Woodland Dunes Nature Center and Preserve

09/06/2026

Spotted on the Preserve 🔍

Snapping Turtle hatchlings 💛

Images by Kennedy Zittel, Naturalist

09/05/2026

✨ It's International Vulture Awareness Day! ✨

✨Vultures are ecosystem cleaners, they eat carrion which keeps the environment clean and helps stop the spread of diseases. Speaking of, their stomach acid is as strong as battery acid which kills pathogens like rabies, which stops the spread of pathogens to other animals.

Bonus Facts:
- Turkey Vultures have an amazing sense of smell, they can detect a dead animal from over a mile away! They possess the largest olfactory bulb relative to their brain size of any other bird species.
- They have bald heads to help stay clean when they are eating
- They can ride the warm air, called thermals, and soar for hours without flapping their wings
- A group of vultures flying is called a kettle, a group sitting in a tree is called a committee, and a group eating is called a wake.

Images of Turkey Vultures by Kennedy Zittel, Naturalist

09/04/2026

Can you believe it - heiknbrew is next week! 🍻Listen to what the turtles have to say about it in this video

Click here for more details/to register:
https://woodlanddunes.org/calendar-events/heiknbrewc/

09/04/2026

Click the link below to read about the 2026 Bald Eagle Nest Watch (BENW) results. We are grateful to be a partner in this wonderful program 💛🦅And for our wonderful volunteers in Manitowoc County that helped us watch 9 nests this year with a total of 8 successful fledglings!

2026 was another amazing year of dedicated volunteers putting in thousands of hours monitoring the Bald Eagle nests they were assigned to, and documenting the fate of those nests. Photo by Pat Stapleton-Knowski/BENW volunteer

09/03/2026

Before our summer interns left, we talked with them and will be featuring each one with their own video spotlight.
Aidan helped with our summer camps, He also helped with our wildlife surveys, counting birds, bees, bats, and aquatic invertabrates. Best wishes on your next adventure!

09/03/2026

"For a painter, autumn is not merely the replacement of green with red and gold. It is the revelation of colors that green had been holding quietly all summer. The landscape becomes a lesson in light, chemistry, change, and letting go. Green builds the season; autumn reveals what was hidden inside it."

Click the link to read the rest of this week's Ripples article:
https://woodlanddunes.org/ripples-9-3-26/

09/03/2026

Cup Plants (Silphium perfoliatum) get their name from their leaves that fuse around the stem, creating a cup that holds rainwater. This plant can stand up to 10 ft tall (averaging 4 - 8 ft), and acts as a natural water source for birds, amphibians, and insects while being a great pollinator magnet too with its bright yellow flowers. They can be seen along the back of the Nature Center Building, as they prefer something to lean against to protect them from the wind.

Images by Kennedy Zittel, Naturalist

09/02/2026

Our September’s Staff’s Favorite Series Is… Staff’s Favorite Habitat 🌲

Sue (Executive Director): Northern Hardwood Hemlock Forest

“This forest type consists of a beautiful mix of species such as sugar and red maple, beech, yellow birch, hemlock, white pine and occasionally an oak species or two. Its diversity, and if it is an uneven-aged forest its vertical strata support a lot of great beings in nature. Plus walking through such a forest is one of the most relaxing activities on earth.”

🌲In these forests, hemlock will comprise around 25 - 75% of the canopy, sharing space with trees like yellow birch, sugar maple, and beech.
🌲Northern Hardwood Hemlock Forests provide excellent wildlife habitat, including being breeding ground for species like black-throated green warblers, blackburnian warblers, barred owls, and northern goshawks.

Image from Wikipedia

09/01/2026

Snowberry Clearwing Moth (Hemaris diffinis) is a daytime moth known for its bee-like body and hovering flight. This insect beats its wings at a rapid rate of 70 - 85 times per second, creating a humming sound, and allows them to hover stationary in the air to nectar.

Image by Jess Johnsrud, Education Coordinator

08/31/2026

August’s Staff’s Favorite Series Is… Staff’s Favorite Summer Activity ☀️

Kyle (Cleaning Specialist): Go Karts

“I like going to Bay Beach to ride the go-karts, and leaving people in the dust!”

☀️You can't ride go karts here, but we sure loved Kyle's answer!

Image of Bay Beach Amusement Park from City of Green Bay