava's co-advisor, Associate Professor Marie Perkins, Ph.D., who is also quite fond of soras and other birds in the rail family, tells some other interesting facts about soras! Soras fly long distances during migration, but outside of the migration period, they rarely fly at all. They prefer to walk or run through the dense marsh vegetation. They can swim in open water and are known to completely submerge themselves underwater to avoid predators!

Have you ever seen or heard a sora? Have you seen one in an unusual place?
Tell us about it or share your pictures in the comments!

Learn more about the Ava's research and the WCW's other bird-focused research on our website, www.uwsp.edu/wcw.

08/13/2026

WCW Outreach Specialist Jennifer Summers and WDNR Wisconsin Bat Ambassador Rebecka Hellweg present "Bats of Wisconsin and Beyond" at the Marathon County Library this Monday, August 17!

Join us at 7:00 PM for a presentation all about bats! Learn all about the fascinating world of these mysterious nocturnal animals. Where do they live? What do they eat? How big are they? What kind of bats do we have in Wisconsin, and how can I help them? Learn the answers to these questions and more!

The presentation is followed by a Bat Walk at 8:00 PM at Oak Island. We will use a special bat detector to record echolocation calls of flying bats. See sonograms of bat calls and learn what species are flying in the area!

We hope to see you there!

08/12/2026

Check out our booth at DeerFest 2026, this weekend at the Holiday Inn in Stevens Point, and learn how to age a deer by its teeth!

WCW Outreach Specialist Jennifer Summers; UW-Stevens Point Wildlife Assistant Professor and Ungulate Specialist Monet Gomes in the exhibitor space and some of our students will be there to teach you to age deer jaws, or test your skills if you already know how!

Try our self-guided, step-by-step jaw aging activity, or allow us to walk you through the process. By the end of the activity, you will be able to confidently differentiate between fawn, yearling, and adult deer, and understand characteristics that differentiate deer over the age of 2.5 years.

We hope to see you there!

Learn more about DeerFest 2026 at https://deerfest.com/

Interested in having WCW host a deer jaw aging activity or workshop at your school or event? Contact us at [email protected]!

08/07/2026

What is this bat doing? Is it okay? Why is it there during the day?

Have you seen a bat hanging on the outside of a house or building, like this one?

Don’t worry! This is a little brown bat, and it is just fine!
It's just resting!

Wisconsin’s hibernating bats are starting to leave their summer roosts to head to their winter hibernation sites. Little brown bats, one of the most common species in Wisconsin, can travel over 100 miles between their summer and winter homes! Because they are nocturnal, they need to rest during the day. They will sometimes rest under eaves and overhangs for the day before continuing along on their journey. Young bats especially seem to roost in odd and exposed places, like the side of a building, because they’re still learning how to choose safe places to roost.
The bat may stay in this temporary roost for a few days while it builds up strength and forages at night.

If you see a bat high up on a wall under eves or an overhang like this, leave it be! It will leave on its own.

Never touch a bat (or any wild animal) with your bare hands!

If you need to move a bat, wear gloves, place a box over the bat, then slide a stiff piece of cardboard underneath to trap it, then release it on the side of a tree.

Got a bat or other wildlife question? The WCW can help!
Email us at [email protected].

07/30/2026

Meet Cady Sartini, Ph.D.!

Cady is a WCW Fellow and the Principal Investigator on the Wisconsin Black Bear Project. The Wisconsin Black Bear Project is one of the longest-running bear research studies ever conducted; it began in the 1970’s!

Cady instructs a unique Black Bear Ecology and Management class at UWSP where students are trained on all aspects of black bear research. In addition to her graduate and undergraduate researchers, she advises the Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s Black Bear Project, whose research projects have included tracking orphaned, rehabilitated black bears after the bears were released from a rehab center. Cady's graduate and undergraduate research students are studying Wisconsin black bear movements in relation to habitat and food availability, and human activities such as baiting. Cady is also passionate about studying animal behavior and human-wildlife interactions, and she teaches courses on these topics at UW-Stevens Point!

Learn more about the black bear project, Cady Sartini’s work, and the WCW on our website!

https://www.uwsp.edu/wisconsin-center-for-wildlife/wcw-black-bear-research/

07/29/2026

07/21/2026

Today, we continue to introduce you to the faculty and staff of the Wisconsin Center for Wildlife!

Shelli Dubay, one of four WCW Fellows, serves as the Gerald and Helen Stephens Endowed Professor of Wildlife. She is the WCW’s (and of course, UW-Stevens Point’s) resident wildlife health expert and self-professed small mammal enthusiast.

She currently advises graduate and undergraduate student researchers studying endangered black-footed ferrets and prairie dogs. Her graduate student's research focuses on tracking the movement of fleas between prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets to better understand how diseases are transmitted between these species. Appropriately, her favorite class to teach at UW-Stevens Point is wildlife diseases.

Shelli advises two research projects for the UW-Stevens Point Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society: the Gray Squirrel project and the Flying Squirrel Project. Shelli also belongs to the Wildlife Disease Association and serves on their Student Activities Committee.

Learn more about Shelli Dubay’s research and the WCW on our website!

https://www.uwsp.edu/wisconsin-center-for-wildlife/wildlife-health-lab/

05/18/2026

Welcome back to the WCW’s Migration Monday!

Meet the Common Yellowthroat! This small warbler is easy to spot with its namesake brilliant, bright yellow throat on both males and females. The male has a striking black mask stretching across both eyes and a white band just above the mask. You’ll likely hear this talkative bird before you see it: listen for a ‘witchety- witchety- witchety' song. Once you hear them, watch for small brownish birds darting through low and mid-level scrubby brush.

Common yellowthroats live across most of the United States during the breeding season. They live in many areas with low, dense, scrubby bushes, and vegetation, especially in wet areas. They build carefully hidden nests among thick, tangled vegetation. Common yellowthroats are returning to Wisconsin now and establishing their territories. Now is a great time to go out and look and listen for these charming little warblers!

Have you seen the Common Yellowthroat yet this year?

05/13/2026

We're sharing this exciting opportunity for Wisconsin landowners on behalf of our colleagues at UW UW-Madison Extension Forestry!

🌲 Own woodland in Wisconsin or the Midwest? 🌲

Apply now for the 2026 Wisconsin Coverts Project Workshop —
a FREE, one-of-a-kind experience designed for private landowners who want to improve their woodlands for wildlife.

📍 Woodruff, WI
📅 August 6–9, 2026
💲 Cost: FREE (lodging, meals & materials included!)
🦃 Learn basic principles of forest and wildlife management
🐾 Explore the woods and learn how to inventory and monitor wildlife
🌳 Discover people and programs that can assist you in achieving your goals
🤝 Connect with experts and join a network of passionate land stewards

Become a Coverts Cooperator and help spark a ripple effect—landowners like you have already influenced over 1 million acres of habitat in Wisconsin and the Midwest. 🌎💚

📝 Apply by June 15
🔗 http://fwe.wisc.edu/coverts

🌿 Warning: Participation may cause sudden urges to improve your woods!

Wisconsin Coverts Project - Extension Coverts “Coverts” is a Woodland Wildlife Management Program for Private Landowners The next Wisconsin Coverts Project workshop will be held August 6-9, 2026 at Kemp Natural Resources Station in Woodruff, WI. Note: You do not need to be a Wisconsin landowner ...