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This article was so inspiring -- thank you to you and others for taking on this important project. In June 2019 I spent a few weeks in Illinois and remember how flooded the fields were. Some portions of my family's farm were never even planted that year because of all the water. I remember hoping that there were some researchers out there monitoring how birds and other wildlife were responding to all the unplanted acreage and extra fluddles. It would be interesting to know how much nature could come back after just one season without intensive agriculture (and hopefully it wasn't mostly invasive weeds that thrived). Did you come across any research or observations about wildlife impacts from the 2019 floods in your fluddle work?

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Thank you. I am glad you appreciate this essay. Heavy rain in the spring of last year is what started our project. I found flooded fields that were full of shorebirds. We submitted our sightings to ebird, so we have a database for birds use of flooded fields. This project is designed to spur more data collection and to help landowners understand the benefits of restoring their land. This recent review paper https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.650641/full provides a good overview of birds use of agricultural land during migration. Apparently, there has not been a good review of birds use of corn fields. Hopefully, we can make a contribution and raise awareness about the importance of the matrix that birds pass through twice a year.

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