Thanks to a Travel Grant provided by The Wetland Foundation, I was able to spend the summer camping near my field site in southeastern Michigan. By the end of the summer, one of the gate attendants at the campground said, ‘I didn’t think you were going to make it the whole summer!’ I, however, very much enjoyed the camping. The bird species that I studied, the King Rail, is categorized as endangered in Michigan. Having just a 15-min drive to my field site, rather than a 2.5 + hr drive, allowed me to complete the first successful study in the state that captured and tracked King Rails (including the one pictured). I determined what habitat radio-tagged birds used, the size of their home ranges, and confirmed a successful nesting attempt. These data will help to conserve the species. Without The Wetland Foundation’s support, this research would not have been possible.
