Patch Tour: Brookfield Honors Bird Day

It didn't take much arm-twisting to persuade Mayor Steve Ponto to apply for designation of as a Bird City. 

Ponto quickly threw his support behind the idea when Brookfield resident Cathy Heyen and Bird City Wisconsin coordinator Carl Schwartz met with Ponto last fall.

"It's an appropriate designation for our city," said Ponto, who added Brookfield has been a Tree City since 1998. "(Brookfield) is very conducive to lots of different wildlife but especially birds. I thought it was really a good project for us to work on."

Brookfield in January was one of the first 15 cities, villages and towns across Wisconsin to be named as Bird Cities. Five more were added in April, and another group will be announced this summer, including Elm Grove, Schwartz said.

On Saturday afternoon, Brookfield held its first International Migratory Bird Day celebration — one of numerous criteria the city had to meet to gain its designation. 

The event — held at the Nature Center behind — was one of several in the state, including one at the Riveredge Nature Center in Newburg in Ozaukee County.

Dampened by sometimes heavy rain, Brookfield's event included booths for Wild Birds Unlimited of Brookfield, Girl Scouts Junior Troop 2377 and Brookfield Patch.

Patch Regional Editor Mark Maley and Brookfield Patch Editor Lisa Sink attended the bird event as the final stop in a to spread awareness of Patch.com's community news web sites, listen to feedback and give away movie passes, Patch t-shirts, candy and Patch items. (See links to the other tour sites at bottom of this story, including Brookfield Academy's graduation and Brookfield East High's final orchestra concert directed by retiring teacher Anne Marie Peterson.)

The girl scouts handed out free apples, cookies and lemonade to those brave enough to ignore the rain and go on a bird walk through part of the Nature Center's 17-acre property. High-powered binoculars were available for bird viewing.

Attendees also could make bird feeders (pine cones spread with peanut butter rolled in wild bird seed), read children's bird books and look at the limited number of animals in the Nature Center building.

Cathy Heyen, vice president of the Benjamin F. Goss Bird Club in Waukesha, said Saturday that although she had lived in the Brookfield area nearly her entire life, she did not know about the Nature Center. 

The center building is available only by appointment, but the wooded trail is open to the public. The center is operated by Greg Wolfe, a biology teacher at Brookfield East High.

Wolfe said a wide variety of birds have been seen in Brookfield, including sightings of bald eagles. On Saturday he pointed out a male red-winged blackbird, gold finches and cedar waxwings. 

Some of Wolfe's biology students were in the woods pulling garlic mustard, an invasive species that crowds out native plants important to insects and birds. Members of the Key Club also were on site in waders, using nets to catch tadpoles from Underwood Creek which cuts through the property.

To be selected as a Bird City, Brookfield had to qualify for seven out of 22 criteria, said Schwartz, the statewide program coordinator. The Bird City web site details the city's criteria and bird conservation efforts. 

"Communities like Brookfield really should be commended for stepping forward, particularly in the inaugural class," Schwartz said.

"The real thrust of this is to help people realize there are pretty simple things they can do to make a difference, to ensure the kinds of birds people see in their backyards will still be there in the future," he added.

Not only do birds provide enjoyment to view, they also play an important role in managing insects and eating mosquitos that at times bother Brookfield. 

Schwartz, who created the Bird City Wisconsin program and is its sole employee, said he was inspired by his mother who loved birds.

"My mom is still — at age 88 — feeding and watching birds," he said. Schwartz's interest in birds took off in the mid-1980s when he was about 35 years old.

Unlike the Tree City effort, which is a $4 million operation run by the Arbor Day Society, Bird City Wisconsin is a small but growing start-up, created in 2009 and funded by Together Green, an alliance between Toyota and the Audubon Society.

"We work to make communities healthier for both birds and people," Schwartz said.

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Birds found at Waukesha County Parks, according to Benjamin F. Goss Bird Club in Waukesha:

Minooka — hawks, owls, woodpeckers, bluebirds, warblers, blackbirds, passerines

Mukwonago — ducks, geese, swans, hawks, bluebirds, passerines

Naga-Waukee — loons, grebes, ducks, coots, geese, swans

Nashotah — ducks, geese, herons, owls, hawks, bluebirds, swallows, warblers, passerines

Retzer Nature Center — hawks, owls, swallows, bluebirds, bobolinks, sparrows, warblers, passerines

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The International Migratory Bird Day event was the last stop in Brookfield Patch's "tour." Here are links to other tour events and stories: 

• Saturday: 
• Sunday: 
• Monday: 
• Tuesday: 
• Wednesday: 
• Thursday: .
• Friday: .
• Saturday, May 21: