Bird & Nature Adventures | Starkweather Creek Area

Eken Parklands ~ Join Tara Daly and Friends of Starkweather Creek at the Eken Park Festival to learn about Starkweather Creek and the parks and natural areas right in the heart of east side Madison.  Make a Prairie Seed Ball to take home and start a patch of native wildflowers for butterflies and bees. Find out about oppoetunities to volunteer and PFAS and other challenges to the creek. Pick up a Starkweather Creek area walk, bike and canoe map.  Take a walk or bike ride along nearby Commercial Avenue to Demetral Park to see restored prairie berms. Go east on Commercial to the beautiful nature murals on the bridge by the Starkweather bike path and on picnic tables across the creek at Landsness Legacy Lot.  Take a moment to sit and contemplate nature from the Leopold Bench dedicated to Carl Landsness.  If you have time take the bike path north across the spiral ramp at Hwy 30 or south across Hwy 151 to see areas being restored to native wildflowers and rain gardens by City Engineering and Madison Parks with help from Friends of Starkweather Creek and other volunteers.

Meeting Location: Eken Park, 2407 Coolidge St. 

Outings in the Starkweather Creek area vary each month - be sure to check the starting location. Adventures typically at 10:00am on the 3rd Saturday of the month, year-round, and frequently start at the Goodman Community Center, unless noted otherwise. Outings include nature walks, canoe/kayak adventures, bicycling tours, and more, and are sponsored by the Madison Friends of Urban Nature, Goodman Community Center, and the Friends of Starkweather Creek. Free, welcoming, healthy, fairly accessable, family and kid friendly, educational, no registration required, no pets.  Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

For more nature events, check out Bird & Nature Adventures.