By Don Quintenz
Schltiz Audubon Nature Center Director of Conservation and Adult Education
The months of July and August are some of the most beautiful and interesting in nature, when life is at its fullest expression.
Our Center’s high quality habitats attract a lot of native wildlife and their great diversity gives you opportunity to see the many animals and plants that are found in only certain places. The natural communities Schlitz Audubon Nature Center has on its 185 acres include woodlands, prairies, various types of wetlands, and lake beach. Surface water features such as ponds, Mystery Lake and Lake Michigan moderate temperatures, and for summer that means a coolness that is not found just a few blocks inland. It also makes the Center more attractive to wild animals, since these aquatic environments diversify the landscape and create many edges, or ecotones, that always attract a disproportionately higher number of creatures.
A hike along the beach on the shore of our Great Lake is always rewarding both spiritually and educationally. The Center and its near shore waters are one of Wisconsin’s Important Bird Areas (IBAs), which is a formally designated site that is exceptionally important, even essential, for bird conservation. One of the jewels of this bird community is an endangered species, the Caspian tern. Despite its designation you actually are likely to see it, especially in August. Of course there are many other birds in the IBA, since we are also on one of the eight busiest migratory flyways in North America.
Find out what's happening in Fox Point-Baysidefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Our extensive wetlands are magnets for wildlife, and children have so much fun seeing all the frogs and turtles that are easy to find there. Mystery Lake’s white water lily bloom is enchanting. Our prairie flowers are in full swing in summer, since these grasslands are known for their showy flowers that bloom throughout the growing season.
You owe it to yourself and family to commune with nature in such a natural setting. Our summer hours mean you can stay until 8:00 in the evening and partake of twilight, a time when so many animals become most active. Come enjoy the baby turkeys, the spectacular bloom of our native hibiscus – the rose mallow, the twinkling of fireflies, and fawns with their mothers!
