Cold is relative.
One night in April 1996 when I was putting my 4 year old daughter to bed, she asked what the weather was going to be the next day. I told her it was going to be rainy with a high of 45 F. Not yet familiar with the Fahrenheit scale she asked " Is that cold or warm?" I told her" It's cold for April but it would be warm for January". Her unforgettable response "I wish it was January"
January on west coast of mid-Michigan can go one of two ways, warm with lake-effect snow or cold with lake-effect snow. The promised warmth of an El Nino winter mostly held true but we did have a chilly weekend a couple of weeks back that gave us 15-18" in a 4 day period. I suspect for the month we had 24-30", which is analogous to getting off with a warning on a traffic stop.
The relatively warm weather this month may have influenced one early migrant. Early Saturday I checked a voicemail that Dave Dister had left on my phone. In the message he stated that on Friday afternoon Brian Mulherin, had noticed a out of season Sandhill Crane just off US-10 between Scottville and Custer. Just after sunrise I left the house on a mission to refind the bird.
I initially checked the original location but the bird was not there. On that stretch of highway the speed limit is 55 mph so I turned north on the first road past the site to scan the fields from a safer location. Just 100 yds up Tuttle Rd from US-10 I located the crane about 50 yds off the road.
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| Wishing it was April |
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| Dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk |
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| American Kestrel |
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| Anti-crepuscular rays |
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