Bluebird Nest Box Monitoring

Once again this summer some of our members will help monitor the bluebird boxes on the Muskegon County Resource Recovery Center (MCRRC) properties.  Monitoring boxes is a great way to learn more about cavity nesting species and to get up close to nature!  

Simply sign up for a week when you'll be available and then choose whatever day (10:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.ml) during that week that works for you.  (You will receive an email reminder prior to your scheduled appointment.). Pick up your monitoring field sheets at the Administration Building prior to monitoring your nest boxes.

Sign up online by clicking here.

Thanks!

- Anita Friend, MCRRC

April 15 Field Trip Report

   Finally!  A beautiful day for a field trip!

photo by Pat Bazany

   

    Fourteen of us spent three and a half hours strolling Black Lake Park Saturday morning.  It felt like spring, and the birds acted like spring.  By the time we left, we'd recorded 52 species!

    Of note were three Eastern Towhees (one of the two males scratching the leaf litter for bugs), an American Robin making mud-trips to its nest, Brown Thrasher, two American Wigeon, Bonaparte's Gull, Horned Grebe, Great Blue Heron, Wild Turkey (two males on the ground displaying their tails, a female perched high in a tree over our heads), both kinglets, Brown Creeper, Hermit Thrush, Pine and Yellow-rumped Warblers, and way too many Brown-headed Cowbirds.  

    Other species included Wood Duck, Gadwall, scaup, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, American Coot, Sandhill Crane, Red-shouldered Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Red-bellied, Downy and Pileated Woodpeckers, Tree Swallow, Chipping, Field, White-throated, Song (and House) Sparrows, plus most of the usual suspects.  Notable by its absence was Gray Catbird of which we saw and heard none!

April Events

 April 15 Black Lake Park Field Trip 

    Meet at 8:00 a.m. in the Black Lake Park parking lot on Wood Road about a mile south of Pontaluna Road.  We will walk the entire park slowly looking for resident and migratory birds. 

    It's a small park so this trip should end before noon.  The public is welcome.  Hope to see you there! 

April 18 Program

How and Why Birds Sing 

There is more to bird song than the tones and melodies we find pleasing to our ears and use to identify birds we cannot see. Just as we use spoken language to communicate with each other, birds use vocalizations and songs to communicate. There are two ways to explain bird song. First, we try to learn the physical mechanisms birds use to sing and how they acquire their songs. Laboratory studies showed that the ability of birds to sing and vocalize involves, to different degrees, genes, experience, and practice. Second, we need to try to understand why birds sing.  What do birds gain by singing? Some reasons seem clear; birds sing to defend their territories from rivals and to attract mates. However, what exactly are bird songs communicating to their rivals and potential mates? Are all vocalizing birds communicating “truthful” information? Do birds “lie”? Why? Asking these sorts of questions should give us a greater understanding of what is happening when we hear birds singing but they need not detract from the pleasure we get when we hear the dawn chorus. 

To learn more about the complexities of bird song, please attend our 18 April program presented by Michael Lombardo.

Michael P. Lombardo is an Emeritus Professor of Biology at Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI.  At GVSU from 1991-2021.  He taught classes in Evolution, Human Evolution, Human Sexuality, Ornithology, and Vertebrate Natural History.  He earned a B.S. in Zoology from The Ohio State University (1976), M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Zoology (1978) and Ecology (1984) from Rutgers University, was a Junior Fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan (1987-1990), served as Secretary of the Association of Field Ornithologists (2011-2016), and is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society. 

His main research interest is the evolution of social behavior and among his over 50 publications in peer-reviewed science journals are papers on bird behavior, the evolution of sexually transmitted diseases in birds, the evolution of reciprocity, and the role of microbes in influencing the evolution of sexual and social behavior of their hosts. Trained as an ornithologist, he more recently turned his attention to topics in human evolution and has published papers on the evolution of sports, human adaptations for fighting, and the evolution of throwing in humans. 

Our programs are in conjunction with the Owashtanog Islands Audubon Society.  Social Time: 6:00-6:30, Program: 6:30-8:00, at the Covenant Life Church, 101 Columbus Ave. in Grand Haven.