This winter, the Department of Natural Resources asks those living along the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan, to keep an eye out for confused, stranded waterfowl in local towns and neighborhoods.

The exceptionally cold winter weather of the past few weeks has caused the bays and waters of the Great Lakes to freeze much further into the center than in recent years. Rather than move far into the deep waters of the lakes, some waterfowl – including horned and red-necked grebes; common, hooded and red-breasted mergansers; and long-tailed ducks – are moving from the larger, freezing waters of the Great Lakes and are looking for open water bodies inland. In foggy, snowy, low-visibility conditions, these birds are mistaking icy roadways and driveways for inland water bodies and are becoming stranded on land. Read more

Just saw a large flock of robins in Brighton this morning.  They had converged on ornamental pears along a road eating the small fruits.

Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials announced the 2014 Black Lake sturgeon harvest season ended after less than 90 minutes on Saturday, Feb. 1, with six fish being harvested. The fishing season, which included spearing or hook-and-line fishing, was scheduled to run Feb. 1-5, or until the harvest quota had been reached.

“The 2014 allocation of Black Lake sturgeon for the State of Michigan was six fish, although DNR officials imposed a voluntary quota of five fish for recreational anglers,” said Todd Grischke, Lake Huron Basin coordinator. “Establishing this one-fish buffer before the fishing season allowed us to stay within our allocation of six fish. This year is a great example of how our harvest allocation model and on-ice communication effectively reduce the chance of overharvest of lake sturgeon in Black Lake.” Read more