When Bad Weather Strikes

Michigan Weather - Heavy Cloud with alittle Sun!!

One of the running jokes if you live in Michigan is if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change. The past several days it has been a comfortable 70 degrees with sunshine, warmer than your typical October day and very pleasant for being outside. Even last evening with temps in the low 60’s, I could refill my bird feeders without wearing a jacket. Well, all that has changed this morning. Now, the skies are overcast, the winds blow strong and it’s a not so balmy 50 degrees. Even Lucy, my intrepid 18 year old cat who loves to sit outside on the back patio insisted on coming back inside after only a few minutes.

I’m one of those people who will find any excuse to be outside even if it means wrapped in a blanket sitting on a lawn chair holding a cup of hot coffee. But today, the wind just makes it too uncomfortable so I have resigned myself to finding indoor activities.

When I am not watching and photographing wildlife, I devote many hours a week to reading about animal natural history through the numerous daily e-mails I receive and magazines I subscribe to. But one avenue that I have discovered in the past year is the webinar. For those unfamiliar with them, a webinar is simply a seminar offered over the internet. You register for the event, and then on the day of the seminar, a link is sent to you gaining access to the meeting. Most webinars last about an hour and are typically held during the noon hour or early evening allowing participation by all. The webinars I attend are usually hosted by universities or national wildlife organizations who secure noted experts in the field as speakers. It is like a college class on-line. Most webinars are free to participants and many are archived for future viewing. All you need is a computer with internet connection.

In addition to webinars there are distance learning courses available also through the computer. Some of these courses are free such as those offered by Coursera.org. I’ve signed up for the Animal Behaviour taught by two professors from the University of Melbourne in Australia. The course begins in February and is six weeks in length. If biology classes aren’t to your liking, Coursera offers a full array of courses from business to literature.

Other noncredit online classes may require a registration fee. That is the situation with a course I recently enrolled in through Cornell University. Call Courtship & Rivalry, Cornell University Lab of Ornithology offers a five week on-line course on avian behavior taught by university instructors. The class begins next week, and I will keep you up to date on my progress.

Many local environmental and wildlife groups host their annual conference in the fall and winter too. I will be attending the October 16^th Freshwater Summit here in Traverse City. Sponsored by the Watershed Center of Grand Traverse Bay, the Summit brings in speakers to discuss issues related to the Great Lakes and freshwater ecosystems. I attended this conference last year and it was so fascinating.

For people interested in wildlife and rehabilitation, both the International Wildlife Rehabilitators Council (IWRC) and the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association (NWRA) host their annual symposiums in the fall and winter. The IWRC symposium is titled “The Science of Rehabilitation” and will be held in Appleton, WI from November 12 to 18, 2012. ( http://theiwrc.org/symposium). The NWRA’s annual symposium will be in Portland Oregon from March 5-9, 2013. Both symposiums are education based, giving participant hands-on and lecture information on current trends and protocols for wildlife rehabilitation.

So, in spite of the weather, I can still use this time to learn more about wildlife and their habitat. When the nicer weather returns, I can apply what I’ve learned to my time in the out of doors.