Greetings!
The comeback of an adorable, endangered bird is giving me hope and confidence as we approach the 2024 field season, working collaboratively to solve environmental problems and envisioning the future we want to see under global change.
The University of Michigan Biological Station is proud to play a critical role in the Great Lakes piping plover recovery effort spanning more than three decades.
A little bird told me the first plover sightings of springtime are in the books in northern Michigan. "YibBee,” a three-year-old male, was the first to claim its spot on the beach at Sleeping Bear Dunes along Lake Michigan the second week of April. However, avian specialists stationed at UMBS are anxiously awaiting the arrival of plovers who had been raised here at our campus from rescued eggs and set free along the Great Lakes. Captive-reared plovers that survive the winter generally arrive to their breeding grounds a bit later than the older wild birds like YibBee.
According to Stephanie Schubel with the University of Minnesota, 13 of the 39 plovers raised at UMBS last year — a record year — were reported on the 2023-24 wintering grounds. And Dr. Francie Cuthbert, who started the intensive plover recovery, captive rearing and re-release program more than 30 years ago at our field station in Pellston, said that first-time breeders are usually later to return to the Great Lakes in the spring: “Their arrival is always a big deal.”
That’s why the piping plover recovery effort is our feature story this month. Learn about the incredible people stationed at our campus along Douglas Lake to incubate and hatch out abandoned plover eggs and care for chicks before setting the birds free in the wild. Read the comprehensive story about partners across the country, and watch the uplifting video celebrating conservation progress.
Speaking of birds, the Hann Endowed Lecture in Ornithology in the 2024 Summer Lecture Series features Dr. Noah Whiteman, a professor of integrative biology and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the evolution of foraging traits in hummingbirds. His free, public talk on Wednesday, July 31, at 7 p.m. is titled “How the Early Bird Catches the Worm: Co-evolution Between Migratory Behavior and Beak Morphology in Hummingbird.” See the full 2024 Summer Lecture Series schedule and plan your visit. I hope to see you at UMBS this year!
Did you see the solar eclipse at the beginning of the month? Some of our UMBS staff members drove to places experiencing totality, such as Toledo. During the partial eclipse in Pellston, scientists along Douglas Lake used the UMBS smart buoy floating in South Fishtail Bay to track changes in the environment — primarily radiation, wind and air/water temperature — when the Moon passed between Earth and the Sun. Read the UMBS story to see the graphs that explain the data. Following the shortest ice season UMBS scientists have recorded on Douglas Lake, 2024 has now marked the earliest we’ve deployed the buoy to ride the waves through spring, summer and fall. You can access the UMBS Buoy Dashboard 24/7. It’s a fantastic resource, especially for fishing and boating.
Please join me in congratulating the six scientists and 20 graduate students selected to receive UMBS research fellowships totaling $91,126 to support their work. We know that scientists need financial support to get new, innovative research programs off the ground or to serve as a bridge to keep their research alive when grant funding from other agencies expires and they’re applying for new grants. Thanks to our generous donors, the Biological Station is proud to be able to fill that gap and provide that spark with a competitive pool of money to support careers and science. Meet this year’s cohort and their research projects.
And I end my note with a request. Please encourage students in your network to take courses at our field station in northern Michigan and earn credit during four-week spring and summer terms this year. We accept students from all universities, and scholarships are available to everyone too. The deadline to apply for the spring term is April 30. Don’t rely on my word about the value in how we immerse students in nature: Hear directly from last year’s students about how the experience changed their life.
Read our full April 2024 Newsletter and take a moment in nature to enjoy the sights and sounds as springs bubble out of the ravine between Douglas Lake and Burt Lake at the Gorge at UMBS.
Sincerely,
Dr. Aimée Classen
UMBS Director
