2021 North American Migration Count 5/8/2021

 

   I conducted the Riverton Township portion of the Mason County Spring Migration Count with the help of my neighbor down the road Dee Payment.  We found the Blue-winged Warbler on its breeding ground on Conrad Rd.

  Some Ring-necked Ducks on North Oxbow Lake

 Later I found a late rough-legged Hawk east of Brye Rd.

  The previous day's new yard bird Clay-colored Sparrow, stuck around to be counted.

Mostly Grosbeaks (but not Always) 11/6/2020

 

    It only took 9 days for Evening Grosbeaks to go from celebrated new yard bird to nuisance bird.  Last Wednesday when they first showed up I was thrilled by the two 2-minute visits of first 10 then one single bird. Then this week their numbers increased as the time they spent at my feeders started to grow as well.  By this Wednesday I had up to 49 of them visiting a couple of times per hour for 10-15 minutes at a time.  Today it was all Evening Grosbeaks all the time, as about 20 showed up  at 8:30 AM and were seen or heard all day until after 4 PM.  Mid-morning I counted 78 but there were more in the area, because the flock of about 50 that landed right before the high count had come from the north over my neighbors yard where an equally large flock momentarily joined them but split off and headed east before they made it to my yard.  

  Plenty of photo ops were to be had and I decided to try to get some flight shots.

  They arrive one at a time but often leave together.

   By early afternoon it was time to try for close-ups through an open window from inside the house. 

  This single female Purple Finch managed to sneak a couple seeds during a lull in the Grosbeak frenzy. 

   The Rough-legged Hawk below was photographed yesterday at a relatively low altitude.

   All kidding aside these birds are pretty damn cool.  Tips to get the Evening Grosbeaks to frequent your yard.....Striped Sunflower seeds either on platform feeders of spread on the ground.   

Evening Grosbeaks 10/28/2020

       Through ebird alerts and Hawk Count site summaries, I learned over the weekend that an irruption of Evening Grosbeaks was beginning.  Most of the sightings that I had read about were either in Ontario or eastern Michigan but a couple of reports came from west Michigan.  With fingers crossed I filled the feeders and kept the camera ready.  

    Shortly after noon today the cool breezes off the lake made me give up my vigil over the backyard feeders, but instead of going inside to warm up I headed to the front yard to work up a sweat splitting up some logs that my neighbor had given me last week.  I wasn't out there two minutes when I noticed 6 Bald Eagles overhead soaring to the south. Luckily I had the camera nearby and took some photos of the eagles interactions.  No sooner did the eagles disappear beyond the tree-line, when I heard an unfamiliar chatter coming from overhead. I looked up and saw 10 robin-sized yellowish birds circling the immediate area before landing in a nearby tree.  It was the irrupting Grosbeaks that have now spread to several areas of the state.  They stuck around only long enough for me to get a few photos before lifting off and heading north.  At 2 pm a single male(below) returned for an equally brief visit.   

  The early reports of the Grosbeaks was reminiscent of the start of the last irruption in 2012.  During that event I photographed a single bird flying over my former yard in the Detroit area. The photos that I got then were so bad that it wasn't until the irruption became common knowledge that I suspected that the bird might be an Evening Grosbeak.  Here is a composite of the bad 2012 photos. You could say this is all just a little case of history repeating because the date of the 2012 observation was...….October 28.

    Before the Grosbeaks showed up today,  I already had enough material to do a blog post.  I had my first Rough-legged Hawk for my yard list on Saturday.  Yesterday I posted that three more passed by.  Today I saw eight more and had much better light to work with than yesterday's heavy overcast.

    Bald Eagles were also busy today. Twice I saw six eagles in the sky at once. 

   A Sharp-shinned Hawk made a low fly-by too.

  The Evening Grosbeaks are the 147th species on the yard list and the fourth that I've added since Saturday.  Beside the Rough-legs, Sunday's Hooded Merganser and yesterday's Snow Buntings also made their debut at my new house. 

Unofficial, Unsanctioned, Unqualified Hawk Watcher 8/14/2020

     A year ago yesterday Matt McConnell noticed a movement of Red-tailed Hawks passing over the city of Ludington.  The next day I drove up to vantage point at my work and saw 50 more migrate by in an hour. 

  Since then I have moved from a house in the woods to a lake house with a great expanse of sky.  I have been looking forward to the late summer raptor migration since the day we moved in. I spent a little while in the yard yesterday afternoon but only saw 1 Red-tailed, along with a Merlin and an American Kestrel (which was a new yardbird #137).  

   Today was a different story as I saw 138 migrating raptors.   I initally thought all the distant buteos were Red-tails but later when I reviewed the photos I noticed some were Broad-wingeds which were also new to the yardlist.

Redtail and Broadwing

                                               Red-tail and Immature Bald Eagle

Two Upper birds are Broadwings the lowest one is a Redtail.

   Seems whenever two Bald Eagles ride the same thermal one will have to remind the other to social distance.

   An Osprey was also an unexpected surprise. 

 

   Here are some photos from the last couple of days.

The Bluebirds are wreaking havoc on the local butterflies and moths....

They only laid two eggs in their new nestbox, after their first nesting effort was cut short when a storm blew down their previous box in June.  Only one egg has hatched.

Eagle with its lunch.

Yesterday's new yardbird.  American Kestrel

   What appears to be a monstrous Walking Stick......

......looks less formidable when placed on a more natural setting. 

Remarkable Day of Home Sequestration 4/3/2020

Winter Wren

   When the month of April started my yardlist for the new house was at 46 species and I had just worked my last day for a while as my worksite went to minimum staffing on a volunteer basis. When the choice came of lead, follow or get out of the way.....I got the hell out of the way.
  On Wednesday April 1st I added an Eastern Phoebe to the yardlist when one perched on the rail of the deck and looked in our living room window.  It was too close to get a photo with the big lens so I had to wait for it to land a little farther away.

  Thursday I added 3 more birds to the list to get it up to an even 50. Including the two birds pictured below plus a few unphotographed Double Crested Cormorants.

Brown Creeper

Female Eastern Bluebird

  That brings us to today, the remarkable day that saw me add 12 birds to the yardlist. It started early when a Red-headed Woodpecker flew by.  Around noon a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker briefly landed in a nearby tree and it left me one woodpecker(Pileated) short for the day of the set of seven members of the Picidae family that lives or passes through Mason County. Unfortunately I was only able to get shots of a Northern Flicker.

I added two sparrows....Chipping and American Tree.

American Tree Sparrow

   Besides the activity on the ground, a lot was happening overhead.

Sandhill Cranes

One of 35 Turkey Vultures that migrated through today

Northern Harrier

Common Loon

Greater Scaup

   Then a little later in the day three Mallards flew by.

   And 3 or 4 Golden-crowned Kinglets made their debut in my yard.  They brought the yard list species total to 62.

  I had 48 species during the daylight hours then I heard a Killdeer flying over when I went out around 9 pm to check out Venus as it passed through the Pleaides Star Cluster.  It had hazy clouds built up too much for me to get a photo of the planet but the International Space Station was an acceptable consulation prize.  

   Thanks to Matt McConnell for alerting me to the favorable ISS flyover.