You can make a difference!

It's Giving Tuesday, and if your email inbox is like mine, it's full of solicitations right now. So I won't waste your time: Here are two very good reasons why the Kirtland's Warbler Alliance is worthy of your support.

1. We accomplish what we say we are going to do. Four years ago, the Michigan DNR asked us to help them conduct the census by identifying, training and organizing volunteers to count Kirtland’s Warblers. With the assistance of our volunteers, the census finished ahead of schedule and the final count showed that the population of the Kirtland’s Warbler remains healthy and stable. It's not 2025 yet, but we're already gearing up for next year's census, which will be conducted in June.

2. The Kirtland's Warbler still needs your help. Yes, it's no longer endangered but many people fail to understand that conservation/jack pine management efforts must continue for as far as we can see into the future. If we've taken fire out of the ecosystem, we humans will need to manage the habitat on behalf of the Kirtland's Warbler and the other species that use the young jack pine as their habitat. It's critical that we help people understand the benefits to the ecosystem and to themselves.

Our to-do list for 2025 is pretty long. Besides helping to organize the Census, we will be hosting our annual Jack Pine Planting Day and making regular trips to Lansing to discuss Kirtland's Warbler conservation with members of the legislature.

I think we are an organization worthy of your support. We're lean, we're focused and we get stuff done -- stuff that directly benefits the Kirtland's Warblers. But if we are going to achieve our goals for the coming year, we will need your help. Please make a donation to the Kirtland's Warbler Alliance today. You can donate at kirtlandswarbler.org/make-a-donation or by mailing a check to The Kirtland's Warbler Alliance, 2310 Science Parkway, Suite 302, Okemos, MI 48864-2525.

We continue to be inspired by the passion that people like you have for Kirtland’s Warbler. Please help us move our work forward by making generous contribution to the Kirtland’s Warbler Alliance today.

From all of us at the Kirtland’s Warbler Alliance, thank you for your support!

The antidote to anxiety

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here, on this day before Thanksgiving 2024, we are thankful for the opportunity to work with you on protecting the Kirtland's Warbler, the under appreciated jack pine ecosystem and all of its inhabitants.

We recognize that this year that some of you are feeling more fearful than grateful. We've heard from several folks worried about what impact the most recent presidential election might have on conservation in general and Kirtland's Warbler conservation specifically. They're concerned about potential budget cuts and that appointees to run the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may not be as concerned about preserving our resources as the current administration.

We are concerned too, but the Kirtland's Warbler Alliance was created specifically to build support for our special bird regardless of who may be occupying the Oval Office or the governor's mansion. Our to-do list for 2025 is already long, but it's clear we are now going to have to double our efforts to educate members of Congress and the Legislature. We will continue to tell the story of the Kirtland's Warbler and point to the success of the Endangered Species Act. We will need to remind lawmakers that that landmark legislation still works.

If the election has you down, we might be able to provide something of an antidote. The answer to anxiety and depression is to do something concrete to make things better. We invite you to volunteer with us in 2025!

For us, this year's presidential election was a reminder that environmental organizations in the education/public awareness space, like the Alliance, need to be steadfast in our efforts to engage citizens and voters. Our mission, which is "To be a force for Kirtland's Warbler conservation," has taken on new importance. You can count on us to continue that mission with strength and purpose, and we hope you will join us as we get to work making a better future for the Kirtland's Warbler and conservation.

In migration, fat is key to survival

Our friend at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, Nathan Cooper, continues to make news with his various studies on the movements of Kirtland's Warblers on the landscape of both the breeding grounds and wintering grounds -- and now on everything in between.

A story published on Oct. 4 on the website of the SMBC features Cooper's latest research on KW movements, focusing on the impacts of particularly dry winters on the wintering grounds in The Bahamas and across the Caribbean. We knew that dry winters had a carry-over effect on nesting season -- that adults were less successful in raising young in the summers following dry winters. But Dr. Cooper's new research shows that dry winters have an impact in a different way: higher rates of mortality during spring migration.

We knew from earlier research that birds that arrive on the nesting grounds after dry winters are less healthy because they are carrying less fat. They need to spend more time gathering food for themselves, which means they have less time to dedicate to gathering food for their young. The result is fewer hatchlings successfully fledge.

But Dr. Cooper's research shows that those same birds that are carrying less fat when they decide to leave the wintering grounds are also more likely to perish on their migration. According to the Smithsonian's website, "The team analyzed three years of radio tracking data from 136 tagged (with radio transmitters) Kirtland’s warblers to estimate their survival rate across their migration and its relation to environmental factors."

This research is the result of a grant from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service’s Great Lakes Restoration Act "to build full annual-cycle population models for Kirtland’s warblers." Building this model will help the Conservation Team identify specific dangers involved in migrations and potentially work to mitigate some of them. According to the Smithsonian's story, this model will help scientists determine how the dangers of migration fit into the broader picture for warblers. That information is potentially useful for the conservation of other declining migratory species.

You can read more here: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/.../drier-winter-habitat...

Cooper's study was published in the Oct. 4 issue of "Current Biology." (It's behind a paywall. Sorry.) https://www.cell.com/curre.../abstract/S0960-9822(24)01225-9