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Jack Pinewarbler Jack Pine Warbler THE SUMMER ISSUE: River Restoration: Is it Good for Birds? ■ How to Identify Shorebirds ■ Piping Plover Monitoring at WPBO ■ ■ Michigan Audubon's Bird Sanctuaries ■ Chimney Swifts—Urban birds in steep decline ■ Whitefish Point Spring is Over ■ THE MAGAZINE OF MICHIGAN AUDUBON JULY-AUGUST 2016 | JackVOLUME Pine 93Warbler NUMBER 1 4 Cover Photo Chimney Swift Photographer: Zak Pohlen This Chimney Swift photo was taken at Millennium Park in Kent County on May 3, 2014 when a small flock of swifts came surprisingly low to forage over a small pond on the southern border of the park. Photo Details: CONTACT US Camera: Canon EOS 7D 400 mm lens. By mail: Aperature: f/5.6. Suite 200 Shutterspeed: 1/1600. ISO: 200. 2310 Science Parkway Okemos, MI 48864 By visiting: Suite 200, 2310 Science Parkway Okemos, MI 48864 By phone: 517-580-7364 Mon.–Fri. 9 a.m.–5 p.m. STAFF Contents Heather Good Executive Director [email protected] Features Columns Departments Wendy Tatar 2 8 1 Program Coordinator River Restoration: Is it Meet the 2016 WPBO Piping Executive Director’s Letter [email protected] Good for Birds? Plover Monitor Kristin Phillips Marketing and Communications Coordinator [email protected] 9 5 4 WPBO 2016 Spring Season Rachelle Roake How to Identify Shorebirds New Members Conservation Science Coordinator Report [email protected] Lyn Scrimger 10 Membership Manager 6 10 [email protected] Book Review: The Book of Calendar Michigan Audubon Eggs: A Life-Size Guide to the Sanctuaries BOARD OF DIRECTORS Eggs of Six Hundred of the World’s Bird Species Alec Lindsay (chair), Ray Stocking (vice- chair), Mike Bishop (secretary), Penny Meints (treasurer), Elizabeth Abood-Carroll, Deaver 12 Armstrong, Rich Bailhe, John Baumgartner, 11 Special Thank You Mike Bishop, Anne Brasie, Rosann Kovalcik, Conservation Spotlight: Gregory Nelson Chimney Swifts – Urban birds in steep decline 12–13 EDITOR Announcements Laura Julier [email protected] PRODUCTION MICHIGAN AUDUBON CONNECTS BIRDS AND Kristin Phillips Marketing and Communications Coordinator PEOPLE FOR THE BENEFIT OF BOTH … [email protected] … through conservation, education, and research efforts in the state of Michigan. Formed and incorporated in 1904, it is ADVERTISING Michigan’s oldest conservation organization. Michigan Audubon Guidelines available on request. supports bird surveys throughout the state, publishes survey data, provides educational opportunities, and preserves nearly 5,000 PRINTING acres of land within 19 sanctuaries as habitat for birds and other Jack Pine Warbler (ISSN 0021-3845) is wildlife. The 41 chapters of Michigan Audubon focus on local published six times per year and is received by all Michigan Audubon members. It is conservation issues and provide educational programs within printed by their communities. Contributions to Michigan Audubon are tax- Foresight Group deductible. 2822 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Lansing, MI 48906 www.foresightgroup.net Visit MichiganAudubon.org for more updates, and follow MichiganAudubon on social media Printed on recycled paper made from 100% post-consumer waste. Executive Director’s Letter THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION AND CONSERVATION BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEATHER GOOD In serving on the board of directors to me that she’d like to be an seriously, and one that we envision for a year, I grew familiar with the ornithologist. We excitedly swapped getting stronger, especially as we work of Michigan Audubon and some bird sighting stories from the Spring: consciously expand our education of the ways we are positioned as an the Pileated Woodpecker nesting in efforts. organization to deepen our impact for her backyard, the Rose-breasted As Spring comes to a close and we birds and conservation. Even given Grosbeaks visiting mine with their prepare for a season of strategic the threats birds and their habitat refined, Robinesque sounds, the planning, I am very much looking face today with climate change, glorious Turkey Vultures gliding forward to developing rigorous, habitat loss, and other very serious through seemingly every corner of focused conservation projects considerations and changes, I feel Michigan sky, and how wonderful to extend the reach of our work, hopeful and optimistic about the that flash of orange and black of a thoughtful, engaging education impact of our work. We are poised, Baltimore Oriole is to see. While I programs throughout the state, and for example, to make a deeper impact felt satisfied that she left after her research that makes meaningful in expanding conservation work by bird walk with a completed checklist scientific contributions on a larger honing in on specific avian species of bird species seen, fuel for her scale. The data we collect, the that are of high concern in the state of excitement about birds, affirmation, questions we seek to answer about Michigan. By developing, sustaining, and materials to keep her busy for birds and the challenges they face promoting, and fundraising for these an afternoon or two, I couldn’t help are not only well-documented, but species-specific programs, we will thinking of how we can do so much shared widely so that others (and, create a model that serves as a more to reach and support children most of all, the birds) can benefit foundation for addressing threatened in their learning and engaging with from what our researchers glean bird species in the long-term. birds and nature. in the field. I am excited about Education is a focus that’s very close Of the 50-some folks I met that day, the impacts of our ever-growing to my heart, and we are working to I was most intrigued and inspired by advocacy work around protecting expand our reach and educate more this girl. It wasn’t only because she birds, and our research efforts that children, more adults, and more exuded a distilled, pure enjoyment seek to answer important questions “non-birders” through community of birds -- which is a wonderful about birds, their habitat, and what engagement. We are prioritizing thing to witness -- but because she real, sustained conservation looks connecting children to the natural served as a reminder of the real like in the state of Michigan. world, and nurturing that connection need for organizations like Michigan I encourage you to find your own with meaningful programs. In Audubon to have a place for them, way to be active and contribute to everything we do, I’m taking a good a way to receive and celebrate their conservation that fits your life and look at opportunities we have to not sense of wonder with programs that values. As the writer Alice Walker only include, but really focus in on invigorate them with the knowledge said, “Activism is my rent for living education and how we can connect and awareness of a conservationist on the planet.” I hope you stay more children and communities to for life. connected to Michigan Audubon, the natural world. We’re here for birds and we’re here share with us your feedback, do I met a 9 year-old girl at one of our for conservation. And while there is what you can to be a part of these sanctuary open houses a few weeks nothing I enjoy more in this world hopeful solutions, and follow our ago. She had the latest copy of than being in nature and witnessing progress as we move into this the Sibley Guide to Birds of North native birds thriving in their habitat, next exciting stage of growth. We America: East clutched to her chest, our work is about so much more couldn’t do it without you. nicer binoculars than I’ll ever own than this. We are stewards of habitat bouncing about as she ran toward in Michigan, we are stewards of our the event tent, and an earnest, joyful, sanctuaries, but we are stewards almost electric focus about her. She of our communities as well. This walked up to the membership table is a responsibility we take very where I was standing and announced Heather Good Jack Pine Warbler 1 River Restoration: Is it Good for Birds? BY HOWARD MEYERSON hen Doug Klein goes birdwatching along the Sandhill Cranes. One good find last May was a Philadelphia Thornapple River near Nashville, he often is Vireo. Those are getting hard to find. On some mud flats you W pleased about what he finds. Birds are numer- might see Killdeer or Lesser Yellowlegs. It’s an interesting ous, particularly at the nearby Nashville Dam site where a place to find a variety of birds.” 155-year-old dam stood until 2009 when it was removed. Wet meadows now grow upstream, an area formerly underwater. Aging dams around Michigan are being removed with regu- Wetland birds visit marshy areas and waterfowl are plenti- larity. Some are torn down to improve fish passage - or reduce ful in the river. For Klein, an avid birder and eBird lister, water temperatures for species like trout. The Nashville Dam Nashville is a very productive spot. was removed to improve water quality for warm water fish. Others are demolished because they outlive their purpose “It’s a pretty nice place to go,” notes Klein, a mechanical and may be expensive to repair and maintain. engineer and Hastings resident. “Fifty nine species have been reported there on eBird. I’ve seen 57 of them. We see No matter what the reason, proponents of dam removal Trumpeter Swans, Rusty Blackbirds, various songbirds and maintain that river restoration is good ecologically. Allowing 2 July-August 2016 a river to resume its natural flow, depth and width yields benefits for fish and stream organisms, for animals in the area, and for regional biodiversity. Yet, some birdwatchers say they worry when dams come down, when impoundments are drained, and when the landscape is radically altered.
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