ladybug, ladybug -- get out!

Just because you enjoy going outside to look for wildlife, doesn’t mean you want to share your home with critters! But how can you remove common home invaders without spraying stuff that comes in a can with a huge “WARNING” label? Here are some tips.

ANTS: Stir boric acid powder into two different types of bait – canned pet food, and jelly (some ants seek sugar, others protein). Set the bait in a shallow lid in areas you are finding ants. Foraging ants will carry the loaded bait back to the nest and feed it to other members of the colony. The boric acid will do the rest (it hits the nervous system, and is also abrasive to their digestive system).




EARWIGS: Place a dozen or so layers of newspaper in the areas earwigs are found (they love to hide in such shelters). Roll up the papers and take them outside periodically, well away from the house, and either 'release’ the earwigs or stomp them, depending on your mood. :-)

LADYBUGS/BOX ELDER BUGS: Use a shop vacuum to suck them up, then blow them into a plastic garbage bag and put the bag in the freezer for a few days. (Like most insects, they can survive the cold of the freezer, but not the dryness.)






Just remember, when you do choose to use poison insect control it often harms many beneficial insects as well as the pesky ones. So if you do choose a more chemically-based approach, please follow all instructions and warnings carefully and use sparingly. When you think of it, people are WAY outnumbered by our insect friends. We live in a bugs' world, not the other way around!

Summer Photo Feature

Summer is here! Walk the woods, fields or wetlands at Chippewa Nature Center and you'll discover abundant life whichever way you turn. Be sure to watch your step, as slow-moving critters such as snails might be using the path. Bees are buzzing, flowers are blooming and green leaves are coming into their prime. Be sure to check our program calendar for our next guided hike or paddling trip, and also enjoy our trails on your own from dawn to dark every day of the year. Check us out on Facebook to let us know what you find and post your own favorite pictures from your adventures at CNC!

Snail Eyes

Young American Basswood leaves

Spiderwort

Widow Skimmer Dragonfly (immature male)

Green Frog (female)

Michigan Lily

Bird Banding at CNC

A Common Yellowthroat warbler gets banded
at the CNC Wetlands Area. 

This year marks the 8th season of bird banding research at the Chippewa Nature Center Wetlands Area. The project is headed by Mike Bishop, professor of biology and ornithology at Alma College in Alma, Michigan. From year-to-year, the data he gathers gives us clues to the overall health of different species that live at CNC. Mike’s research follows the protocol of the national “MAPS” program (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship). A Nature Center staff member will also be on hand to help answer your questions and identify birds and other animals that are swimming in the ponds or flying by.

Mike Bishop demonstrates banding a
Downy Woodpecker to CNC Day Campers.

Visitors are welcome to observe banding from 8am-Noon on days which Mike is here banding birds. During this time, you'll hear facts such as the species, sex and age of the birds and have the opportunity to ask questions. Bring your camera, as you'll have excellent opportunities for photography!

For a full list of banding dates this year, check out our webpage calender here. If rain or windy weather is threating, please check the website, our Facebook page or give us a call for updated schedule information.

Leelanau BirdFest: June 1-5, 2011

Though many people are aware of the Traverse City area's fame for cherries, wineries, lighthouses and spectacular sand dunes, the first annual Leelanau BirdFest is another great reason to visit the area this spring. Held from June 1-5, the event promises to "offer a wide variety of unique field trips including Birding by Tallship, endangered Great Lakes Piping Plovers, a 300 acre prairie, and pontoon boat to the Leelanau Conservancy’s Cedar River Preserve.  Every field trip, seminar and keynote program reflects our conservation theme." 

The event is sponsored by a diverse group of organizations including the Leelanau Chamber of Commerce, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan Audubon Society, Leelanau County Parks and Recreation and many more.

Birding highlights in the area include nesting Piping Plover (a federally-listed endangered species), nesting Prairie Warblers, and a wide variety of field species, such as Grasshopper and Vesper Sparrows, in areas of preserved farmland. For more info, you can print a checklist of birds found at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore by clicking here.

To find a full schedule of information and to register for the BirdFest, visit their website.

Choosing the Right Field Guide

Let's say you want to get started in birding so you head out to the local bookstore. With so many field guides out there, it can be a daunting task to figure out which one will work best for you outdoors! While choosing a field guide has a lot to do with personal preference, here are a few things to look for as you decide what’s right for you.

Narrow the focus
If you do most of your birding close to home, choose a guide that specializes on your area of the country. Books that cover all of North America can get confusing.

Pictures or drawings?
A photograph gives you a sample of a real-life bird in the wild, but drawings
may capture variations in plumage better.

Organization
A guide that presents bird species by family (ducks, warblers, etc.) is easier to use than
one that organizes birds by color or size.

Our top picks
Guides preferred by CNC staff are The Sibley’s Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America by David Allen Sibley and Birds of Eastern and Central North America by Roger Tory Peterson.

You'll find a great selection of field guides right here at the Chippewa Nature Center store!

April Photo Sampler

Enjoy these pictures all taken in the month of April at Chippewa Nature Center. You can post your favorite photos taken at CNC on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cncmidland.

Canada Goose swimming in the Chippewa River

Wild Turkey Feather in the Arbury Woods

Flowers on a Basswood Tree

Red Maple Tree flowers

Opossum Hiding in the Brush

White-Tailed Deer Jumping in the Snow

White-Tailed Deer Peeking Through the Trees

drive on the wild side

Bald Eagle
photo by Kim LeBlanc

STOP THE PRESSES!  The refuge just announced that the auto drive described below will NOT open April 15, because a pair of Bald Eagles are building a nest along the route.  If they continue to use that nest, it might be mid-June before the route opens.  But since eagles often build "practice" nests, the route might yet be opened in early May.  Stay tuned! 

The Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge has over 9,000 acres, but most of it has been accessible only by foot or bike, or not at all (the better to maintain it as a "refuge" for wildlife!).  But this year that changes, as a 7.5-mile auto tour opens in April. (http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Shiawassee/)

The auto route will be open 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. from April 15 - October 5, barring flooding conditions or soft roads.  And since four rivers come together at Shiawassee, take that "except when flooding" clause seriously!  To be certain of conditions, it's a good idea to call the refuge headquarters, (989) 777-5930, ahead of time. Another complication could be one of the more popular critters at Shiawassee -- the Bald Eagle.  If eagles choose to nest alongside the driving route, the opening date would have to be postponed until the young eagles leave the nest.

The route will provide wonderful access to the forests, floodplains, wet meadows, cattail marshes and rivers of Shiawassee, and its incredibly diverse wildlife.  People driving the route will be asked to remain in their cars, except at designated viewing areas, in order to limit their impact on birds and other wildlife. (Cars make great wildlife blinds!)



Check out Janet Martineau's
blog for more information
on the auto route at Shiawassee

 For more information about the auto route, check out this blog by "Friends of the Shiawassee" member, Janet Martineau,  http://janetmartineau.blogspot.com/2011/01/shiawassee-national-wildlife-refuges-75.html.
If you haven't visited this refuge before, you are in for a treat!  Over 270 species of birds use the refuge, including thousands of waterfowl during spring and fall migrations.  The refuge has been designated as a U.S. Important Bird Area by the American Birding Association. Prothonotary warblers, rails, shorebirds, nesting Bald Eagles. . . every season brings a variety of sightings!

More clues in deformed frog mystery

Deformed Leopard Frog
photo courtesy David Skelly/Yale University

Year-by-year, scientists are gathering more information about what is causing deformities and "intersex" (mix of male and female parts) conditions in frogs across North America.  As the clues come in, it becomes more and more obvious that the deformities are almost certainly due to agents humans are introducing into the environment.  

The most recent research, by Yale University's David Skelly, is further evidence that the deformities are not caused by a single culprit, but rather by a suite of estrogen-mimicking drugs, industrial chemicals and pesticides.  Skelly's research studied frog populations in the ponds of four different Connecticut ecosystems: forested landscapes, agricultural areas, suburbs and cities. Not surprisingly, the frogs of forested landscapes were perfectly normal. Those in some agricultural area ponds had deformities.  However, the rate of deformities in urban and suburban areas was THREE times the rate of deformities in agricultural areas!  “The fact that these kinds of estrogens out in the environment can have this kind of effect on a vertebrate — many people would say that that alone is a basis for us to be concerned,” Skelly says of the potential impact of his studies. 

Skelly says drugs that are meant to act as estrogen (though not intended for the environment!), such as birth control pills, along with unintentional estrogen mimics such as the plasticizer agent Bisphenol A (BPA), are not removed by standard wastewater treatment, so they pass easily from our homes and factories into nearby rivers, streams and ponds. For a more complete report of his findings, check out the Yale Environmental 360 website:  http://e360.yale.edu/feature/unraveling_the_mystery_of_the_bizarre_deformed_frogs/2368/

lights out!

Night, or what is left of it,
in North America.

From parking lots to ball diamonds to our own backyards, we have lit up our nights to the point that we don't really have "night" anymore.  Light seemed like a good idea back when we lived around campfires, but it turns out there really is too much of a good thing.  Our relunctance to deal with the dark has been proven to have a negative impact not just on backyard stargazers and professional astronomers, but on wildlife , and on our own health and safety.  From baby sea turtles crawling away from the ocean instead of into it (due to nearby town lights), to various cancers (due to a decrease in the production of melatonin when exposed to nighttime lights), to safety issues caused by outdoor lights that create glare rather than security, night sky pollution is a serious hazard!  For more information on this topic, and to learn how you can use light without reducing your safety or endangering your health or that of wildlife, check out the website of the International Dark Sky Association, http://www.darksky.org/.

Typical mercury "security"
light that provides
more glare than security.

This organization does not recommend simply turning lights off and living in the dark, but using lights WISELY -- as needed, where needed, and most importantly, with light fixtures that put light where it is needed, rather than shooting it off into the sky (or worse, into your eyes, which keeps you from seeing the very dangers you are trying to expose).  The "frequently asked questions" page is a good starting point. So as always, turn off lights where you can. But where you can't, use the right light.

bats in big trouble

Not everyone loves bats, but most people can appreciate the billions of bugs that bats eat! That free pest control, not to mention part of the stunning biodiversity of our planet, is now in serious danger.  For the past five years, bat colonies throughout the East have been literally wiped out by a fungal infection known as "white nose syndrome."  (One symptom of the fatal disease is a patch of white fungus on the nose and wings of the affected bats.)  At this time, little is known about how the disease got started, how it is spread, or more importantly, how to stop its spread. If wildlife biologists don't figure it out FAST, several bat species could literally go extinct in the next decade, and even common species such as the Little Brown Bat will be severely impacted.  The disease was first found in New York State, but has QUICKLY spread south and west to 16 states and Ontario, affecting nine different bat species, including the highly-endangered Indiana Bat. Sadly, many more bat species are now likely to join the "highly-endangered" list:(  The most recent cases were discovered in North Carolina and our near neighbor, Indiana.

For more information on this wildlife disease crisis, check out the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service information page, http://www.fws.gov/northeast/pdf/white-nosefaqs.pdf,  or Bat Conservation International (http://www.batcon.org/index.php/what-we-do/white-nose-syndrome.html) .  Although white-nose syndrome has not yet been found in Michigan, it is tragically only a matter of time before our bats are also threatened with this disease.  If you find a bat with a white fungal growth on its face or wings, please contact the U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service immediately.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

If you love birds, you're invited to join thousands of other birders in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), held this year from February 18-21. The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint project of the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology with Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada. This four-day event is open to bird watchers of all ages and provides information about more than 600 bird species. “There’s simply no better way to collect information about all these birds so quickly across such a large range,” said Janis Dickinson, Citizen Science director at the Cornell Lab.From reports of rare species to large-scale tracking of bird movements, the GBBC provides insight into the lives of bird populations.

In 2010, the GBBC had a record-breaking year for participation as more than 97,200 bird checklists were submitted by an estimated 63,000 volunteer bird watchers from across the United States and Canada. To participate, you just have to spend at least 15 minutes counting birds on one day of the count. When you're done counting, you simply enter your data on the GBBC webpage.

For full details, visit http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html. 

Visions of Winter

As we close out the first month of the New Year, enjoy these scenes of winter, all taken at Chippewa Nature Center. Better yet, check out our program calendar and join us for a snowshoe hike, bird walk or other adventure on and off the trails at CNC!

Our "famous" Red Oak near the Maple Sugarhouse.

If you can't come see a view in person, check out our webcam,
which hangs directly below the River Overlook.

White Pine cone



Snowy Fungi

A Black-capped Chickadee searches for seeds in the snow



A Gray Squirrel (black phase) trying to keep warm under its tail

Sunshine through snowy branches

Help keep our waters clean!

Many of us enjoy paddling our local lakes and rivers and a dozens of residents have homes along their banks. Please help keep Midland's waterways free of trash and debris...for the planet, for wildlife and for each other! For some helpful tips from the City of Midland, check out the article here. See you on the water!

Fall Migration Bird Banding Weekend

Banding birds at the Chippewa Nature Center Wetlands Area helps us understand our feathered friends who share the land we now own. From year to year, data also give us clues to the health of different species. Our banding program is run by Mike Bishop of the Alma College Biology Department. Mike also runs a banding station for Alma College at Vestaburg Bog. You can learn about activities at both stations by checking out this excellent blog, which contains information and pictures from both sites.


Your last chance to catch Mike and his ornithology students in action at CNC this year will be this Friday, September 17th from 4:00pm-dark and Saturday September 18th, from 8am-2:00pm. The parking lot is on the west side of the Wetlands off Grey Road and the gate will be open during banding hours. We hope to see you there!


For up-to-date information about all CNC programs, visit the program calendar on our website.

How Much Land Does It Take to Feed a Bee Colony? More Than You Think

It's a classic image of summer - busy bees buzzing in the bushes (sorry, I couldn't resist!) But what's really going on when a hive of honeybees take to the air in search of food? How much do bees eat? What flowers do they prefer? And how might their food choices relate to Colony Collapse Disorder of which we've heard so much in recent years?

Kim Flottum, of thedailygreen looks at these questions and more in her blog essay: How Much Land Does It Take to Feed a Bee Colony? More Than You Think. Check it out and next time you see those bees on your bushes or reach for that bottle of honey in the supermarket you'll have a new appreciation for all their hard work!

Olivia the Artist (age 11) helps oil spill efforts

Olivia wants to attend Cornell to become an ornithologists some day. For now, her paintings are helping raise money to help oil spill cleanup efforts. See her story in this video and learn more by visiting HERE.

May Photo Show

Enjoy these photos from Chippewa Nature Center taken in the "Merry Merry Month of May."What a colorful and beautiful time of the year!

Mourning Dove

Dutchman's Breeches

Redbud Blossoms

Large-flowered Trillium

 Young Woodchuck

Young Bracken Fern Leaf

Where are the Nightjars?

Whip-poor-wills and other members of the "nightjar" family have been in serious decline for several decades.  Now, a volunteer-supported research effort is being coordinated by the Center for Conservation Biology to try to develop a nationwide survey that will provide baseline information on nightjar populations. 

Volunteers are needed in 38 states (including Michigan) to spend a couple of hours doing a once-a-year survey along pre-determined routes.  The 9-mile-long routes have 10 stopping points, where volunteers will stop and listen for the calls of the birds.  In Michigan, the survey period is June 19 - July 4.  If you would like to adopt one of these survey routes, check out this website for more information:  http://www.ccb-wm.org/nightjars.htm

Photo: Common Nighthawk. Image from Wikimedia Commons. 

Images of Early Spring

A pile of spiles await the maple syrup season in early March. Warmer than usual weather for much of the month led to a dramatically slower season than usual. 

The "Native American" tree highlights some historic tapping methods of Sugar Maples.  

With a mild winter, there was not a major "ice out" event on the rivers this year.

A sleepy Barred Owl perched near the temporary trailers in mid-March.

 A pair was seen and heard frequently in the area, likely nesting nearby. 

Programs at the Homestead Cabin started on a couple of Saturdays in March with some maple syrup programs. The regular Sunday afternoon season of public Homestead Programs

 runs from May 30 through September 5.   

Web Cam Fun

One of the many benefits of modern technology is that it can get us up close views of animals in the wild without thousands of people tromping up to disturb their natural habitat. A good example earlier this winter is the webcam of Lily the Black Bear near Ely, Minnesota. Thanks to the North American Bear Center, thousands of people all over the world are able to peer into her den as she cares for a single cub somewhere in the wilds of northern Minnesota. You can check it out by clicking here.

Other websites can give you up close looks of birds sitting on their nests. The one featured here features a great view of a Bald Eagle on its nest!  The nest is located in the Norfolk Botanical Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia. Eggs were laid January 31, so there should be eaglets to watch by mid-March!  Enjoy the show!