Birding
[Birding (and more) in Calhoun County and beyond
As is usual for this time of the year, FOY are few and far between. The trip to Duck Lake is already getting a bit tiring. I took some time off on 12/1 and 12/2. I got some really good looks at a juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull on Duck Lake on the 2nd. This is for sure the 3rd individual we have had in the past couple of months. Maybe even the 4th individual. We had the 1st winter bird (1st pic), an adult bird (2nd pic), and an advanced second winter bird (possibly two of these but pics are bad for one of them). Morning of 12/3 I discovered a bunch of Mourning Dove feathers, so looks like maybe something had a very early breakfast under the feeders. I am close to my pitiful high number for a year in Michigan of 220. I decided I would head to Tiscornia Park to see if I could add a few birds. It was sunny, but horribly windy out. The only waterfowl seen was some Common Mergansers way out over the water flying by. A few gulls were present, but Great Black-backed Gulls were the only FOY birds for me. I decided to head to Warren Dunes for the Townsend's Solitaire. Second time I have tried for one of the birds that has showed up there. Again I dipped on it. Ran back out to Duck Lake evening of the 4th, but nothing really of note there. A gull seemed to be struggling with something way across the lake. I'm not sure if it just was being stubborn with some food, or was in trouble. It didn't look good as it kept try to flap its wings apparently to fly, but couldn't get off the water. The White-winged Scoters continued there in the same spot they are always at. Must be good feeding over on that side of the lake. On the way back from Duck Lake I swung by the J DR N field that Kiehl Smith had the Short-eared Owl earlier this year. After maybe 10 minutes I glassed a Short-eared Owl wayyyyyyy out in the field. I couldn't get my camera on it, as it was still so dark out there I couldn't get on it. The bird flapped around, like a moth, for maybe 1 minute or so, and then I never caught it up again. That pushed me to 211 for the year. Running out of days to get to 215. This was my first December Shortie, and I was able to add 3 more new December birds for the county. 12/5 a Winter Wren briefly called at Lake of the Woods, a couple of American Wigeon on Duck Lake WTP, and Green-winged Teal on Winnipeg Lake. 12/7 a young Cooper's Hawk took a shot at the feeders. As it sat on a branch looking around a Downy Woodpecker was frozen on a broken limb maybe 20 feet from the Hawk, but just out of view. The tail was so raggedy on this bird, it was the flight really that just gave it away, as the head in my pics looked a little round. Coops always seem so straight-lined when they fly from spot to spot, Sharpies look like a P-51 with a Zero on there tail. Night of 12/7 as I got some exercise walking laps around my yard I managed to have at least 27 Trumpeter Swans fly overhead into Beadle Lake. I think there were more off in the distance that were farther south flying in there. 12/10 I had the same thing happen, but this time with 52 Swans coming over. One group has 24 in it!! Also on 12/7 I had this female Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon ssp.) under the feeder for a short while. One day wonder bird though. As of today, still doesn't show confirmed yet though. The new birding vehicle is working out great. It is roomier, and more comfortable than the Jeep was. The moonroof allows me to look up, even in the chilliest of weather. The gas mileage is a little bit better. Really haven't had any bad weather to see how it works out in that. Looking forward to doing more birding in it this winter.
0 Comments
Somewhat sadly an era has ended for me with what was undoubtedly the best birding vehicle. I ended up having to get rid of my Jeep, and traded in for an F-150 SuperCrew. At least it has a moonroof and is as Jeep-like as I could get it. We shall see how things go this coming winter. I do miss the Jeep, but only being able to bird once with a rental from 11/1 to 11/19, was not great. It was time though and I'm sure it won't be my last Jeep. Due to this I've not had a lot of highlights in the past month. No new FOY, but have added 3 more birds to my November list. Greater Yellowlegs at Duck Lake WTP on 11/10, Lesser Black-backed Gull on 11/26 at Duck Lake and the Northern Shrike showed up for 4th winter in a row at 23 and O DR N on 11/26.
White-winged Scoter continued out at Duck Lake with 2 on 11/10, and 3 visible on 11/20. Also on 11/20 I found the juvenile Golden Eagle, this time just of 19Mile Road where it was near juvenile Bald Eagle. Also on 11/20 at home a flagged White-throated Sparrow showed up. I did notice today that these show on the mobile app without flagging as rare. 11/24 through Thanksgiving weekend started a great quality of birds, but still missing out on some. Cackling Goose at Barnes Park gave really good looks on 11/24. White-winged Scoters x3 still at Duck lake on 11/24. A very, very late Dunlin was at Homer WTP on 11/26. Not an easy bird to see as it was as far across big lagoon as possible. 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, one adult and one juvenile, were out at Duck Lake on 11/26. 3 Bonaparte's Gulls on Duck Lake on 11/27 were at least causing me to look close for maybe a Little Gull. Sunday the 28th I decided to search out the South-West corner of the county for Snowy Owl as Kalamazoo had a couple of reports. I did find a Northern Shrike on Q DR S hanging out on the wire, and a great looking dark morph Rough-legged Hawk on 1 Mile Rd. It was first Roughie of the season. I got all the way to Tekonsha when texts came out of a Snowy Owl on PQ Ave in Kalamazoo. It was 40 minutes away, but seemed like it was staying put, so headed over there. Far away looks, but at least it was there. Hopefully we still get one or two this year. It has been almost 4 years since we had one here. I did head back out later on the 28th to Duck Lake and had one of the best looks at the nightly raft of gulls. They were right out from the boat launch, on that same side of the lake. Only bad part was it got dark and cloudy quick. I had the adult Lesser Black-backed Gull there. Not sure if the juvenile was there was there were quite a few young Herring Gulls and even some young Ring-billed Gulls holding onto their full dark plumage. Today I got to see a Sharp-shinned Hawk nab a young Cardinal just before it made it into the safety of the bushes at the bottom of the hill. When I went out there to look if there was evidence left, I spotted a FOY Bald Eagle, for the yard, soaring high overhead. Still going to try as much as I can to get at least a few more FOY birds this year. Greater White-fronted Geese have showed up in Kazoo, but none here yet. Pine Siskin remains the only "easy" bird left. It looks like White-winged Crossbills might be heading south, so hoping there is a chance at some of those this winter. Really Duck Lake is going to be where it is at for me the rest of this year. Gulls, Grebes and Geese hopefully. Not much has happened over the past near 2 weeks. Weekend of Halloween the fields around R DR N and 21 Mile Road were filled with gulls. It made for a couple of really fun days looking through them for anything interesting. Nothing new for the year, but managed to get my best looks at a Lesser Black-backed Gull. This gull stood out for being so dark, still and basically the same size as the nearby Ring-billed Gulls (note in first pic below). Gave me really close looks for an extended period. This was a cool sequence of it nabbing a worm I thought this bird had a shot of being a thayeri Iceland Gull. It was really light, and even those outer primaries are very light. Confirmations from 3rd parties point to it still being a Herring Gull though. Other than that nothing else has really been cranking up. Duck Lake was still very empty of birds, other than gulls. November looks like it is going to be very limited for me. Jeep is in the shop for an extended period of time, and rentals are ridiculously priced right now. I'm sure a Red-throated Loon will show up now on Duck Lake this weekend or next.
The Black Scoter and Surf Scoter were confirmed from a couple weeks ago, so sitting at 210 and would like to get more, but really happy with that number. As I wrote before Pine Siskin is the only bird that won't flag at rare at this point for my target species. In fact there are only 14 species with Nov-Dec records that I don't have for my Year List. Again a really, really good year. 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.
This September continues to just push the numbers up with some great birding. Chaos ruled the week, and will continue to. So I am pushing on the weekend to try to get out and get some relief. 9/13 I got a bed-bird when an Eastern Screech-Owl decided to trill for about 15 seconds and wake the dogs, and me, up. Very fortuitous as I at least won't have to be trudging out into the snow and the dark to try to find one. Hopefully it didn't attract the attention of the neighborhood Great Horned Owl. Once I was able to get out this weekend, both days were full of warblers. Woodland Park was very active on Saturday the 18th, and more so on the 19th. I was down to really 3, or more likely 2, warbler needed for the year still; Wilson's, Orange-crowned and less likely Hooded. I had just about wrapped up my day at Woodland Park when I made the decision to follow the Blue Jays racket, instead of trying to track down the War-blurs up in the trees. Turned out they had been harassing a Great Horned Owl. It never really gave good looks at its face, but look at those talons!!! As I was watching warbler swarm all around the Owl, paying it very little attention I caught sight of a bold yellow bird. Eventually I was able to see the black cap on it and confirm FOY Wilson's Warbler for #204. All told I got 4 more September '21 birds as I moved closer to besting my high of 111. I also checked D DR S, but the water level is moving back down and could be rough to pick up anything else there without some more rain. I did manage a FOS Grey-cheeked Thrush as I looked out my bedroom window after getting back home. This morning I got another late start. Long gone are the wake up at 4:30-5:30 it seems. Hit up Woodland once again, and it was crazy busy with birds. It was so crazy I ended up putting 20 birds as "warbler sp." since I just couldn't get views on all of them quick enough. I swear the trees were acting as a trans-dimensional wormhole. The birds would get into the trees...and just disappear. Very early on I was surprised by a pair of White-throated Sparrows on Juniper Trail. Looks like my previous early is 9/20. Shortly before that a singing Pine Warbler was a nice addition for the month and tied my high of 111. After trying to sort through the birds I could see I started to head back to Hidden Loop. Ran into a couple of Brown Thrashers to get me to 112 this month halfway to the bridge. Not bad with another weekend to still get out. Woodland wasn't done though. Once I got back in Hidden Loop I ran into another sizable flock that was very hard to pick out birds to ID. I did manage to get an Orange-crowned Warbler that was just too colorful to be a Tennessee, and no white under tail! #205 for the year!! It was so good at Woodland I was shocked when I looked and saw I still hadn't hit 50 birds, so decided to stick it out until I did. I managed to hear a Black-and-white Warbler sing, and catch a Philadelphia Vireo to get to 51 for the day. Really a good day, even if it was about an hour more than I planned to spend. Hit up D DR S again and the only thing of note was just a HUGE Greater Yellowlegs that I tried and tried to make into something else. It was so bad with the glare, field marks were worthless. It just looked too big, and I could have sworn I had other bird as Greater that were smaller than it. Eventually it flapped its wings and I just could not see any black under there to make it a Willet. I have one pic that looks like there are the small spots on its feathers. It just was a really big Greater Yellowlegs I guess. Can't get too greedy I guess. The downside to the day was getting two e-mails on birds that I have had no luck on this year. Hooded Warbler seen by Christopher Peet at Woodland after I ran into him there, and Amy Lysski having a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher at O DR N pond. I have never had a fall Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. As I look at eBird I have only had 2 sightings of this pesky Empid!! Last one was over 4 years ago. Hooded was that very brief glimpse almost exactly 3 years ago now. Take good and the frustrating when it comes to birds though.
I'd like to think maybe I can snag one more FOY before this month ends to tie my high of 206. September year list birds though is at only 7 according to eBird Target Species!!
I finally got an extended break from Chaos this past week. Maybe too late to pick up Wilson's Warbler for the year, but has been my best September so far. August was the worst I've seen Chaos be in a long time. August only saw 59 species. Not my lowest for that month, but second lowest. I got out 3 whole times in August, outside of my yard to bird. Absolutely pathetic as Chaos was a constant drain during the week. September has been another story though. It started on 9/2 with a female/immature Black-throated Blue Warbler being seen right out on the remnants of the old deck and its overgrowth. The 3rd brought a chance for me to run to Albion to find 2 of the 4 Common Gallinules that had been reported there. I was not going to count on Cranefest being open this year to try for them. I missed out on a Common Nighthawk seen by Dr. Dale Kennedy that same night nearby. Still have not seen one this year, and I have maybe a week left to try to get one. The 4th, official first day off, Fairview Cemetery/Homer WTP gave up FOY Semipalmated Sandpiper standing on the algae blanket. Shorebirds were not looking promising as Duck Lake WTP is overgrown on the edge, as is Homer. Very little edge. But more on that later. Homer also gave up a ridiculous amount of Turkey Vultures with 224 counted. This was well after other flights have moved through I had counted. It also gave up flagged 3 juvenile Purple Martins. I didn't know they would flag, so only nabbed a pic of 1. After getting back home I had another FOY in Bay-breasted Warbler. Sunday morning the 5th gave up 3 more FOY at Woodland Park!!! Amy Lysski gave me a heads up on Olive-sided Flycatcher. I ended up with at least 2 of them there, and maybe a 3rd bird was present also. This was after getting FOY Philadelphia Vireo. At the end of a decent, but not great day as I was walking back to the Jeep I ran into a Canada Warbler feeding right on some branches over the trail. This was what I thought would be the hardest bird to get as Canada Warblers are so hit and miss. Also a late flyover for Eastern Kingbird was noted. As I was leaving Woodland Amy Lysski sent word to everyone "Shorebirds" at D DR S. I was going to head to the airport, but decided Shorebirds might be a better thing to sort through. One can only take some much of War-"blurs" hiding behind leaves. Nothing too exciting there, but another definitive very light Semipalmated Sandpiper and another late Eastern Kingbird. The 6th at Woodland brought another Canada Warbler and a 53 species day, so not too terrible, but no FOY. D DR S mixed in some Pectoral Sandpipers to what was seen previous day. Chaos has drained me so much that it is hard for me to get up and going to early in the morning. So by the time I felt like going anywhere on the 9th it was very late in the morning. I had to run and get blood drawn for annual physical so decided to keep the fast going and just run to D DR S since it was only a few miles away. Hugely fortuitous of me. I came across a bird that really struck me as a Pectoral Sandpiper that looked like some odd leucism on its neck. It also just didn't seem to move the same while feeding as a Pectoral. Finally got a look at the other side and it has the same light patch on its neck. Now this was not just a coincidence. It showed a nice dark "V" on its chest and the bill looked really short. I started to try to run through possibilities and came up with Ruddy Turnstone. Holy crap a Ruddy Turnstone wasn't even on my radar for a target bird for the county ever!!! It was a juvenile Ruddy Turnstone with a really light head. As I pulled into D DR S I had a feeling we would still pick up another County first before the end of the year. I wasn't thinking it would be in the next 10 minutes though. Really a great bird to find here. Unfortunately only Karen Kolbasa got to see it about 5 hours later and a Hawk spooked it up so it was missed by others. I almost went right past that bird thinking it was just a weird Pec. A couple of trips for Nighthawks last week to the airport and Brooks didn't pay off. One trip to Brooks was with Hercules, and he is just not a bird dog. It was great to be back out with him, but not when trying to search for warblers or the White-eyed Vireos that are apparently still there. The first trip to Brooks did at least pay off with a Merlin flyover which was a nice bird to see. Back at Woodland on the 10th they finally decided to mow while I was there, so it was not the most enjoyable time. It did give me my first audio and FOY Broad-winged Hawk. A nice light juvenile treated me to a couple of calls and some good looks before getting spooked off by the mower. This put me at 202 for the year and 9 FOY birds in September. Well above the highest I have had at this time of the year. Normally that might not be a good thing, but I am 3 ahead of my best pace now due to that. Still some more birds I can try to pick up. Looking for a Hooded Warbler and Orange-crowned Warbler. There are only 10 birds reported in September in the County that I don't have for the year yet. No luck on the 12th, this morning, but I did get my best looks ever at a Philadelphia Vireo. I am going to try to make a concerted effort to keep getting out on the weekend. It helps to get my mind away from the Chaos, and I really need that now. There is no balance, and it feels like there is nothing on the other end to even try to get that end lifted off the ground to get to balance. Need to keep pushing to get out and maybe it will pay off with some more birds this year. The county is at 217, and 218 is our highest ever so really want to get us over 220 that we just can't seem to get to. Lots of Duck Lake birds to still try to get this fall/winter. My very rough shots of the County first Ruddy Turnstone Best looks at a Philadelphia Vireo
Between Chaos, rain, humidity, heat and mosquitoes that are enjoying the lack of drought the birding has been very few and far between. I honestly thought I probably wouldn't start to get after things until August once shorebirds hit. Well the shorebirds are hitting early as the rains have created fluddles. A week ago word hit of a fluddle on R DR N, where one has never been before. Really nice spot, but just an early Least Sandpiper mixed in with some Killdeer, Solitary and Spotted Sandpiper. This was first time I've left the house to bird since June 6th. That might be a record. July 12th word came of Short-billed Dowitcher on 23 Mile Rd between B and D DR S. By the time I got there the next day they were gone. Hopefully they show up again at some point. Really was hoping for those this year. Consolation prize was a Muscovy Duck in a farm field. Not quite a week later on the 17th an e-mail headline I thought I'd never seen: American Avocet. Karen Kolbasa found an amazing First County record in this same flooded cow pasture. The birds gave great looks, despite the light not allowing for great shots. I called this bird for D DR S when it was looking like amazing Spring shorebird habitat. I was pretty settled in as there was a State First record Roseate Spoonbill spotted south of Ann Arbor. Normally I'd have gone after that bird, but I tweaked my back the night before and planned to rest. I was not going to rest on a county first bird though. Unfortunately the bird looks to be a one-day wonder as it was not seen today. I also observed a couple of Red-headed Woodpeckers flycatching from telephone poles. I never knew they did this, but apparently they are quite adept at it. I did decide the next day, assuming I felt up to it, to go for the Roseate Spoonbill. After a prolonged detour I made it there. Waited maybe 15 minutes for it to appear for 10 minutes. Grabbed some horrible pictures as it was terribly back lit. Not a lifer, but still a crazy find for the state.
Nothing of note as I've not birded beyond the confines of the yard the past 2 weeks. Weather has been less than spring-like. The only thing of note is I received an e-mail that the Buff-breasted Sandpiper from 4/16/2017 was flagged as potential Ruff. A huge bird for this area. First in the 8 counties around here, according to eBird. I don't have high hopes that it gets approved by the MBRC. I posted to Whatbird.com and to Birdforum.net and got a couple positives, as well as an e-mail, one saying looked okay for BBSA and another saying maybe Ruff but they wouldn't vote positive on it. Bird would be in the upper left. Definitely isn't a Pectoral Sandpiper as the shape in flight is way off. April 7th the 4 American Robin hatchlings were present in the morning, but gone later in the afternoon. Didn't see any sign of an attack, and have only seen a couple of juvenile Robins since then. Plenty of hiding places in the woods, so they may have just skipped town. April 15th a Red-tailed Hawk successfully caught something at the woodpile. I couldn't tell what it was though. Looked small and black, so it could have been a bird. Not sure why it would have been near the woodpile though as no place for it to hide there.
Only other "exciting" things of note were a Scarlet Tanager and Yellow-billed Cuckoo added to the year list for the yard. With some Chaos continuing going to be rough to find a Dickcissel or Alder Flycatcher to add to the list this month. |
AuthorMy exploits in my latest passion, Birding...not Bird-watching;-) Archives
November 2023
Categories
All
|