City dwellers worldwide enjoy several advantages over their rural compatriots, including, on average, better job prospects and better access to food and health care (not to mention nightlife).   At the same time, city living can be stressful, and studies have found that mental health problems, such as schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety disorders, are more common in urbanites. Now, researchers have taken a crack at understanding this connection by looking for differences in how the brains of people from urban and rural environments react to certain kinds of stress.  More here

Newly hatched killdeer

By Glen Wunderlich

As a youngster, I recall my first encounter with a seemingly wounded bird in Oakland County, Michigan, as it “struggled” to keep its distance from me.  It appeared to have a broken wing and it looked like I’d be able to catch it in short order.  However, it somehow managed to stay out of reach and eventually “healed up” and flew off.  Little did I know that I had been outsmarted by a most interesting, long-legged shorebird named the killdeer, which drew me away from its nest or young ones.

It’s a sure sign of spring when its unmistakable sound of kill-dee is repeated incessantly near open fields often far from any shore or water.  The killdeer’s nest is right there in the open on the ground for anyone to see but its natural camouflage makes it extremely difficult to find even if you are looking directly at it.  The nest is no more than a slight depression in gravel or bare ground and contains four pale buff, spotted eggs that thoroughly blend in with the surrounding area.  About the only way to actually find a nest is to watch a vocal parent bird from a distance as it settles on nesting duties.

Photo Shy Young Killdeer

As soon as the eggs hatch, the youngsters are able to run on their spindly legs.  Birds that are able to do this are termed precocial – covered with down and fully active.  Other examples of precocial birds are quail, chickens and ducks.  Mother Nature undoubtedly gave them the ability to hit the ground running as a defense mechanism, because they’d be easy prey if they were to remain in their ground nest.  Their primary food source is insects and other bugs that crawl on the ground.

My Audobon Society field guide indicates the killdeer breeds from British Columbia, Mackenzie, and Newfoundland south to the West Indies, Mexico and Peru and winters from New Jersey and Ohio southward.

Although I have been able to locate killdeer nests in the past, I had never actually seen a newly hatched chick until last week.  Once again, the parent bird was doing its broken-wing sales job on me, when I noticed a young one scurrying away.  In the lawn area it struggled as though it was navigating thick jungle terrain.  But, when it cleared the grass and made its way to gravel, it ran with remarkable speed making a photo opportunity a difficult proposition.

Killdeer in grass jungle

In the past, I have taken note of killdeer whenever I disk the ground with my tractor in preparation for wildlife food plots.  Although it delays my work, I feel obligated not to destroy any nests or youngsters.  The broken-wing antics of the adults are now recognized as an alert and even though it means delaying my planting chores, I’ll take the time to mark nests and avoid them, because any insect eater is a friend of mine.

BATTLE GROUND, OR — William Biscoe and his wife were startled out of bed Monday morning by what they thought was a dog in their house.

The dog turned out to be a coyote that had chased their cat into their home, more here

The trial of a man who worked for a wealthy Florida businessman accused of hunting illegally in Montana began Monday in Yellowstone County District Court.

Toby Lee Griffith is on trial for a single felony count of unlawful possession of a game animal. His trial before Judge Susan Watters is expected to last three days.

Griffith is one of eight people charged last year in what authorities said were extensive illegal hunting activities over several years on two large ranches in Yellowstone and Big Horn counties.

At the center of the charges is Mark Morse, the millionaire owner of an exclusive retirement community near Orlando. Morse and his wife are awaiting trial on several charges related to illegal hunting.

By Glen Wunderlich

As predicted, Michigan’s deer management strategy continues to be an abysmal failure.  And, to prove it, all one has to do is to review the statistics.  According to State Farm Insurance, the number of vehicles on U.S. roadways has grown by 7 percent over the last five years.  But the number of times those vehicles have collided with deer has swelled by much more than that. Michigan remains second in the nation on the list of states with car/deer crashes – a 1 in 78 chance for any one vehicle to collide with a deer statewide. 

Using its claims data, State Farm estimates 2.4 million collisions between deer and vehicles occurred in the U.S. during the two-year period between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009 (100,000 per month).  That’s 18.3 percent more than five years earlier.  To put it another way, one of these unfortunate encounters occurs every 26 seconds (although they are much more likely during the last three months of the year and in the early evening).   

These findings are nothing new to us in Michigan but a June 2011 report issued by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) offers some insight on how hunters are impacting the results of deer management policy.  In spite of newly created deer hunting seasons that run nearly one third of the entire year, in year 2010 hunter numbers decreased 4 percent and their hunting effort decreased 6 percent from the previous year.  Yet, the MDNR’s survey of some 50,000 deer hunters indicated increased satisfaction with their hunting experience.  On the surface such news may seem encouraging – that is, until one discovers that over 55 percent of the same hunters surveyed were not satisfied with their overall hunting experience.  So, what’s the rub? Read more