CRANEFEST XIX - October 12 & 13! - Michigan Audubon Connecting birds and people

Make sure to register for the Birders' Soirée!

The Birders' Soirée is held on Friday evening before CraneFest.  The evening features a social hour, presentation, raffle giveaway and of course a top-notch silent auction with proceeds benefiting theBernard W. Baker Sanctuary!

Schuler's Restaurant & Pub of Marshall, Michigan will be catering the event with light hors d'oeuvres including fruit and veggie platters and specialty home-made cheese and crackers with delicious cupcakes from Cakes A Bloomin' of Grand Ledge, Michigan. All along-side locally made beers and wines (non-alcoholic drinks are available).

Date: Friday, October 11, 2013
Time: 7PM - 10PM
Location: Convis Township Hall (19500 15 Mile Rd  Marshall, MI 49068)
Cost: $25 per person for Michigan Audubon members, or $40 a couple. Non-member tickets are $30 per person or $50 per couple

Richard Crossley Presentation at the Birders' Soirée
Crossley will be discussing the Past, Present and Future –Tales of lessons learned while growing up in the wild British birding scene, from travels around the world to living today in Cape May, NJ. It will be a fast-paced, humorous story told in a Yorkshire brogue through a camera lens that loves color and art. Come listen to stories of his past and present. Perhaps it will change your outlook on the future of birding, lifestyles and nature!

Crossley's Bio
Richard Crossley is an internationally acclaimed birder, award winning author and photographer. Crazy, wildly passionate, driven and single-minded are just a few of the words used to describe his love of birding and the outdoors.

After 20 years hiding in the business world while raising his family, Richard set himself a new goal - to help popularize birding and the outdoors through books and multi-media.  He first became involved in “The Shorebird Guide”.  This gave him a new passion for photography and drove him to inspire people to see wildlife through new eyes and in a different way.

Next, The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds turned field guide design upside down. By showing a more lifelike and complete picture, kids and beginners were better able to understand the looks and lives of birds.  Recognized with multiple awards, this book is the first in a series with a fresh new approach.  Other guides in the The Crossley ID Guide series will consolidate this approach including Raptors (April 2013) Britain and Ireland, Western, Waterfowl and others in the works.  This has created a movement for other wildlife guides ...

Your Bird Crew,

Mr. Wendell’s Travels - August 23, 2013

Wendell's Travel Lodge - Lightfoot Bay

Today is day three of Mr. Wendell’s trip to the Upper Peninsula. The vacation began on Wednesday morning around 9:30 when I unceremoniously lifted him out of his home cage and placed him in his purple carrier. To apologize for my rude interruption of his morning, I gave him two baby carrots. Being one of Wendell’s favorite treats, he greedily gnawed away on the first carrot, moving immediately to the second one once he finished the first.

Wendell’s carrier is the last item to be packed into the car. Situated in the back seat behind the driver, I thread the seat belt through the carrier’s handle and lock him securely to the seat. A sheet is placed over the carrier windows to prevent the sunshine from overheating him and now Wendell is ready to go.

Unlike my cats, Wendell enjoys riding in the car. There is no whining, no panting, no high-pitch shrieks coming from the backseat. Once the car is in motion, Wendell settles in to sleep. Three hours into the trip, I give him a second treat. This time it is a big, fat grape and he drags it back to the corner of his carrier. Soon you can hear him chomping away.

I sometimes wonder if Wendell likes to travel primarily to avoid dealing with the cats. His big enclosed cage at home keeps the cats at bay but the top of the cage has become a sleeping spot for senior citizen Lucy. She doesn’t weight much but she has a habit of leaping from the top of the stereo speaker to the cage, a distance of 5 feet. I don’t imagine Wendell appreciates the thud of Lucy’s arrival or her nonstop presence only two feet above his head.

While he is traveling, Wendell’s igloo is replaced by the purple carrier. I had found a small animal pen at the local pet store and using two long cable ties, I secure the ends of the pen to the outside bolts on the carrier creating a large enclosure for Wendell to use. His water bottle, food dish and pile of timothy are placed in the enclosure allowing Wendell to use the carrier exclusively for hiding and sleeping.

On this trip to the Upper Peninsula, Wendell travels to visit my parents in Dollar Bay. He is welcomed by Mom and Dad unlike his feline relatives who are banned unless they have extenuating health issues. Wendell sets up residence on the large white table in the basement where there is plenty of room to expand his pen to its maximum. He receives visitors throughout his visit, primarily my Mother who can be found downstairs talking with him. Wendell always greets his visitors warmly but conditionally; if no treat accompanies the visitor, Wendell promptly turns around and returns to his room.

For this visit, Wendell only stays one night and late the next afternoon, he once again resumes his spot in the back seat for the hour drive to Lightfoot Bay. The cabin at Lightfoot is a favorite visiting spot of his. Being the only nonhuman guest during our stay, Wendell gets a lot of attention and treats. There is no television blaring, no cats staring him down. If the weather cooperates, perhaps Wendell will get the chance to be outside under the mature white pines that surround the cabin.

For enjoying Lightfoot Bay, Wendell is not excited about the outdoors as are his travelling companions. Last summer, Wendell had the chance to frolic in my parents’ backyard. Initially, he stood in the waist deep grass unsure of where he was or what he could do. With encouragement, I got him to walk through the grass but it didn’t take much urging to get Wendell back into his carrier. An outdoor-loving guinea pig, Wendell is not.

For the next four days, Wendell will relax in the confines of the large cabin, fed carrots and grapes and enjoy the quiet he well deserves. Life is good for this fine old guinea pig. J

A Thursday morning at Lightfoot Bay - August 23, 2013

Full Moon - Morning of August 23, 2013

Sunrise arrives later at Lightfoot Bay than it does at home. Having dispensed with my alarm clock once I left full time employment, my body instead awakens to the sounds and light of sunrise. The bedroom was cold, having left the window open overnight. I didn’t want to get out of my warm bed, but my body was not so gently telling me that I needed to get up.  As the cabin has a fine, new outhouse I needed to put on shoes and a jacket before venturing outside. Now dressed with flashlight in hand, I made the short trek to the building, did my business and walked back towards the house.

As I approached the kitchen door, I looked up to see the moon framed by the white pines. It was full and glowed bright through the dark sky. I quickly went inside, picked up my camera sitting on the table and returned to take several photos of moon. Seeing how I was now fully awake, dressed and camera in hand, I decided to walk around the house to see if there was anything else that captured my attention. The bay in front of the house was covered with a thick layer of fog, the result of the morning’s cold air intermixing with the much warmer waters. I could hear birds but could not see them. To the east, the sun was beginning to rise. I had seen this sunrise in my prior visits to Lightfoot but am always amazed by how different day break look here. Unlike the sunrises I had seen in Tennessee this past spring, vibrant with strong saturated hues of orange and magenta, Lightfoot Bay’s sunrises are subtle. At the horizon line, the trees form a dark undulating boundary between the foggy haze of the bay and the sky. As my eyes move upward, the sky’s soft pink, yellow and blue layers are distinctive but the edges of the layers swirl together like cotton candy.  In a little while the sun will climb over the trees and the pastel shades of morning will fade into white, not to be seen again until tomorrow.

Sunrise at Lightfoot Bay - August 23, 2013

I sit on the swing watching the fog rise over the bay, a cup of hot tea in hand to warm my chilly fingers. Except for the distant sound of fishing boats heading out into Lake Superior, the area is quiet. The red squirrels, the local law enforcement, are still asleep resting up for their day of nonstop scolding. In time my body and tea chill, so I go back into the house. It is in these moments that I realize that temperature is a relative concept. When I first arose this morning, I thought the house was cold. Now, the house felt warm and welcoming.

I sit here on the sofa, joined briefly by Mr. Wendell who has just finished his breakfast of baby carrots and retires for a morning nap. This is his second trip to Lightfoot Bay and it didn’t take long for him to acclimate to the house. Wendell’s compound is located on the octagon coffee table in the living room where he has the benefit of being in the center of the house’s activity free from the constant presence of his feline companions. Unlike him, the cats don’t like to travel and remain home with their kitty sitter.

Now that Wendell has disappeared into his house to sleep, the living room is mine alone to enjoy. The book that I started to read last night, calls me as does the package of cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese. It is time to put down my pen and answer their call.

Walking the 39, August 22, 2013 Copper Country Travels

When I think about the most cherished memories of my life, I can say that it was the adventures I had with my Dad roaming the countryside of the Copper Country.  There wasn’t a plan or a map of the travels we took; it was simply a decision to jump into the car and follow whatever road caught our fancy. Many times, it was a tour of the spots that made the Copper Country special: the old mining structures, the remains of Electric Park, the abandoned street car stations. Other times, we drove past the former homes of relatives, the house where my mother grew up, the empty church where my father served as an altar boy, the rental houses that we lived in when my family returned to the Copper Country in the mid-sixties. Always included in these trips were stops to pick wild berries and fruits. We tromped through thick grass, over the outcroppings of glacial rock in search of the elusive thimbleberry, sugar plums and wild apples. As we filled our buckets, Dad would tell me stories of his youth.

Years earlier, Dad had decided to purchase acreage in the township where he grew up. The property, that we called The 39, had a range of vegetation from open fields to thick woods of hardwoods and pines. Except for the family dog that was buried on the property, the land remained unimproved and wild.  In the late 1990’s, Dad announced that he intended to sell The 39. He gave my sisters and me the opportunity to purchase it before he put it on the market. As my sisters had no interest in the property, I agree to buy it from him and I became a land owner.

I returned to the Copper Country yesterday to visit with my parents for one evening and to spend a long weekend at Lightfoot Bay watching eagles and relaxing. We helped my parents move furniture on Wednesday night, freeing Bob and I to wander the back roads the next morning. We decided to return to The 39 to see if there were any thimbleberries left on the bushes. For those of you who are not familiar with the thimbleberry, these tart thimble-shaped wild berries make the best jam. During my earlier visit, I had picked the berries every day and collected enough to make jam to last until next berry season. Today, we found enough thimbleberries to make another small batch of jam. Success!!

As Bob continued to pick thimbleberries, I hiked through the overgrowth of trees and waist high bushes into the open field in the center of the property. I had two objectives in mind as I walked through the deer trails: to find summer apples to make applesauce and to locate the white pines that my father, my sisters and I had planted 30 plus years ago.

Hiking into the open field, I found the white pines that had survived and now were 20-40 feet tall. I recalled with clarity the weekend that we had planted those trees. It seemed like it took an eternity to plant the 100 10-inch seedlings in the rocky ridge overlooking the field. The seedlings were left to their own devices to survive and those that did were tall and sturdy. I don’t get sentimental over objects anymore, but the sight of those trees did pull at my emotions.

This was the first time I had looked for the trees without my father. Up to this year, he had always joined me as we traipsed up and down the property, inspecting the changes that had occurred, reminiscing about the day we planted the trees and Peepers, the dog that was buried here. A week before my visit, Dad gone out to pick thimbleberries on the property and had difficulties walking through the dense and muddy woods. He had decided that it had become too much for him to walk through the woods now and would leave those adventures to me.

That was the melancholy that came over me as I stood in the field, admiring the trees. As much as I loved to see how much those young seedlings had grown it was also a reminder about how both my Dad and I have also grown older. On most days, I don’t notice that I have aged; then suddenly, the reality that years have passed and that I and all my relatives and friends are no longer the kids we once were. It’s not that I would want eternal youth. Having lived through those years as a young person I have no desire to relive them. But I am not ready to settle down and retire; I have a many good years left in me. The blue mood soon passed and I looked around the field, glistening from the bright sun that shined overhead. This day was too beautiful to dwell on such melancholy. I picked up my daypack filled with apples and headed back to the car.

Fall Migration Series - Great Egret - Michigan Audubon - August 16, 2013

Photo credit: DB

Featuring: The Great Egret
A large, elegant and dazzling heron

Breeding Grounds
The Great Egret breeds in states along the Mississippi River, ranging from parts of Wisconsin south to Texas and along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the US.

Migration Range
Egrets move about widely between the time their young leave the nest until they start heading south.  In fact, many move farther north in the late summer before starting their journey to their wintering grounds.  During this time of year you can find Great Egrets in most states in the US except states in the Rocky Mountain range.

Wintering Grounds
During the colder months Great Egrets are found in South and Central America along with a few year round spots in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.

Size & Shape
The Great Egret is the second largest heron species, next to the Great Blue Heron, measuring 37-41 inches in length with a wingspan of 51.6 to 57.1 inches and weighing roughly 2 pounds.

Coloring
This heron is easy to identify with all white feathers, a yellowish bill and black legs. During the breeding season the bird sports a bright green patch from the eyes to the bill. 

Habitat
This is an extremely adaptable bird when it comes to habitats, the egret can be found in freshwater and saltwater on lakes, ponds, marshes, swamps, streams, rivers, impoundments, lagoons, tidal flats, canals, ditches, fish-rearing ponds, flooded farm fields and sometimes upland habitats.

Food
This bird prefers mostly small fish but also eats amphibians, reptiles, birds, small mammals and invertebrates such as crayfish, prawns, shrimp, dragonflies, damselflies, giant water bugs and grasshoppers.  The egret wades in the water, almost motionless and waits for its prey to come along.  Once the prey is in reach the egret strikes with astonishing speed jabbing its long bill and neck out for the catch.

Behavior
The Great Egret young are very aggressive towards one another and the large chicks frequently kill the smaller chicks during the nesting period, this I called siblicide. Great Egrets live in colonies with other heron species.  The bird will migrate individually or with a group, usually no larger than 25 herons. Pairs are monogamous for the breeding season.

Sound
The egret's sound is easy to distinguish; it has a dry, croaking and sometimes nasally sound to its call.

Nests
Males choose and build a nest platform to attract females.  Once a mate is selected the two will begin constructing the nest which will end up measuring around three feet wide and one foot deep. Nests are typically in trees up to 100 feet above the ground.

Conservation Status
Least Concern. However, this was not always the case; almost hunted to extinction in the late nineteenth century for their plume feathers, the Great Egret has made a quick recovery. The species has even overcome grave habitat loss, degradation and pollution but is extremely resilient and easily adapts to changing habitats. According to Cornell Lab, “Since Great Egrets are large, very mobile birds with flexible habitat preferences, environmental changes may be affecting them at a larger scale that has yet to be studied.”

Interesting Facts

• At a mere two wing beats per second Great Egrets are slow, powerful flyers with an average cruising speed of 25 MPH.
• The Great Egret is the symbol of the National Audubon Society.
• Other commonly referred to names for the Great Egret include: American Egret, common egret, great white egret and angel bird.
• The oldest known Great Egret was banded in Ohio and lived to be 22 years and 10 months old.

Your Bird Crew,

How Old Is That Lion? A Guide to Aging Animals - National Geographic

Lions, as seen in Serengeti National Park, can be dated by examining their fur and other attributes.

Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic

How Old Is That Lion? A Guide to Aging Animals

Inside Nat Geo - August 15, 2013

A great new slideshow on the Serengeti Lion community. The video and photographs are just stunning.

National Geographic - The Serengeti Lion

Updated White Nose Syndrome map (August 9, 2013) - whitenosesyndrome.org

Source - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

For more information on White Nose Syndrome, check out the website, White Nose Syndrome.org

White Nose Syndrome

On a personal note - looking at the above map on the spread of WNS, why is it that the states and provinces around Michigan have recorded incidences of WNS and Michigan does not? Many of the hibernacula (bat homes) are located in abandoned mine shafts in the Upper Peninsula. Lets hope that the geographic isolation of the U.P. mines will protect our bats from this devastating disease.

Looking for Ways to Combat White-Nose Syndrome in Bats - US Fish & Wildlife Service

Guest blog: USFWS Converts Cold War Era Bunker to Bat Hibernacula in Northern Maine | White-Nose Syndrome

On Their Own

  

I always get a pit in my stomach whenever I see a fawn wandering around alone without its mother. A short time ago, a still spotted fawn ventured out of the woods to my backyard bird feeders. It was obvious that the little guy had been to my yard before as he walked directly to the food. What was unusual was the time of the day of his visit. Normally, deer are on the move in the hours around sunrise and sunset. To see him here alone during the early afternoon told me that he must have been very hungry.  My suspicion was confirmed as I looked over the photographs I shot of him. Although he was not emaciated, there was a distinctive concaveness between his rib cavity and his hip; a sign that he was not getting sufficient nourishment.  Unfortunately, in my attempt to get a closer photograph of him, the little guy was startled and bolted into the woods.

This is the story of nature that I don’t like to dwell upon. For every cuddly, well-cared for wildlife baby, there are many who do not survive their first year. Whether it is a genetic disorder, an injury or simply abandoned by its mother, not all baby wildlife will live long and productive lives. I guess that was why I became a wildlife rehabilitator. I wanted to give every orphan animal an opportunity to make it in their world and if it was not to be, made their last hours as comfortable as possible. That is a rather idealistic philosophy but was for me, a belief that helps me sleep at night.

I want to believe that each one of us has that philosophy within us having encountered many like-minded individuals over the years. Of course, there are some individuals who will deliberately harass or harm wildlife for laughs. To them, I say that what you do to others in life will eventually come around and treat you in the same manner.  And to those who think that humans are entitled to dominate the natural environment for their own use without regard to their impact on nonhuman species, I return to the Native American quotation - When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.

In the meantime, I will keep my bird feeders filled with food and water and hope that I will again see that little fawn.

Michigan Department of Natural Resources - July 22, 2013

Now That’s a Woodpecker!

by Doug Reeves, assistant chief, DNR Wildlife Division

A crow-sized bird lit on the specially made suet feeder, a flash of white on its otherwise dark wings. A good look revealed a long beak, bright red crest on the head and mostly white neck and throat. A pileated woodpecker! That would be a good sighting any day. At this location though, it is a regular occurrence because the suet bags are attached to a rough-sawn board that makes a great place for the big woodpeckers to grip so they can feed. They come every day to this spot.

When you see your first pileated woodpecker, your thought might well be, “Now that is a serious woodpecker!” Michigan’s other woodpeckers are substantially smaller, starting with the downy and working up through the hairy, red-headed, black-backed and red-bellied woodpeckers and also including the migratory yellow-bellied sapsucker and northern flicker for good measure. Over the years several people have insisted to me that they have seen ivory-billed woodpeckers in Michigan. Ivory-billed woodpeckers never did nest in Michigan, and if they still exist at all, anywhere, they are extremely rare. There is no doubt that our birds are pileateds.

Woodpeckers are primary cavity nesters, meaning they carve out the holes that they nest and roost in. When they are done with the holes, other birds – the secondary cavity nesters – use the cavities. Birds like chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, house wrens, eastern bluebirds, tree swallows and great-crested flycatchers build their nests in on the holes the smaller woodpeckers make. In the case of pileated woodpeckers, the cavities they create are mostly used by wood ducks, screech owls, American kestrels and hooded mergansers, along with various squirrels, mice and other wildlife.

Woodpeckers also feed by burrowing into or under the bark of trees and sometimes into the wood of the tree to get insects and insect larvae. Pileated woodpeckers – with their long beaks – create holes, frequently rectangular in shape, some of which are 4-5 inches deep and a foot or more long. In northern Michigan the signature pileated woodpecker indicator is a white cedar tree with rectangular excavations carved into it. In those cases, I presume the woodpeckers are seeking out carpenter ants and their larvae in the heart of the tree. But pileated woodpeckers are not particular about the type of tree they carve. In the southern Lower Peninsula, where white cedars are rare to nonexistent, their activity seems most evident in decadent aspen, dead ash, basswood and silver maple trees, but it is not unusual to find evidence of their activity in pin oak, white pine or any other tree that has become occupied by insects. Frequently a pile of woodchips at the base of a tree is the first indication that you should look up and see what the woodpeckers have done. I never cease to be amazed what a woodpecker can do with its beak. Even after reading about the mechanisms that protect their heads from damage, I find it incredible.

Pileated woodpeckers live in places where trees have grown to a relatively large size. It has been my observation that they are most likely to be found in places where there are trees 14 inches in diameter or larger that are suitable for excavating nesting holes. Pileated woodpeckers were rare in Michigan following the logging era, but as forests have grown and aged, their population has greatly increased. Today they are quite common and are found pretty much throughout the state wherever habitat is suitable. In Saginaw County, where I live, it is not uncommon to see pileated woodpeckers flying between woodlots. A large silver maple in our front yard has been used many times by the big woodpeckers as they fly across open country between wooded areas. So, while I tend to think of these birds as residents of large unbroken forests, that is not necessarily the case.

I was in Cheboygan County when I observed the woodpecker that began this story. Moments later a second and then a third pileated woodpecker showed up in adjacent trees. Three pileated woodpeckers within a few feet of one another! Except at a nest where the babies had their heads sticking out of a nest hole, I had not seen three of those big woodpeckers together in one place. That was a noteworthy sighting, and another pleasant interlude with Michigan’s amazing wildlife!

Michigan Audubon - July 26, 2013

Wading in the Water

It is that time of year when wading birds are in abundance.  Below we have highlighted three striking, wading birds you can find in Michigan.

Great Blue Heron
The largest of the North American herons, this bird wades slowly or stands statute like in shallow water hunting for its prey.  The heron can be found in saltwater and freshwater habitats, from open coasts, marshes, riverbanks, lakes, backyard goldfish ponds, grasslands and agricultural fields.
Interesting facts:

• They can hunt day and night because of a high percentage of rod-type photoreceptors in their eyes that improve their night vision.
• Despite their large stature, measuring between 38.2 to 53.9 inches long they only weight around five to six pounds! This is due in part to their hollow bones.
• The oldest banded Great Blue Heron was 24 years old.
• In flight these birds make a “S” shape with their necks (pictured right) to become more aerodynamic; this is possible because of a specially shaped neck vertebrae.  The special vertebrae also helps quickly strike prey at a distance.
• Great Blue Herons can be found in almost all of Michigan Audubon’s 19 bird sanctuaries.
• Conservation status: Least Concern. Populations are stable and have increased in Michigan and the surrounding areas due to the recovery of the beaver population, which has created numerous swamps and meadows well-suited for foraging and nesting.

Green Heron
This heron is relatively short and stocky, compared to other heron species.  From a distance the bird looks dark and drab but once up close you can see striking small details.  The heron displays a velvet-green back, rich chestnut body, piercing yellow eyes and a dark cap often raised in a short crest.
Interesting facts:

• The Green Heron is one of the world’s few tool-using bird species. It creates fishing lures with bread crusts, insects, earthworms, twigs, feathers and other objects, dropping them on the surface of the water to entice small fish.
• Because of its small stature (16-18 inches in length) is spends most of its time wading in shallow water.  However, it does dive in deep water for prey and uses its partially webbed toes to swim to shore; it is a surprisingly graceful and effective swimmer.
• The Green Heron can be found on most of Michigan Audubon’s bird sanctuaries but is more heavily populated in sanctuaries in the Lower Peninsula.
• Conservation status: Least Concern. However, this heron has suffered a cumulative decline of 53 percent between 1966-2010 mainly due to habitat loss through draining and development of wetlands.  It is hard for scientists to determine the extent the decline has on the population because the bird is naturally very solitary and widely dispersed.

American Bittern
This is a medium sized, stocky heron that stands around 23-33 inches in length and weighs only one to two pounds. It is extremely well camouflaged for its habitat and very secretive. The bittern is found in freshwater wetlands and marshes with tall vegetation.
Interesting facts:

• The American bittern has a very unique, deep, pumping sound that helps locate the bird easier than by sight.  The call resembles, “oong-ka-choonk”.  To hear the call click here.
• When approached the bittern prefers to freeze, stretch out its neck, bill pointed up and sway from side to side to mimic waving reeds (pictured right).  This behavior earned it the nickname sky-gazer, look-up and stake-bird.
• American Bittern males are polygamous and will often have several nesting females on his territory.  
• This bittern can be found on the following Michigan Audubon Sanctuaries:
  • Phyllis Haehnle Memorial Sanctuary (Jackson, MI)
  • Owastanong Island Sanctuary (Grand Haven, MI)
  • Little Lake Sanctuary (Paradise, MI)
  • Margaret Shroyer Sanctuary (Paradise, MI)
  • Whitefish Point Bird Observatory (Paradise, MI)
  • Brockway Mountain (Keweenaw, MI)
  • Lake Bailey Sanctuary (Keweenaw, MI)
• Conservation Status: Special Concern (in Michigan), mainly due to extreme habitat loss.

Do you enjoy email updates like these? Michigan Audubon members receive 6 issues of the award-winning Jack Pine Warbler magazine, which contains similar information on birds, conservation projects and birdwatching opportunities. Please consider becoming a member (if you're not already). Your support allows us to expand our educational outreach programs and connect you with birds.

Good luck this summer spotting these wading birds!
 

Your Bird Crew,