Loons Over Old Yard

   Headed back to my old house for the weekend to pick up some things and visit some folks.  If it's April, it's Loon month.  I had 7 Common Loons fly over before 8:30 AM.  Six of the seven were very high and flying from ESE to WNW.  The first bird on the other hand was heading almost due north but more importantly flew only about 150' above the house.  I was able to fire off 4 photos as it zipped by.

   In the cropped version of the above photo the barcodes on the neck were clearly visible.

   Below are cropped shots of loons flying much higher.

  Hopefully I'll get some on the yardlist of my new yard in the upcoming week.

Chipping Sparrow in the yard 11/27/2014

    Haven't been home much this month.  This morning I filled the feeders in the yard and was rewarded an hour later with a late season Chipping Sparrow.

  

Not giving up its seat at the holiday table

Hawkfest and Yardbirds 9/20-9/23

   Saturday September 20, was the first day of Hawkfest at Lake Erie Metropark.   After 170,000 Broad-winged Hawks were counted earlier in the week, Saturday's count yielded more visitors than birds.   One of the attractions of the festival is the close-up views of raptors provided by members of the Michigan Hawking Club.  

     The Red-tailed Hawk in the photo below belongs to Mark Tomich.  I met Mark back in July when he and Dave Hogan returned a rehabilitated young Peregrine Falcon that had earlier fallen from its nest area at my soon-to-be-former workplace.  Turned out that I have known Mark's brother Blaze since the mid-80's, when we were both worked in an aluminum fabricating factory.  

 

American Kestrel

 

Size comparison of Bald Eagle and Broad-winged Hawk

  Since Saturday I've had quite a few good birds visit my yard.   First up, Swainson's Thrush early Saturday morning

  Sunday afternoon I spotted a Common Nighthawk  fly over.

  Saturday and Monday mornings another Blackpoll Warbler visited the yard.

   This morning the yard had its second ever Bay-Breasted Warbler.  This bird was around all morning.   I took a couple hundred photos of it as it ducked in and out of the shadows in my Sycamore trees.  Most of the photos were either over or under exposed because I kept exposing for shadows just as it would hop into the sun and vice-versa.

    In between Bay-breasted Warbler photo-ops a male Scarlet Tanager flew into one of the Sycamores.  It is only the third time I've seen one of them in the yard.  The second time was just a few weeks ago on August 31.  My initial Scarlet Tanager visit predates my daily yard surveys, but checking my notes on the first sighting I found it was 7 years ago......... to the day, 9/23/07.  Different bird same schedule.

Bay-breasted Warbler

Out of the Sycamore and into the berry patch

White-breasted Nuthatch

Downy close-up

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

  Now for the insects

Green Darner on American Boneset

Honeybee in flgiht

Bumblebee on New England Aster

Caterpillar worming its way into the photo

Over 120,000 Broad-wingeds at Lake Erie Metropark 9/16-17

    The peak of Broad-winged Hawks migration has arrived at Lake Erie Metropark. Tuesday 68,000 were counted and today another 52,000 were added.    Tomorrow's weather will be favorable for another good day with winds with a northerly component.  So if there are still broadwings that need to move through, Thursday would be a perfect day for them to do it.

   Even if another broadwing day doesn't materialize tomorrow there should be plenty of other raptors to keep the hawk watchers busy.

Flying on their backs

Merlin

Osprey

Sharp-Shinned

American Kestrel

  Songbirds are also migrating through LEMP.

Black and White Warbler

American Redstart

Magnolia Warbler

   Warblers are also migrating through my yard.

Tennessee Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

  Other recent yardbirds of interest are shown below

Common Nighthawk

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Yellow-throated Vireo Yardbird #140

   Don't underestimate the yard.   Just a couple of hours after I posted about my impending move and how I was ready to close the book on my all-time yard list at 139 species,  a Yellow-throated Vireo popped in to one of my sycamores and posed for one photo.  

Yard bird #140

  Also had a Chestnut-sided Warbler in the same sycamore tree.  I've had them visit 4 out of the last five years.

Yard bird #97

Here come the Broadwings 9/14/2014

Broad-wingeds over my yard

   For the second year in a row on September 14,  I had a nice flight of Broad-winged Hawks over my yard.  Earlier in the afternoon I visited the Hawk Count site at Lake Erie Metropark and saw a few small kettles.  After I headed home the flow of hawks at the park increased in intensity to the point that a total of over 13,000 Broadwings were tallied.   That sum may sound impressive but by the time Thursday rolls around,  the total could be a dwarfed by the numbers possible under the ideal weather conditions forecast for Tuesday 9/16 and Wednesday 9/17 the historical peak of the migration.

Wider view

    The 200 hawks that I saw from my yard all passed by in a five minute span that started at 5:40 PM.  This week will be the last Broadwing migration that I can watch from my yard, as a change in jobs will have me relocating soon to another part of the state.  The house isn't up for sale yet but my personal suburban birding hotspot will belong to someone else sometime next year.  With a yardlist that includes Yellow-throated Warbler, Evening Grosbeak, Golden Eagle, White-winged Crossbill, Common Redpoll,  Olive-sided Flycatcher, almost annual Pine Siskins and the county's first and only Rufous Hummingbird, I can only hope that the next resident appreciates the inexplicable attraction that birds have to this parcel.   

  Coincidentally, my all-time yardlist and current year work birdlist both are at and will probably stay at 139.  Here are a few birds photographed the past few days at both locations.

At Work       

Swainson's Thrush

Common Yellowthroat

Magnolia Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Wilson's at work

                                                                      At Home

Wilson's at home

Nashville Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Carolina Wren