Lise and I got out for a quick trip to Park Lake. There is a bit of open water and we got three new species, ring-neck duck, American widgeon, and great blue heron. I had seen a heron a week or so ago circling campus but forgot to record it in the spread sheet. I’m at 100 for the year and Lise is at 98. 40.0% and 39.2% respectively.
Thursday through Saturday morning I was at the Kettunen Center in Tustin, Michigan for the Michigan Bird Conservation Initiative Conference. In a new one for me, they gave us all a bird leg band commemorating the conference. When the check-in person said, “here’s your leg band,” I started backing out thinking they were going to clamp it on my ankle. That way they can track the other conferences I go to.
The Kettunen Center is out in the sticks a bit. Probably would have been a bit nicer if we had better weather. Gray and cold. A National Audubon representative from Louisiana came to the conference. She froze. Spent the conference with a blanket wrapped around her. So much for global warming I guess.
Icicles at the conference center, second day of Spring.
A little game of hoops maybe?
I was there for work, not birding. Listening to riveting presentations about loon genetic mapping, Great Lakes avian botulism, sandhill crane tourism in MI, and chickadee foraging decisions. Like whether to eat a deer or not. I did a presentation about our work using weather radar data to quantify and map nocturnal avian migration patterns. Other people have done similar work with weather radar; we just added a spatial statistics twist to it. We used an analysis technique that is also used in crime statistics. Some probably think our analysis is criminal so I guess we used the appropriate technique.
Number of times out of six years a point was a statistically significant nocturnal migration hotspot. Blue = one year, red = six years. Spring migration, 11:00 PM.
In another first, this is the first conference I’ve been at where they had a “Zombie Killer” up for bid at the silent auction. A double knife set in a single sheath. I know a 17-year-old zombie killer that really needed this so I managed to get it for her. Now I just need to make sure I never look like a zombie. Or say she can’t go to the prom.
The Zombie Killer.
A zombie killer with the Zombie Killer. Isn’t she adorable?
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 