Picking up trash never felt so good! On September 10, the chapter took kayaks and canoes out on the river with the Upper Sangamon River Conservatory (USRC) to make it even more beautiful. We found plenty of unique items, and some canoes had cleaned up so much, the trash took up more space than the people! All the waste was safely disposed of after the excursion, and we hope to help out more in the future.
Our Education & Outreach Working Group has been working hard on raising awareness about bird window collision on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. If you would like to help implement bird-safe building policies at UIUC, please click here to sign our petition!
Coming Soon!
This was the final in-person event TWS UIUC hosted for the 2019-2020 school year. We had so much more planned for after spring break (nighttime spotlight surveys, golden-plover surveys with IDNR, and camping, to name a few!), but we had a fun time with the local Audubon chapter nevertheless. Members had another opportunity to sharpen their binocular and bird ID skills. Plus, while we didn’t get a picture, we saw a red fox running across a parking lot! Why didn’t we have such fox luck while we were in Madison?
Can you identify all the wildlife in these photos?
PC: Laura
TWS UIUC traveled with Dr. Max Allen, a large carnivore ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, to the University of Wisconsin Madison to help out with the Urban Canid Project. Members learned how to check and set up cable traps for red foxes and tracked a red fox using VHF telemetry equipment. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any foxes this time, but we’re hoping to repeat this trip in the future!
PC: Laura
TWS UIUC members got the opportunity to attend the 2020 Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference in Springfield, IL. The chapter covered registration and travel costs for 8 members to attend the conference. Members had the chance to network with wildlife professionals from across the Midwest and learn about current research in the wildlife field through presentations and poster sessions. It was a great time, and we’re looking forward to when we can attend in-person conferences again!
TWS UIUC and the Illini Wildlife Conservation Club ventured out into the early morning cold for this bird walk at Anita Purves Nature Center. Members from both clubs learned how to properly use binoculars to observe birds and got in some ID practice. Afterwards, members got a chance to chat over brunch. Can you name all the wildlife shown below?
PC: Laura
TWS UIUC headed out to the Vermilion River Observatory, a property owned by the University and maintained by the Illinois Natural History Survey, for a day of searching for snakes. Led by a former TWS UIUC President, members found snakes, frogs, and turtles (oh my!). Any guesses for what mammal that skull belongs to?
PC: Vaibhav & Johnny
TWS UIUC held several camera trapping workshops throughout Fall 2019 that were open to members. The camera traps were set out for a research project that is part of Snapshot USA, a nation-wide camera trapping project by eMammal from the Smithsonian Institute. Members learned how to properly maintain camera trap memory cards and batteries and how to set up camera traps. Several research papers using the data collected from these events are in the works, so keep an eye out for those!
PC: Vaibhav
The first TWS UIUC trip of the 2019-2020 school year! The chapter took 11 members out to the Upper Sangamon River to help out the USRC with their annual clean up. Members paddled down the river in canoes and kayaks, picking up all trash along the way. Afterwards, we got a free lunch!
Look at all those tires! Pick up your trash, wildlifers!
