This video footage shows birds observed by wildlife biologists on or near the Straits of Mackinac, April 10, 2018. The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) Wildlife Services program, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and Michigan Department of Natural Resources personnel are surveying the area, on the water and from the shore, to look for any signs of pollution or impacted fish and wildlife. Biologists are looking for excessive preening, abnormal behavior, or a feathers with discoloration. No impacts to the environment or wildlife have been identified.
Birds will naturally preen for hours to align their feathers and provide insulation from the cold. More than 3,000 waterfowl, including Long-tailed Ducks, Common Mergansers, Herring Gulls and Goldeneye Eagles, have been observed over the course of the response from areas near Mackinac, Round, and Boise Blanc Islands, as well as on the shoreline near Mackinaw City and west of the Mackinac Bridge. (video provided courtesy Dane Williams, U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services).
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