It has been relatively quiet around here lately.  There is a lull between all the fall migrants moving on, and the winter birds not quite here yet.  I took a route from Homer up to Duck Lake and Ackley Lake on the 17th with just some new October birds.  Lesser Scaup at Homer, Buffleheads at Duck Lake and Ackley Lake had White-throated Sparrow.  R DR N fluddle had one lone American Golden-Plover hanging out in the open near waters edge.  Amy Lyyski had a probable White-rumped Sandpiper there on the 20th.  Wish I could have gotten that bird...but Chaos.  

Male and female Purple Finch made an appearance on the feeders on the 21st.  Morning of the 22nd I spooked up some bird that obviously had something in its talons.  Was so hard to tell what it was as it flew off quickly behind some brambles.  Found Morning Dove feathers, so assuming a Red-tailed Hawk was having its breakfast.  Headed out after Chaos to Duck Lake later that day and had a ton of gulls to sort through.  Between the distance, the mirage, and the lack of light it really was near impossible to suss out anything to different.  1 apparent Merganser was out there, but I put it as Common/Red-breasted.  

Went out to Duck Lake again the evening of the 23rd, and think I hit a rare bird trifecta out there.  I'm not sure if they will get confirmed or not.  The pics are very bad.  Two large ducks out there, and one had that classic Scoter shape.  The other was much more "normal" duck like shape with a small stiff-tail.  Ruddy Ducks went by it and they were much smaller.  Had the light cheek and dark crown.  I'm 90% sure it was a Black Scoter, and the other bird a Surf Scoter as it had zero white on its wings.  Both bird was soooo far out there though, and even going down to the middle of the lake I couldn't even locate them from there.  As I scanned through the hundreds of gulls I had one slightly bigger than the Ring-billed Gulls with a very dark back.  So Lesser-black Backed Gull!!  It then was hanging with 3 other gulls similar in size.  One was a very dark juvenile, and potentially a juvenile Lesser Black-backed.  I have one crappy shot that looks like a second slightly smaller black-backed gull with maybe some hood was there.  But no way I'm calling a Laughing Gull with the shots I have.  Some pics any hood doesn't show, so could just be trick of the light.  I posted my horrible pics, and hope between them and the description it is enough.  

Made the Homer-Duck Lake route again today, and it was just very empty at both locations.  Northern Harrier at Homer was a FOS, as was Horned Grebe and Bonaparte's Gull at Duck Lake.  Tree Swallows at Homer flagged for rare for date.  Looks like not my latest date for them though.  

This very cool looking Red-tailed Hawk was spotted just south of N DR N on 19 Mile Road.  I thought maybe had some Western subspecies in it, but I changed it from calrus/abieticola, that I just learned about, to just an abieticola.  It has to have the least blobby belly-band though.  I've seen borealis with darker bands.  I think the chest is even darker than the pics show as it had a full crop.  Still continues to be a great year.  If the Black Scoter and White-rumped are confirmed the county will be at 223.  225 is a definitive possibility.  I'm going to keep trying to get out as often as possible, as hopefully Chaos is slowly losing some of its grip over me.  ​

Almost forgot I had what I thought was a really odd Plume Moth on the 20th so snapped some pics.  As I looked at it closer it didn't match any Plume Moth in my field guide.  I posted to iNaturalist and it kept pegging it to Crane Flies.  I posted as a generic Crane Fly and then went over to BugGuide.net and posted it.  Very shortly after that I got an email that it was identified as pedicia inconstans. It was noted as a new data point for Michigan. iNaturalist has only 38 observations for this guy.  So seems like something not terribly common for around here.  I think only two other reports for Michigan.  

Got some nice make-up birds this week as we had some rain come through, and it filled the fluddle back up on R DR N.  Amy Lyyski had 4 American Golden-Plovers reported there.  I headed out as soon as I could from a previous appointment I had.  Took me 20 minutes, but I finally located them well up from the water.  Sure was nice to get a second chance on this bird after it being so long since the last sighting.  

I also headed out Duck Lake on 10/5 and the 23 Mile Road Fluddle on 10/5 hoping maybe something new would show up with very little luck.  10/9 I hit up Homer really just hoping for some odd duck as I didn't want to go to Duck Lake.  The weather was so warm I was sure it would just be packed with people still.  A Surf Scoter was photographed there on the 9th, but when I hit up on the 12th after catching the Plovers it was very sparse.  Franklin's Gulls had pushed through the area, and I had something that was quite darker backed and looked smaller than the RBGU, but no way to tell what it really was.  It was such bad lighting it could just have been an odd angle on a Ring-billed Gull.  

Only other highlight was the same day seeing the Plovers, a shorebird, I had a FOS Dark-eyed Junco in the yard.  Odd contrast of a shorebird and a winter bird on the same day.  Here is hoping that some of the great bird Mojo can continue the rest of the year.  The Surf Scoter isn't confirmed on eBird yet, but that would put the county at 221 for the year, and 228 for last 12 months.  For me, every bird still available to get for FOY are going to flag as rare except Pine Siskin.  Still will take some effort to get to 210.  

Chaos is just not letting up.  At this point I thought I would be full-time in the new role that should be less chaos.  Have spent near zero time being able to work in it.  It is just weekends at this point for any serious birding.  Fall warblers being down to just Hooded for a FOY, and that being very unlikely I hit up Homer on the 25th. It added 6 more birds to my September total with my FOS Yellow-rumped Warbler, Ruddy Duck, American Wigeon and Gadwall.  Ring-necked Duck continued there as well as quick fly-by of the Peregrine Falcon that had been sighted there earlier.  Peregrine, Wigeon and Gadwall were new birds for September for me.  Duck Lake gave up a dark juvenile Herring Gull and a surprise on P DR N was a murmuration of European Starling and Red-winged Blackbird as a Sharp-shinned Hawk harassed them.  Sharpie had me up to 122 for the month now.  Really good number.  This also marked my 1000th straight day with an eBird checklist.  

I hit up Woodland the morning of the 26th, just to try for the Hooded.  Thought I hit 50 species, but it ended up at 48.  It was crazy active though.  11 warbler species with around 55 individuals.  Probably more.  Butterbutts were all over the place.  Golden-crowned Kinglets were a new September bird for me also.  Was a nice morning to be out as it wasn't quiet for very long as I walked through there.  D DR S was now too wet for any shorebirds with only one Greater Yellowlegs patrolling the far shore.  The Cow field just south of there that was loaded with shorebirds had nothing in the mud.  It did give up #125 for the month with Rock Pigeon.    

This past weekend I started out with another trip to Homer.  Lots of geese, but ducks were few and far between.  I did get a quick look at a still bright male Cape May Warbler, along with a Blackpoll Warbler and plenty of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  The Cape May was a first for me in October.  Duck Lake WTP gave me a Barn Swallow that tagged as rare on the eBird app, but flags must have gotten changed as it didn't show up in the rare birds for the county.  Thought I had something really good as it was very clean white underneath, but lacked the full blue collar for the "white-bellied".  

I decided to check to see if the flooded farm field on 23 Mile Road might have some shorebird stragglers.  It was loaded!!!  I counted 62 Yellowlegs with both 9 Greater and 53 Lesser Yellowlegs flagging for high counts.  But wait there's more.  I had an obvious long droopy billed bird mixed in near a late Pectoral Sandpiper.  Between scope and camera I thought I had a Dunlin out there.  Pretty early.  After even more scanning I came across another long droopy billed bird.  This one just didn't fit right for Dunlin as it was taller.  Sure enough a Stilt Sandpiper!!!  Both birds flagged as rare, and better yet the Stilt Sandpiper gave me number #207 for the year.  A new high for me.  Really want to try to get past 210 if I can. At this point I'm not sure if I saw the Stilt and thought it was the Dunlin or vice versa.  The birds were out there quite a ways and they honestly look very similar if they are in equivalent water depth to just show slightly lower than belly.  Definitely had both though as I had pics with both them and the Pectoral in same pic.  

The Dunlin looked really odd to me so I spent quite a bit of time last night making sure it wasn't a very, very rare Curlew Sandpiper.  I have some shots that I am pretty sure are the bird and it has the dark middle feathers in the tail, and the wings don't appear to go past the tail.  Head also look big, but it is probably the skinniest Dunlin I've seen as it seemed very long-legged.  

I had planned to wait until later this evening, once the rain passed, to head back out there.  I was forced to go a few hours early as there were reports of American Golden-plover reported out there.  By the time I arrived though, there were only a few Killdeer on the pond and a much smaller group of birds circling overhead being very noisy.  In the 45" I was there they lifted off and circled 5 times.  Something had these birds very spooked.  I'm pretty sure a big group of them actually took off and started heading south as I heard them circling overhead at the cattle pond about a mile south.  Needless to say the plovers were nowhere to be found.  This still looks like it will be the go to spot for trying for Baird's and White-rumped Sandpipers.  Both WTP have ridiculously high levels of water and no edges.   D DR S water level is too high and no edge also.  I really need to get some land and put at least an acre of it as a mudflat.  

The high of Saturday was balanced off by the low of today.  I really wanted those plovers. It has been 4 years since I've seen any.  Still these past weekends have overall been very good and a much needed respite from the insane Chaos happening otherwise.  After missing those two weeks in the middle of Spring Migration and just two FOY from 5/31 to 9/2 I didn't think I was going to be where I am at now.  One other note.  I thought the Stilt Sandpiper gave us a new high for birds in a year for the county at 219.  Turns out I had forgotten about the 2018 record of Great Black-backed Gull that was added to eBird in the past year.  So it tied 2018, and the Plovers put us at the magical 220 for the year with still almost 3 full months to go.  Lots of good birds we can still get.  

• Brewer's Blackbird
• Red-throated Loon (please!!!!)
• Black Scoter
• Glaucous Gull
• Great Black-backed Gull
• Surf Scoter
• Greater White-fronted Goose
• Common Tern
• Baird's Sandpiper (3 years since last sighting)
• White-rumped Sandpiper (4 years since last sighting)
• Ross's Goose (3.5 years since last sighting)
• Snowy Owl (ditto)
• Franklin's Gull (6 years since last sighting)
• Iceland Gull (6.5 years)
• Northern Saw-whet Owl (nearly 7 years)