This Michigan songbird was on the brink of extinction. But now its making a comeback.
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Morning Musings 🤔
We're so lucky to have a great selection of ethnic grocery stores in Metro Detroit. And it's all thanks to our diversity.
I often visit Honey Bee in Southwest Detroit, a Mexican grocery store. It still carries normal grocery essentials, but offers a unique line of community-driven products -- and great guacamole.
In Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, Middle Eastern grocery stores can be found on almost any block. Some are small, while some are the size of a Kroger. They offer amazingly fresh and affordable produce that cater to the needs of their surrounding communities.
There are also great Asian, Polish and Indian markets in the area. Be sure to check them out -- try a new flavor, or just support a local business.
- Ken
Morning Dive 🏊
The Kirtland's warbler, a small songbird species that has called Michigan home for many decades, was nearly extinct just 50 years ago.
Now, the species has bounced back. Here's a look at the comeback story.
Warbler's decline
Some background: The Kirtland's warbler is a small songbird that nests in young jack pine forests in Northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. It requires large stands of young, dense jack pine forest at least 80 acres in size, but prefers stands of 300 to 400 acres, or larger. The warbler has one of the most geographically restricted breeding distributions of any bird in the continental United States.
The exact habitat it uses for nesting within jack pine forests is very specific and depends on disturbance, which historically was wildfire. With the advent of fire suppression, jack pine stands matured and nesting habitat disappeared.
The warblers that remained faced another threat: the parasitic brown-headed cowbird. Cowbirds lay eggs in other birds' nests, often removing a host egg and leaving the naïve hosts to incubate and care for the young cowbirds. The cowbird egg typically hatches one to two days before the others, getting a head start on growth. The young cowbird is bigger and able to claim more food than other nestlings, and may crowd other baby birds out of the nest.
As of 1974, only 167 were counted. The species was on the brink of extinction.
Rebounding
The concern of the birding and scientific communities, supported by nesting and census data, led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to include the species on the list of endangered species in 1967 under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966. When the Endangered Species Act was passed into law in 1973, the Kirtland's warbler was on the initial list of endangered and threatened species.
In response to the warbler's decline, the USFWS, Michigan DNR, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Michigan Audubon Society began an intensive habitat management and cowbird removal program that remains in place today. As a result, the Kirtland's warbler population is now increasing as more warbler chicks are surviving to maturity.
Adaptive jack pine management, cowbird control, monitoring, public education, and research have been very effective in managing Kirtland's warblers. The species has responded vigorously to recovery actions and now nests in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Ontario and Wisconsin.
Numbers have topped recovery goals since 2001, with a record-breaking count of 1,832 singing males during the 2011 census conducted by the Michigan DNR and U.S. Forest Service.
De-listing
In 2018, USFWS proposed dropping legal protections for the warbler but acknowledged efforts will be needed indefinitely to preserve jack pine stands where the birds spend summers and raise their young.
Another requirement will be continued vigilance against brown-headed cowbirds, which invade warblers' nests and displace their babies.
Chatter 🗣️
- Fall is here, which is really just another excuse to drink wine. Check out some wineries Up North in Michigan wine country.
- This is important: Think your driver's license is enough to get you through US airport security and onto your domestic flight? On October 1, 2020, travelers will need a "REAL ID-compliant" driver's license, US passport, US military ID or other accepted identification to fly within the United States. More info here.
Housekeeping 🧹
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- Ken Haddad (Have something to say or a topic idea? Contact me: Email | Twitter)
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