Wildlife

Haehnle Memorial Sanctuary sees Sandhill Cranes in record numbers

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Sandhill cranes have been spotted in record numbers this year at the Phyllis Haehnle Memorial Audubon Sanctuary near Chelsea, Mich. The Michigan Audubon Society reported 8,177 cranes gathered in the sanctuary Monday, November 19, the most birds ever seen there since the 1900s. Once on the verge of extinction, sandhill crane populations have been on the rise across the United States for the past decade, according to Audubon Society spokesperson Mallory King. “They were almost extinct at the beginning of the 1900s, their feathers were in high demand and they were being overhunted,” King said, “That started to turn around as environmental legislation was passed starting in the 1930s and 40s, and now they’ve been steadily recovering.”

The birds return to their birthplace each year to find a mate. “We’re seeing so many birds here because the sanctuary has the right habitat for them and because enough of the cranes born here last year survived to return,” King said.

Wildlife

New St. Clair River reefs to spur sturgeon spawning

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Alright, sturgeon … they made your bed, now spawn in it.

Michigan organizations and agencies are building nine rock reefs in the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River to bolster native fish spawning and restore habitat.

Wildlife

Wildlife cameras put you in the nest

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Ever since Panda Cam hit the watching-baby-zoo-animals-from-the-comfort-of-your-office-chair scene, other animal cams have appeared to give viewers a look into the lives of wildlife. That’s including cameras following some Great Lakes birds. You can see Ms. Harvey, the great horned owl at The Feather Rehabilitation Center in New London, Wisc.; Big Red and Ezra, a pair of red-tailed hawks at the Ornithology Lab at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. and a great blue heron at the Ornithology Lab. “It allows people to build a connection with birds from their computer screens,” said Charles Eldermire, BirdCams project leader at the lab. The Ornithology Lab at Cornell University has been monitoring birds with minute-by-minute photos for over 10 years, but launched their high-definition BirdCams in March.

Wildlife

Sex, water and rock and roll: Sturgeon spawn while singing on the rocks

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How does a scientist use sound to save a 150-million-year-old fish? In Wisconsin, Ron Bruch and Chris Bocast are trying to help restore sturgeon stock by listening for the sound they make when spawning that some call “thunder.” The sound can be heard here. “It’s a real low frequency, you can almost feel it instead of hear it,” said Bruch, fish supervisor with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “One of the important measures of success is knowing your stock is spawning.”

Bocast, a University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral student in acoustic ecology, discovered the sound while working on an audio book about sturgeons.