tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54832691547781750812026-01-20T08:47:04.768-05:00<center>Southeast Michigan bird and urban ecology research, including archived and updated material related to the <b>Rouge River Bird Observatory</b></center>JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.comBlogger193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-3803113108867691312024-10-02T10:13:00.001-04:002024-10-02T10:13:24.935-04:00

All those years of collecting bird poop to see what fruit birds were eating by identifying the seeds paid off (again).&nbsp; After I retired in 2018, I continued this research for a few years, collecting seeds from bird droppings and collecting more reference seeds.My latest paper is a discovery I made of tiny dead wasps that had emerged from rose seeds I collected. It's in the newest issue of

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-80994721816815393262023-09-01T14:40:00.005-04:002023-09-01T14:40:56.877-04:00

&nbsp;There has been a revision of the threatened and endangered species list for the state of Michigan. Many of the changes in the lists below were first formulated in 2015, but the state legislature did not act on them. They were revisited in 2019 but the finalization was delayed by covid. I co-chaired the committee in 2015, and chaired it in 2019. To determine changes or additions in the

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-81722854578155817322023-06-01T19:42:00.002-04:002023-09-01T14:37:25.731-04:00

The&nbsp;Ferruginous Hawk&nbsp;(Buteo regalis) is large hawk of the western prairies and grasslands. There are a number of records for Michigan in both spring and fall seasons, including one in Wayne County in November 1991.On 3 May 2023, a vagrant female Ferruginous Hawks was found in a weakened state near Erieau, Ontario (west of Rondeau Provincial Park). It was released on 20 May near Wyoming,

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-69293367899509973512023-02-08T13:58:00.001-05:002023-09-01T14:37:44.651-04:00

&nbsp;Craves, J.A., and N.M. Anich. 2023. ­­­Status and distribution of an introduced population of European Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) in the western Great Lakes region of North America. Neobiota 81:129-155. doi: 10.3897/neobiota.81.97736This paper is open access, so you can read it online or download the PDF by clicking the title above. (The figures look better in the PDF.)&nbsp;The

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-60596383835553842132022-09-12T09:03:00.001-04:002022-09-12T09:04:30.649-04:00

A little belatedly, I'm happy to report that this summer I was voted in as an Elective Member of the American Ornithological Society (created by a merger of the American Ornithologists' Union and Cooper Orinthological Society).Elective Members are one of the special membership categories that recognize one's significant contributions to ornithology and to the AOS, and are nominated and voted on

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-83189048433403322182022-08-05T08:29:00.001-04:002023-01-31T10:35:31.209-05:00

Update: This paper has been published! It's open access so you can read online or download the PDF; click on title below - Craves, J.A., and N.M. Anich. 2023. ­­­Status and distribution of an introduced population of European Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) in the western Great Lakes region of North America. Neobiota 81:129-155. doi: 10.3897/neobiota.81.97736&nbsp;At long last, the paper on the

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-52870972104490769252021-12-11T10:43:00.005-05:002023-01-31T10:35:53.997-05:00

Update: This paper has been published! It's open access so you can read online or download the PDF; click on title below - Craves, J.A., and N.M. Anich. 2023. ­­­Status and distribution of an introduced population of European Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) in the western Great Lakes region of North America. Neobiota 81:129-155. doi: 10.3897/neobiota.81.97736&nbsp;--- European Goldfinches have

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-7314962679636398932021-09-18T12:15:00.002-04:002022-02-05T07:33:09.491-05:00

There are several different levels or lists of species whose populations warrant some sort of monitoring and/or protections. These include federal and state endangered, threatened ("T&amp;E") and special concern lists; and the species of greatest conservation need generated by the US state-level Wildlife Action Plans. I've served on the Michigan T&amp;E technical committees for insects and birds

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-22176436316813352772021-07-01T08:58:00.005-04:002021-09-20T07:09:30.099-04:00

Birder Robert (Bobby) Irwin found a Neotropic Cormorant (just assigned to a new genus, and now Nannopterum brasilianum) off Humbug Island at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge on 28 June 2021. The eBird checklist with photos is here. As of 19 September 2021, it was still being seen, at least sporadically. This identification is not an easy call. I happened to have visited the Refuge

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-18080205033630120732021-03-07T12:14:00.006-05:002021-03-07T12:16:38.086-05:00

Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius) is one of my favorite birds. Not just lovely to look at, but also listen to, if you happen to be within the breeding range of the species which is centered more or less in the Pacific Northwest. There are four records of Varied Thrush in Wayne County, two of which are from Dearborn. I'll start there, of course.Dearborn's first Varied Thrush was a one-day wonder, a

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-5102890863398177832020-12-30T13:18:00.002-05:002020-12-30T13:20:44.241-05:00

Dearborn has an interesting winter roost of Black-crowned Night-herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) at a pond near the Rouge River inside the Ford Rouge Plant complex (scroll down in this post for a map and description). Access to this site is restricted, but Mike O'Leary as a former Dearborn police officer and current Ford employee has been able to periodically survey birds, and consequently the

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-71840083636457021332020-10-17T15:03:00.000-04:002020-10-17T15:03:03.846-04:00

Many years ago, a group of Dearborn birders and RRBO banders submitted lists of the five bird species they thought might be the next to land on the Dearborn bird checklist*. I don't even need to dig it out to know that American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) was not on that list.On the evening of 16 October 2020, Mike O'Leary happened to be outside when 12 pelicans flew south over his

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-191213881643649432020-05-08T12:26:00.000-04:002020-05-08T12:27:30.725-04:00

Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata, formerly Common Moorhen, G. chloropus) is a wetland bird seen only once in Dearborn, along the Rouge River on the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus on 15 May 1983 by Jim Fowler, Jr. On 3 May 2020, Mike O'Leary got a phone call from a friend about a strange bird in his west Dearborn back yard. Lo and behold, a gallinule: This yard is in a dense

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-27790521241392605092019-03-15T12:11:00.001-04:002020-10-17T09:55:47.606-04:00

The metro Detroit area has a long and rich history of documented bird sightings. A number of early ornithologists documented birds early in the 20th century. The Bird Survey of the Detroit Region began in 1946, and formed the basis for Alice Kelley's book Birds of Southeastern Michigan and Southwestern Ontario, which left off around 1978. I reviewed thousands of those available records (including

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-35268275605585726122019-03-08T13:27:00.002-05:002019-03-15T11:55:33.285-04:00

The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) is generally thought of as a southern species that sometimes wanders north -- particularly during the post-breeding period but occasionally as a nesting species. The first Michigan breeding record was a pair that nested along the Rouge River at the UM-Dearborn campus in 1971. This record is credited to William Fisher. Here are his original

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-67886735854893197302019-03-07T14:27:00.001-05:002019-03-15T11:55:33.315-04:00

Barn Owls (Tyto alba) are considered extirpated as breeding birds in Michigan. Although I suspect that occasionally a few persist, for the most part the lack of open, fallow land has decimated their numbers across the Midwest, a fate shared by many other grassland species. The fact that Barn Owls were probably very rare prior to Michigan's logging heydays when the state was mostly forested is

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-2833921517978783462019-02-13T11:15:00.002-05:002020-10-17T09:57:21.600-04:00

I've now put up a revised version of the Dearborn bird checklist incorporating changes through 2018. A link is also in the sidebar. This checklist complies with all taxonomic changes made by the American Ornithologists’ Union to the 7th edition of the AOU Check-list of North and Middle American Birds, through the 59th Supplement, published in 2018. The Dearborn bird checklist contains 263

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-16563600431808247702019-02-11T12:11:00.001-05:002019-02-11T12:11:29.905-05:00

NOTE: In anticipation of publishing a new Dearborn bird checklist, I am posting information on some of the city's more interesting sightings.&nbsp; There are a couple of hypothetical species on the Dearborn checklist, significant records that should really require further documentation to include in the list. One is for White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus), seen on the University of

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-49105737641544314022019-02-05T10:36:00.001-05:002020-11-01T08:30:59.162-05:00

NOTE: In anticipation of publishing a new Dearborn bird checklist, I am posting information on some of the city's more interesting sightings.&nbsp; On 21 October 1999, a Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) was reported at a residential feeder in west Dearborn, about a block from Snow Woods near Snow Avenue and Rotunda. The bird was seen over several days, but due to an email glitch I did

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-72259364203856106142019-02-03T12:16:00.000-05:002019-03-07T14:38:10.338-05:00

NOTE: In anticipation of publishing a new Dearborn bird checklist, I am posting information on some of the city's more interesting sightings.&nbsp; In my post about Michigan's second record of Bachman's Sparrow (Peucaea aestivalis), I introduced Alice Miller, a Dearborn bird bander and active contributor and compiler of bird surveys in the Detroit region into the early 1950s. Here is yet

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-57152046147837559012019-01-31T14:46:00.002-05:002019-02-03T12:17:02.170-05:00

NOTE: In anticipation of publishing a new Dearborn bird checklist, I am posting information on some of the city's more interesting sightings.&nbsp; Alice Miller was a Dearborn bird bander and active contributor and compiler of bird surveys in the Detroit region into the early 1950s. She wrote several short papers on unusual bird sightings, and regularly submitted records to the Detroit

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-58197151383067865332019-01-25T08:52:00.001-05:002021-12-11T09:05:33.718-05:00

European Goldfinches in Kenosha, WI, April 2016Photo by Darrin O'Brien&nbsp;&nbsp; I have posted an updated page on European Goldfinches and other non-native cage birds in the western Great Lakes. I am still collecting follow-up data while the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas is in its final year of surveys; southeast Wisconsin and northeast Illinois are the "epicenters" of the breeding population

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-2544131990003955722019-01-24T14:02:00.001-05:002019-01-25T08:28:10.365-05:00

RRBO has closed, but I am still working on several RRBO-related projects, as well as continuing to do urban ecology research independently and providing expertise and service to the scientific community. So whether you are interested in Dearborn and southeast Michigan birds; urban ecology with a focus on birds, insects, and plants in the Midwest; and/or similar endeavors, I hope you continue to

JAChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03852586012508613542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-33146970326067469852018-08-31T18:39:00.001-04:002021-12-11T08:26:49.196-05:00

Due to a lack of sustainable funding, the Rouge River Bird Observatory will cease operations in October 2018.&nbsp; I will be leaving the University as a retiree with Visiting Scholar status, and hope to finish publishing RRBO-related research.&nbsp;I will continue to maintain this blog, and social media (Facebook) for the time being, and I'll use these venues to post updates on publications and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5483269154778175081.post-24157813697696124222017-09-07T14:31:00.000-04:002019-02-03T12:18:50.819-05:00

The paper Native birds exploit leaf-mining moth larvae using a new North American host, non-native Lonicera maackii was recently published online ahead of print in the journal Écoscience. This paper describes the interactions between native birds, a specialist moth, and the moth’s new host in North America, Amur honeysuckle, a problematic non-native shrub. On a bird survey in late fall 2015,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0