Detroit Audubon’s Annual Conference 2007

“Birds, Glass, and Towers”

By Rosemarie Attilio

Nearly 100 people attended the Detroit Audubon Society’s annual conference on March 31, 2007. The event titled “Birds, Glass, and Towers” was held at the Ford Conservation center at the Detroit Zoo. Our distinguished speakers were Dr. Joelle Gehring of Central Michigan University and Dr. Daniel Klem of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.

The morning began with an early tour through the butterfly gardens and the freeflight aviary. The butterfly garden is a lovely exhibit showing a case where butterflies are hatching from their chrysalis. The hatched butterflies of many species, delivered from various butterfly farms in Central America, are free to fly around the visitor admist a small fountain and various blooming plants. The freeflight aviary walk is an exciting exhibit that led us through many flying, running, perching and swimming birds of many species; boat billed herons and bleeding heart pigeons to name a few. We thank the zoo staff that came in extra early to give us such a wonderful

experience.

After the tour, the conference proceeded to Ford Education Center Auditorium where Dr. Joelle Gehring received Conservationist of the Year Award. This award recognized the hard work of Dr. Gehring in the need to study, and hopefully alter, the large communication towers which cause millions of birds to die during migration periods world wide. Dr. Gehring gave an excellent talk on her current work, how she conducts her studies on towers here in Michigan, and factors that she is determining which can reduce bird mortality by slightly modifing the tower structure, size and lighting. She has found that specific height, lighting color, and whether the light is a strobe, constant lit or blinking have different affects on the amount of bird mortality. These affect the attraction the birds have to the towers. Weather conditions also play into the factoring, and that is also being studied, with foggy overcast nights being the worst. Dr. Gehring is looking to work with many organizations to heed her study accounts, in an attempt to get the towers changed to reflect the lighting and size that will greatly reduce the mortality.

Dr. Joelle Gehring

The next speaker was Caleb Putnam, Michigan’s Important Bird Areas Coordinator. The Michigan IBA Program is a partnership involving the Detroit Audubon Society, the Kalamazoo Nature Center, the Michigan Audubon Society and the National Audubon Society. He spoke of how the IBA programs mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats, for the benefit of humanity and the Earth's biological diversity. Caleb gave an informative account of the purpose of the IBA program, what is being done so far, and how you can get involved.

Caleb Putnam

The DAS then presented the Conservation Organization of the Year award to the Committee to Keep Doves Protected. Accepting the award for Julie Baker was Kim Korona. The DAS commends the organization for their tireless efforts to protect the Mourning Dove. Through their efforts, every single county in Michigan voted to keep the dove hunting ban in Michigan.

Kim Corona

Rochelle Breitenbach received a lifetime membership award for her dedication and hard work to the Society and her service as

president.

Richard Quick and Rochelle Breitenbach

The final award was given to our last speaker, Dr. Daniel Klem. The DAS honored his fine work in the study of bird mortality through the hazards of glass windows. Dr. Klem gave an informative and well studied lecture on his years of work on the glass window issue. He has studied various aspects of reflective glass, through size of the glass, what type of glass triggers stronger reflection causing greater mortality, weather factors, and architectural implications. The possibility of the numbers of bird mortality to window reflection is staggering. Dr. Klem also stressed that small windows, such as in a home, still have a great impact on the mortality, not just large business structures. Some suggestions to reduce impact have been to have the windows put in at an angle, to decrease reflection, using new glass types that have a different type of reflection, putting a bird feeder close to a window to stop the bird from hitting into the window, and to put up netting especially during migration season over particularly high reflective windows. His work has not concluded whether the silhouettes used on windows today have a big effect to reduce mortality. He did suggest that if you do use silhouettes, to have many of them to be effective. (Note: There is a new kind of sticker available, that is ultraviolet, which shows nearly invisible to the human eye, but is seen by birds' eyes. These stickers are available at the Detroit Audubon office, and they are called Window Alert).

Dr. Daniel Klem

The conference concluded with a silent auction, in which many wonderful items were donated by various Audubon members and organizations and auctioned off. We heartfully thank each company or person who donated, and all those who purchased the items. The silent auction raised nearly $900.00. Some of the wonderful items that were donated were an original painting done many years ago by a Detroit Zoo chimpanzee, JoJo. Other items included a trip to a condo resort in Colorado, beautiful photography, gift certificates to Wild Birds, and Backyard Birds stores and various restaurants, rock specimens, puzzles, binoculars and much more. Please consider donating an item or gift certificate next year, and remember to come to the conference to look for a treasure.

The Detroit Audubon thanks everyone who made the conference possible, and all who participated.

Photos by Rosemarie Attilio

More Photos of the Conference