Augustana College Field Stations

09/15/2017

Dr. Jenny Burnham leads a field trip to Collinson Ecological Preserve for her Soil Science class (GEOG306).

08/27/2017

Our Milky Way Galaxy and Katydid Countersinging at Gremel and Green Wing in late August 2017.

06/05/2017

Gremel Dedication

Amboy Marsh

4 June 2017--Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary was officially dedicated at Amboy Marsh Nature Preserve followed by tours through Gremel that started at Green Wing Environmental Laboratory (an Augustana College Field Station). Dr. Bo Dziadyk, Emeritus Professor of Biology at Augustana, was one of several local experts that led attendees of the event through Gremel to highlight the site's interesting natural features.

06/04/2017

Students in the 2017 summer class, Research in Field Biology (BIOL465), put the finishing touches on their GIS maps and photographs, and finished out the class this weekend with preliminary digital maps for prescribed burns at Amboy Marsh and Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary, and a HTML linked photographs in a digital map for standardized repeat photography stations at Gremel. Included here are some images of students taking pictures for the repeat photography project, and other pics of interesting features seen during fieldwork and finishing the mapping projects.

06/04/2017

Early Summer Evening with Frogs and Baby Owls, Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary, Illinois Audubon Society

06/03/2017

Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary sign is up in the new parking lot

05/28/2017

Students in Research in Field Biology (BIO465) have been collecting visual data (through the use of photographs) this past week of features of Green Wing Environmental Laboratory (an Augustana Field Station) and Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary (an Illinois Audubon Society land trust). In addition, they have been collecting spatial information at these sites with a GPS app on their cell phones and uploading these data in a Geographic Information System. This photo album captures some of their work as photographs and working in the field.

05/20/2017

Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary/Green Wing highlights from recent IL State Spring Bird Count (May 6 & 7, 2017) https://flic.kr/s/aHskUP95xa

Illinois Audubon Society (illinoisaudubon.org/location/gremel-wildlife-sanctuary/)

05/20/2017

Professor Michael Reisner supervised invasive plant removal at Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary (Illinois Audubon Society, Amboy, IL) by students in his Intro to Environmental Studies (ENVR100) class. Dr. Bo Dziadyk co-supervised along with Ms. Deb Carey, Site Steward.

04/12/2017

Sounds of Spring at Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary at Night (next to Green Wing)

03/17/2017

Endangered Whooping Cranes seen at Green Wing / We wanted to share some exciting news about the sighting of one of the rarest birds in North America near the Gremel Sanctuary/Green Wing Lab ('Gremel Wing') property this last weekend. Deb Carey of the Illinois Audubon Society (IAS) and Dixon Park District in Lee County shared the attached photos of whooping cranes visiting our neighbor Craig Walter's property. The Bill Rogers (of IAS) photographs of six whooping cranes was taken on the afternoon of Sunday March 12, some 70 yards from the Gremel Wing fence line. Another neighbor on the east side of the main pond on Gremel Sanctuary is reported to have seen the small flock during the weekend in the shallows near the pond's edge. The birds have not been sighted since Sunday, and have possibly migrated farther north toward their nesting grounds in Canada.

These birds were photographed with a telephoto lens and were seen to be wearing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ID bands on their legs. The USF&WS has an online page for reporting sightings of whooping cranes (Grus Americana). It is strongly recommended that people not approach or even leave their cars when viewing these birds. The much more common sand hill crane (Grus canadensis) is often seen or heard at Gremel Wing in the warmer months of the year.

The whooping crane reaches a height of five feet and is the tallest bird in North America. Its body plumage is white with distinctive red markings on each side of the head. It migrates annually from its wintering grounds in Texas to central Canada for nesting. It is an omnivorous species eating insects, frogs, lizards, fish and various plant products such as berries. Its biggest enemies are habitat loss and wind turbine blades on its migration path.

The population of whooping cranes reached its low point in 1941 when only 15 birds were known to exist. Through careful management the population has been protected and supported until it numbers some 600 birds today. This is the rarest of the 15 species of cranes in the world. The six birds in the photographs represent a full 1% of all the whooping cranes in existence. Dr. Bohdan Dziadyk (shared with permission from Dr. Dziadyk)

03/10/2017

This past December, Augustana College sold 395 of its 410-acre Green Wing Environmental Laboratory near Amboy, Illinois, to the Illinois Audubon Society for $2.1 million. Proceeds from the sale of the property will fund ongoing operations of Augustana’s three environmental field stations, as well as...