Outdoor commentary and legislative issues.
Goldfinch
By Glen Wunderlich
Have you seen your first robin yet this year? I have. I had just taken a break from chainsaw aerobics and had removed my safety helmet with hearing protection. When I first heard the cheerful tunes, I thought it sounded much like a robin but I was having trouble wrapping my mind around the notion that spring was here already. After all, it was January 21 and not an earthworm in sight.
Intently looking and listening, I heard the sound again. Sure enough, it was a robin alright. That’s when I caught its image atop a naked deciduous tree, just as the forlorned visitor flew off.
A few days later, while observing one of my feed sites, tiny juncos, chickadees, and titmice were dwarfed by another ground-feeding visitor: a wood thrush. They winter in lowland tropical forests in Central America but obviously, this loner didn’t get the memo.
A common sight on the ground is yet another visitor from the far north: the tree sparrow.
Tree Sparrow
Plump and long-tailed, American tree sparrows are busy visitors in winter backyards and weedy, snow-covered fields across southern Canada and the northern United States. Sometimes they number in the hundreds in a particular plot of indigenous pigweed I’ve left for their nourishment. In fact, it’s the primary reason I’ve quit trying to rid the patch of the otherwise undesirable weed.
Hopping up at bent weeds or even beating their wings to dislodge seeds from grass heads, they scratch and peck the ground in small flocks, trading soft, musical twitters. Come snowmelt, these small rusty-capped and smooth-breasted sparrows with a black spot on their breasts begin their long migrations to breeding grounds in the tundra of the far North.
If you are fascinated by watching and studying birds, you may be interested in an online course at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. For the first time, lectures will be available online to anyone, anywhere.
Though species native to the Finger Lakes Region of New York will be discussed, course lectures are also packed with information about bird identification, migration, nesting, and other topics that are relevant to anyone hoping to improve their bird-watching skills.
The eight-week course is taking place March 23 through May 15. Visit birds.cornell.edu/sfo to learn about the course schedule, which will run concurrently with each Wednesday evening lecture available to online participants the following day. The online lectures will be hosted on the Cornell Lab’s Bird Academy website.
The course cost is $140 for online participants and is taught by Dr. Stephen Kress, Vice President for Bird Conservation for the National Audubon Society. “I can think of no better way to greet the spring migrants than taking part in Spring Field Ornithology,” says Kress. “Whether people take the course in person or watch the lectures online, they’ll come away knowing much more about birds and appreciate them so much more. There’s great value in that at a time when so many species are in trouble. Plus, bird watching is just great fun.”
For those of you who’d like to know how your local politicians are rated by the largest anti-hunting organization in the world, check out the report cards here: http://bit.ly/1QAHb1M.
Another video worth watching covers the HSUS position on hunting with the understanding that anyone who receives high scores with the HSUS lobbyists is certainly no friend of the North American Conservation Model.
Give this one a look and see if you don’t get the notion that HSUS, like some politicians, is definitely flying under a false flag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk5rjSJYeKg
— Virgil Moore, Director, Idaho Fish and Game
As a result, wolf conflicts with livestock and elk populations were rampant in most parts of Idaho north of the Snake River and livestock producers and hunters grew increasingly frustrated.
After five years of state management of wolves in Idaho, we’re seeing positive results:
Lectures on birding and Northeast species available to everyone
Ithaca, N.Y.—The annual Spring Field Ornithology course is celebrating its 40th anniversary by reaching out to those who cannot take the course in person at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. For the first time, lectures will be available online to anyone, anywhere. Though species native to the Finger Lakes Region of New York will be discussed, course lectures are also packed with information about bird identification, migration, nesting, and other topics that are relevant to anyone hoping to improve their bird-watching skills. Read more
Michigan DNR biologists discuss effects of milder winter on wildlife
Looking out your window, do you find yourself saying, “This winter is different?”
Remembering last winter, areas of Michigan had not inches, but feet of snow on the ground by mid-November. In stark contrast, this winter, many parts of Michigan didn’t receive any significant snowfall that stayed on the ground, until after Christmas.
With the effects of one of the strongest El Nino weather patterns on record – warmer Pacific Ocean waters producing atmospheric changes in weather thousands of miles away – this winter certainly is different.
As a result, weather forecasters are predicting above-average temperatures and drier than normal winter conditions across the northern tier of the country, including Michigan.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologists have been fielding inquiries about how the milder conditions might be affecting wildlife this winter.
“The 2014-2015 Michigan winter had record low temperatures for numerous days,” DNR Wildlife Division Chief Russ Mason said. “Along with those cold temps, winter brought snow depths that challenged even the most adapted wildlife.”
Less than a year ago, waterfowl were being negatively affected across Michigan by lakes, rivers and streams freezing completely, or more extensively than usual, leaving smaller areas of open water for ducks and swans to feed. After the last two hard winters, this winter is providing many open water locations.
“Instead of ducks being concentrated in small areas, ducks and swans have good amounts of open water in a mild winter, giving them room to forage and find the food they need,” said Barbara Avers, a DNR waterfowl and wetlands specialist.
The last two winters resulted in some malnourished or dead waterfowl being trapped on the ice, unable to fly. Not this winter.
Squirrels never take a break. Read more
Hunters want to eliminate poisoning risk for wildlife
LANSING—Michigan’s bear hunting community is asking the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to consider banning the use of solid chocolate in bear baits. Chocolate contains theobromine, which can be toxic to bears and other wildlife in high quantities.
“As hunters, we have a responsibility to look out for wildlife. We take that seriously,” said Mike Thorman of the Michigan Hunting Dog Federation. “Bait allows us to selectively harvest bears. We don’t want to see non-target wildlife harmed, so we’re being proactive about this.”
Last winter, four bears in New Hampshire died from chocolate toxicity near a 90-pound bait pile containing chocolate. In May 2015, the New Hampshire Game and Fish Commission banned the use of chocolate in bait.
“This is really a matter of using sound science to shape wildlife management decisions,” said Tim Dusterwinkle, president of the Michigan Bear Hunters Association. “Our first role as hunters is to conserve the resource we use.”
The Michigan Hunting Dog Federation, the Michigan Bear Hunters Association and the U.P. Bear Houndsmen Association have led the charge to ask DNR biologists to study the matter for a possible wildlife conservation order in the 2017 regulation cycle. Other organizations that are supporting the ban of solid chocolate in bear baits include: Michigan United Conservation Clubs, Michigan United Coon Hunters Association, Michigan Fox Hunters Association, Michigan Archery Bear Hunters Association, Michigan Bow Hunters Association, Michigan Longbow Association, Upper Peninsula Sportsmen’s Alliance, and Safari Club International.
“We’re encouraging our members to voluntarily refrain from using chocolate in baits until then,” said Amy Trotter, deputy director for Michigan United Conservation Clubs
