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May 16, 2004Officials expand warbler toursEnthusiasts come from all over the stateByRecord-Eagle staff writer GRAYLING - Grayling area tourism officials offer a bevy of birding opportunities this spring and summer, and are expanding tours to see the Kirtland's Warbler, Michigan's rarest songbird. The Kirtland's Warbler calls more than 150,000 acres of state and federal forest near Grayling home. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers birders a chance to see the warblers up close on daily tours that began this weekend. Tours began Saturday at 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and extend through July 4 from the Grayling Holiday Inn. Birders will first see a movie about the tiny endangered songbirds, which live only in 5- to 15-year-old jack pines in the sandy plains surrounding Grayling. Guides will then lead tours to sites known to have warblers. At last count, there were an estimated 1,202 singing warbler males. Habitat management, including a vigorous cowbird-trapping program, has boosted the warbler numbers six-fold from 1987, when only 167 males were counted. Cowbirds are enemies of Kirtland's and other species, laying eggs in their nests that when hatched, displace Kirtland's young. Craig Kasmer, an interpreter at Hartwick Pines State Forest north of Grayling, said the 10,000 acres of forest land offer habitats from lakes and streams to old growth forests. Bird enthusiasts come from all over the state and are armed with high-tech binoculars and birding checklists, Kasmer said. "These folks come here just to bird," Kasmer said. "They get up at the break of dawn just to hear the birds start singing." Habitat has been increased over the decades by use of controlled burns, and more recently, clear-cutting and replanting. Currently there are 153,000 acres in the Huron-Manistee National Forest, neighboring state forests and Fish and Wildlife Service lands that are managed on a rotating 50-year cycle to cut and replace swaths of trees so the birds always will find suitable nesting. Each year about 2,700 acres are developed into nesting habitat so 38,000 acres are available to birds at any time. Tours to view songbirds also will be held in conjunction with the 11th annual Kirtland's Warbler Festival, sponsored by Kirtland Community College, through today.
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