Evening Spring Walk!

Friday, March 21

6:30-8:00 p.m.

Join us to celebrate the arrival of spring on an evening walk with your EIC friends. Wear sturdy shoes and dress for whatever the 2025 "spring" weather serves up. We'll warm up together afterward by the fire! Please register for this program. (Stock Photo by Anna_Om)

One of these, which I noted on February 28, was the presence of a single Common Grackle on one of the Environmental Interpretive Center’s bird feeders. I had not seen grackles in the ESA since last fall, when flocks of hundreds of them gathered to feed and fuel up as they prepared to head south for the winter. (Photo by Tina Nord)

Project PAT: Protecting Avian Travel

Every spring, billions of birds migrate north from the tropics, either passing through or stopping in Michigan during their extensive journeys finding the best spot to build a nest. With temperatures rising and the sun staying in the sky longer each day, you may begin to see some birds arriving in your neighborhood. Unfortunately, this means you may also see more injured or dead birds near buildings you visit.

Throughout the migration season, both in the spring and fall, birds often collide with windows. During the daytime, migrating birds can confuse the reflection of trees and plants in windows for actual vegetation they can pass through. Meanwhile, at night, any lights that are visible through windows tend to attract migrating birds, which use lights to help navigate in the dark.

In both situations, birds will fly into the window, leading to severe injury or death. This is especially an issue in urban areas, such as Chicago, In both situations, birds will fly into the window, leading to severe injury or death. This is especially an issue in urban areas, such as Chicago, where over 1,000 birds died on one night in October 2023 due to the windows of a single building. in October 2023 due to the windows of a single building. (Photo by Daryl Coldren, American Bird Conservancy)

(Editors note-an entire archived EIC newsletter is devoted to bird window collisions.) Window collisions have been a consistent issue at the EIC, and became an Eagle Scout project for Andrew Bleu in 2021. To help reduce these at our EIC windows, Andrew designed, assembled, and installed a system in 2019 that uses an arrangement of vertically suspended paracord called Agopian Bird Savers. For more information on the Agopian Bird Savers, go to https://www.birdsavers.com.

This phenomenon has inspired my EIC colleagues and me to develop Project Protecting Avian Travel, or Project PAT, to determine where, when, and how often birds collide with windows on the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus.

Although staff and faculty have noted occurrences of bird-window collisions in the past, Project PAT will be the first initiative at UM-D to quantify the amount of birds affected, as well as determine where these collisions are most prevalent. In the future, this information will be used to advocate for methods of bird-window collision prevention to be implemented on campus.

This project will rely on help from volunteers to help survey buildings during peak spring and fall migration times. So, if you would like to help the birds this spring and learn more about Project PAT, please fill out this volunteer interest form!



-Valerie Osowski, EIC Staff

EIC staff member Donna Posont and her "Michigan Birdbrains" were featured on the NBC Nightly News this week. As community scientists participating in the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), Donna and her birding crew spent a snowy weekend at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Proud Lake Recreation Area Hawk Lodge to record the bird species present. Donna and her program, Birding by Ear and Beyond, have received awards at the local, regional, and national levels. (Photo courtesy of the Natl. Federation for the Blind)

Volunteer Spotlight

“What a rush, Man!”

EIC Volunteer Spotlight- Keith Kushnir

The nights are cold, but not bitter. The days are warming, but not quite “warm”. Maple sugaring

season is in full swing here at the Environmental Interpretive Center! As has been the case for

decades, a dedicated cadre of volunteers has been eagerly collecting and hauling back sweet

barrels of last year’s sunshine! (Photo by Mike Solomon)

No maple syruping season would be complete without the appearance of one of our most dedicated volunteer sap haulers: Keith Kushnir. Keith is a legend! He and his son, Ian, have helped with the maple syrup harvest at the EIC since its early days, before there was even an official Center! Nowadays, Keith continues this "mission," sometimes with grandchildren joining the crew!

Keith anchors our crew, bringing newcomers into the fold and ensuring they feel welcome, showing them the ropes. When we’re collecting, not everyone elects to carry 2 5-gallon buckets at a time, but you will never see Keith with just one! While we work, time flies as we reminisce about the winters of yesteryear, maple seasons past, and what sorts of adventures kids in Dearborn had in the years before the Interpretive Center.

Collecting and hauling sap is hard work, but you wouldn’t know it if you heard us out there! Laughter, stories, and camaraderie fill the woods, as we enjoy the gorgeous sunshine, or even as we lament the snow, sleet, and rain. Spirits are always high. So thanks, Keith, for being one

of the highlights of our Maple Sugaring Season!

-Mike Solomon, EIC Staff EIC