The northward movement of birds to their summer breeding grounds took a big step forward today. Above is a photo of Tundra Swans that were travelling from a staging area somewhere in the eastern Great Lakes to the next staging area in the upper plains. I earlier had seen two other flocks of over 100 birds each.
Last March 13 I saw over 2200 Tundras fly over my yard which were all moving in the same WNW direction as today's birds. In December last year the few flocks I saw were moving in the exact opposite ESE direction.
Besides the Tundra Swans I also had several first of the year yard birds such as Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Killdeer, Golden-crowned Kinglet and Sharp-shinned Hawk.
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| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker |
I had a nice raptor migration over the deck today that included 4 Bald Eagles, 7 Turkey Vultures, 1 Red-shouldered Hawk, 4 Red-tailed Hawks, 2 Coopers and 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks.
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| Immature Bald Eagle |
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| Local (not-migrating)Red-shouldered Hawk |
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| I'm going with middle bird being a Cooper's and the other two being Sharpies |
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| Merlin at Ludington State Park this morning |
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