Eastern U P February 24-25 2014

 Took a quick trip to the UP of Michigan.  Saw a few good birds despite no owls or hawks.

Red Crossbill along 123 between Newberry and Tahquamenon Falls

Picking sand off the road?

Pine Siskin same location as Red Crosbills

Red-necked Grebe at Sugar Island Ferry Dock

Sharp-tailed Grouse Nine Mile at Nicolet

Rough Grouse (photo taken 15 minutes before sunrise at ISO 12500)

Purple Finches at Dunbar Feeders

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Black-capped Chickadee on Basnau Rd.

Porcupine in a tree along M-28 east of Newberry

Eating buds

More birds at work

    My goal this year is to photograph 100 species of birds at my workplace.  I've seen 41 species so far but have only photographed 24.

Lesser and Greater Scaup

Downy Woodpecker

Brown Creeper finding an insect

for breakfast

Robin getting by on Sumac berries

White-winged Scoter at work

  In the wee hours of this morning I answered an email from Jerry Jourdan in which he asked me if I had seen any good birds lately at work.  I told him nothing too unusual and I specifically mentioned that I hadn't seen the White-winged Scoters (that were counted on the Monroe CBC)  since December.  A couple of hours later my shift ends and I pull out my binoculars and scan the waters of a pond on my work site.  Halfway through the scan I find a first year male White-winged Scoter.  If this is one of the CBC Scoters it has been hiding pretty good because I park next to this area every day  Below are some shots of him and some other birds that I photographed before the sleet chased me to my car.

       I would've been happy to have attained this next photo of a Bald Eagle had it been a portrait shot through the bars of a cage. But getting this photo of a wild bird in flight staring me down, made my day.

 Here is the uncropped image.

Immature Eagle also staring me down

Resident male Peregrine

Great Black-backed Gull

Early Killdeer

Tree Sparrow

  Just after I photographed the Tree Sparrow the sleet started coming down.  By the time I made it home I was in the middle of a rare thundersnow storm.

Long-tailed Ducks Detroit River

  A pair of Long-tailed Ducks were visible from Bishop Park in Wyandotte this afternoon.

  A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers were a little more cooperative and came a bit closer.

Dingell Park

American Wigeon

   At Dingell Park this afternoon there were 58 Bald Eagles on and around Mud Island.

Eagle School

16 Bald Eagles

 
 An immature Eagle was able to pull a fish out of the river and almost immediately must have wished he'd had let someone else do the fishing today.  Before he landed he was accosted by another immature bird.

  The first two birds landed on the ice, prompting other eagles to stream in to try to take the fish.

  A rugby-like scrum broke out and the fish was fumbled to the ice.

Horned Grebe

Ruddy Duck



Common Merganser

Lesser Scaup

Great Black-backed Gulls