— Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com

The idea of even getting on a bicycle may seem strange to most of us who haven’t traveled on two wheels since we were old enough for a driver’s license. While avid suburban conditioning fans may ride 10-speeds, for most of us bikes are just a distant memory unless our kids or grandkids are riding them.

They shouldn’t be. New models with electric power-assist not only make bikes more practical for a lot more of us, they open up new uses uniquely suited to two-wheel transportation—including great hunting and fishing access to remote areas and beaches throughout the nation.

The off-road versions of E-bikes now available make it possible to travel miles into difficult terrain on trails that are too narrow for full-sized vehicles, and to do it in silence, with almost no impact on the habitat or the wildlife. This gives them a huge advantage over noisy four-wheel ATV’s, a favorite of many hunters in deer and turkey seasons.

Scouting for springtime turkeys becomes far easier because it’s possible to roll along at a steady pace, three or four times your walking speed, while calling with a diaphragm call in your mouth and listening for a response. You don’t have to be quite so careful that there’s not a rattler or a moccasin watching your next step, either!

Read more

If understanding invasive species and their impacts on the environment is on your to-do list this year, Michigan’s free NotMISpecies webinar series makes it easy to accomplish. One information-packed hour each month can provide insights into the people, technologies and programs at work across the state to identify, prevent and control invasive species.

Tuning into live events provides the opportunity to get answers to your questions from experts in the field. If you have a busy schedule, previous NotMISpecies webinars are available for viewing on your own time. Recorded versions are available at Michigan.gov/EGLEEvents under “Featured Webinar Series.” Read more

A new study published in eLife describes how Ruby-throated Hummingbirds use the same energy-conserving strategy to survive overnight to accumulate body fat they need to fuel long migrations. The study proves a long-held suspicion among biologists and provides new insights about the processes Ruby-throats’ physiology uses to determine whether to conserve energy or store fat. To conserve energy overnight, the hummingbirds can shift into an energy-saving torpor to reduce their body temperature and slow their metabolism up to 95 percent.

“We wanted to know if hummingbirds use this same energy-saving mechanism to more quickly build the fat stores they use to power their 3,000-mile migrations between their North American nesting range and Central American wintering areas,” explained principal author Erich Eberts, a Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

To study how and when the hummingbirds deploy this energy-saving strategy, Eberts and the team measured daily changes in the body, fat, and lean masses of 16 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds during 3 periods: 1) The nesting season, 2) late summer when the birds prepare to migrate, and 3) during the birds’ typical migration period. They also measured the hummingbirds’ oxygen consumption using a technique called respirometry to determine when they shifted into torpor.

During the nesting season, the hummingbirds maintained lean body masses and only entered torpor when their fat levels fell below 5 percent of their body mass. This “energy-emergency strategy” was usually deployed on nights when they went to sleep with lower energy reserves.

But during the late summer, when Ruby-throated Hummingbirds typically increase their body mass by 20 percent to sustain themselves during their long migration across the Gulf of Mexico, they stop using the 5 percent threshold for entering torpor. Instead, they enter torpor more frequently and with higher levels of fat. This allows them to conserve energy and build up fat even as nights get progressively longer. “We learned that hummingbirds abandon the energy-emergency strategy during late summer and start using torpor to accumulate the fat stores they need for migration,” Eberts explained.

The authors added that learning more about this energy-saving strategy may be important for the conservation of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and other migratory bird species that face increasing stress from climate change and habitat loss.

“Our findings that hummingbirds can use torpor to cope with different energy challenges throughout the annual cycle are important for understanding differences in how these and other migratory animals that don’t use torpor might respond to future environmental changes in food availability and temperature,” concluded Kenneth Welch Jr., Associate Professor, Acting Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and co-author of the study alongside Christopher Guglielmo, Professor at the University of Western Ontario.

With the advent of the new year, it’s a good time to renew our interest in our feeding stations to keep attracting the birds we enjoy day to day, and keep benefitting them as our coldest days of winter arrive – even in the Sunbelt. The bottom line is to keep your bird feeders well-stocked, and keep in mind, it’s not necessary to wait until a feeder is empty to fill it up. Then, make sure you are providing all the right options to be sure yours is the best yard for birds to stop over. Start by providing sunflower seeds, suet, thistle seeds, and fresh water during the winter season up north.

Same for the Sunbelt really, and a nectar feeder would be appropriate from southern California to south Texas and southern Louisiana – even if you don’t get hummingbirds. Other birds also appreciate sugar-water treats, including House Finches, and it’s never too early to prepare for the arrival of orioles. In fact, you may have some winter orioles in south Texas and Florida, and who knows what other birds will react to a little flash of red when you put your hummingbird feeder out. Providing fresh water is a lot easier in the southland – no heaters required. Water attracts the greatest variety of birds – and it’s cheap and easy to provide.

Overall, the idea is to attract and benefit interesting birds, and to keep them coming. Some birds may spend the season with you, others may stop for a day. But the potential of attracting short-stop winter visitors is a good option to be sure. An important element of feeding birds is to feed them year-round, not just during cold-weather seasons. Summer actually brings some of the most interesting and most colorful birds to our yard, and it helps to keep birds coming non-stop throughout the year. Read more

Applications are now being accepted for the Porcupine Mountains Artist-in-Residence Program for 2022 spring, summer and fall and winter 2022-2023 residencies.

The program is open to artists and artisans whose work can be influenced by the unique northern wilderness setting of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park – also known as “the Porkies.”

Located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the park encompasses 25 miles of wave-washed shores, four inland lakes, entire river systems, countless waterfalls, enchanting wooded peaks and an escarpment that rises slowly from the edge of Lake Superior until it plummets abruptly into the Carp River valley.

Still, the park’s most impressive feature – and the reason for its creation – is its virgin forest of eastern hemlock and northern hardwoods and the variety of flora and fauna that it supports. Because of these attributes, the park is an ideal location to inspire creativity.

The Artist-in-Residence Program offers writers, composers and all visual and performing artists an opportunity to experience the natural beauty of the Porkies and to express it through their art form. Read more

Chronic wasting disease or CWD was recently detected in a hunter-harvested deer in northwestern Alabama, making it the 28th state where CWD has been documented. It’s the first time CWD has been detected in a state that borders Florida. CWD, which is a brain and central nervous system disease that is always fatal to members of the deer family, has not been detected in Florida. Read more

Bozeman, Montana- The Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) Thursday acknowledged the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish (NMDGF) and the New Mexico Chapter of the Wild Sheep Foundation (NMWSF) for their efforts in establishing a new desert bighorn sheep herd in southwest New Mexico.

This past November, twenty-seven members of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) and a helicopter capture crew relocated 46 desert bighorn sheep from the Red Rock breeding area near Lordsburg to the Alamo Hueco Mountains in southwestern New Mexico. A total of 27 ewes and 19 rams were moved, and all but a few younger sheep were GPS collared.

“New Mexico is getting it done,” said Gray N. Thornton, President, and CEO of the Wild Sheep Foundation. “We know our partners down there have been working on this big idea for quite some time. It’s a big sigh of relief when the job is done, and you get to watch the nucleus of a new herd sprint to the horizon of their new home. Kudos.”

The Alamo Hueco Mountains consist of 40 square miles of prime desert bighorn habitat. This smaller desert island range near the Mexico border is located approximately 10 miles south of the Big Hatchet Mountains in the New Mexico bootheel. Water resources include two BLM water catchments and several livestock tanks. Read more