Jeremy Banfield, East Lansing Field Office, takes part in censusing fish-eating birds on dredge disposal facility in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron.  USFWS photo by Lisa Williams

Environmental contaminants biologists from the East Lansing Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted counts of colonial waterbirds at colonies in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron as part of the decadal census sponsored by the Service's Migratory Bird program (along with additional funding from other Service and USGS programs) and managed by Dr. Francesca Cuthbert and colleagues at the University of Minnesota. Species counted included Caspian terns, common terns, Forster's terns, herring gulls, great egrets, great blue herons, black-crowned night-herons, and double-crested cormorants. Census information is used to monitor population status and trends, determine sensitive areas needing special protection during spill response and as part of federal project planning, and to select study sites for more detailed studies of reproductive success and contaminant and disease impacts.