Wildlife
Winged Wednesday: A Great Lakes summer bird guide
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Today Echo kicks off a weekly series on birds of the Great Lakes region.
Wildlife
Mosquitoes triple
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If you live in Michigan it seems like every summer is a time to complain about the mosquitoes being really bad this year, but how bad are they, really? Current State talked with Ned Walker about this year’s mosquito crop and some of the issues connected to mosquito-borne illness. He’s a professor in MSU’s Department of Entomology and the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.
Wildlife
Insect art: Competition sheds new light on garden damage
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What has six legs and creates art?
That’s true of all the competitors in a new garden art competition In Ontario.
Wildlife
Great Lakes exports mussels, advice and reporter to Texas
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Clean, drain, dry is common advice among the Great Lakes boating community. Now it’s delivered with a southern drawl. The watercraft maintenance practice limits the spread of invasive species between lakes. And now it is used in Texas to limit the further spread of a Great Lakes menace threatening lakes in that state. Zebra mussels are again the target. They entered the U.S. through the Great Lakes aboard freighters that inadvertently transported them from Eurasia.
Wildlife
Photo Friday: Map turtle
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Here’s what Great Lakes Echo reader Dan Slider has to say about capturing this image in late May:
Our backyard slopes down to the Red Cedar River in Williamston (Mich.) When our border terrier mix, Roari, and I started our usual evening stroll, we heard something rustling in the garden bed behind us and discovered this beautiful turtle with a glossy green shell. The terrier kept a curious eye on the turtle while I ran back into the house for my camera. My wife looked up Michigan turtles online and identified it as a map turtle. A week later, a neighbor knocked on my door to tell me there was a large turtle laying eggs by the curb down the street. He wondered if it could be the same turtle I had seen.
Wildlife
Finding a balance in Lake Huron’s fishery
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About a decade ago, Lake Huron’s fishing was not very abundant because of a steep decline in fish numbers. To see how the lake is doing now, Current State’s Melissa Benmark spoke with David Fielder, Fisheries Research Biologist for the Department of Natural Resources and a doctoral student at Michigan State University. Fielder explained that the decline ten years ago was due to ecological changes after the invasion of zebra mussels, quagga mussels and a higher predator abundance.
Wildlife
Grade schoolers vie to name top amphibian
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Elementary students from mid-Michigan are lobbying for one of three candidates proposed for designation as the state amphibian.
Wildlife
Contamination monitored with bird blood
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Scientists are measuring the contaminants in birds to track Great Lakes environmental trends and monitor the success of chemical cleanups.
Wildlife
Local policy revision spares non-aggressive mute swans
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Residents of a small west Michigan lake recently limited a policy on killing invasive mute swans to only those that are aggressive. State officials say the bird can displace native trumpeter swans, eat and destroy wetland vegetation and chase wildlife and even people.
Wildlife
Michigan offers hunting information on cell phone app
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Have any spring hunting plans in Michigan? Well, there’s an app for that. In 2010, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, launched the Mi-HUNT website,www.michigan.gov/mihunt, that allows hunters and outdoor lovers to view about 10 million acres of land available for hunting and other outdoor recreation. Now, just in time for the spring turkey hunting season, you can get the same information on your cell phone or tablet. It works directly with a device’s global positioning system, allowing users to view maps of 10 million acres of public and private land open for public hunting.