Yellow-Crowned Night Heron Mason County 4/18/2022

   

    Yesterday Donna and John Haack found a Yellow-crowned Night Heron in Grant Township.  It is the first record of this southern bird in Mason County. Today with Brian Brosky guiding me by texts I got to the correct location on Nurnberg Rd, where I was fortunate enough to find another birder Joe Lipar, who was able to point me right at the seemingly glowing yellow crown of the wayward heron about 50 yards from the road.

  That's enough road birding.  Here's what has been visiting me at my house lately...

April 11 brought...

Belted Kingfisher

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Peregrine Falcon

 On April 12 I saw...

Northern Flicker

Purple Finch

Flock of Scoters

Mostly White-winged but not always 
Black Scoter in yellow circle and Surf Scoter in the red.

And on April 13 the south wind brought the first of the year....

Northern Harrier

White-Crowned Sparrow

Brown Thrasher

As well as a Common Loon.

  So far for the year I've seen 95 bird species from the yard which puts me about 2 weeks ahead of last year when I didn't hit that total until May 1.

It's Broadwing Season 9/13/2020

 

  Friday I had a front row seat for a respectable flight of Broad-winged Hawks passing over my yard.  In just under 3 hours I counted 227 Broadwings. 

  I also counted 24 Red-tails.

  Lately Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have fueling up on the sugar water from the feeders that I have provided.  There had been more sparring than feeding as a fierce competition developed over the rightful ownership of the three feeders that I had in the backyard.  But by moving two other feeders from the front yard to the back, tensions lessened to the point where five could feed together in fragile harmony. 

   Other birds of interest so far this month.....

                                           Purple Finch

                                            Baltimore Oriole

                                           Scarlet Tanager

   There have been a few species of warblers (Magnolia, American Redstart and Black-throated Green) also but I have yet to get any blogworthy photos of them. 

Indigovasion 5/20/2019

  It wasn't until the fourth year that I lived in this house that I saw an Indigo Bunting in my yard.  This spring a single bird arrived last Wednesday.  Since then they have been pouring in.

Female Indigo Bunting

While one male was on the platform feeder....

...four more were by the spruce tree.

  With the 5 males and 3 females that were seen today they are at risk of becoming the yard's nuisance bird.

 Goldfinches trying to re-establish their status as the yard's nuisance bird.

 

Baltimore Oriole

Blackburnian Warbler

Snowy Sunday 4/14/2019

     It was cloudy and cold in west Michigan this weekend.   On Saturday at least a dozen Common Loons were patrolling Pere Marquette Lake.

   On Sunday just before a predicted moderate snowfall began, I took a ride around my work site and found....

Long-tailed Duck

American Kestrel

Horned Grebe

     As I finished driving around work a light snow started to fall.  I took this photo as it started to cover the lawn.

     It intensified quickly. The portrait of Nico was taken an hour and a half later when about 3" of snow had fallen.

   As the snow piled up in my yard, bird activity increased around the feeders.

    This morning after work I raced out to Ludington State Park to try to photograph birds before the snow melted in the bright sunlight.

    This female Northern Cardinal didn't let the snow stop her from gathering nesting material.

   Eastern Phoebes are among the earliest flycatchers to migrate north. I was able to find two of them who weren't finding a whole lot of insects.

2018 Ludington Christmas Bird Count (CBC) 12/15/2018

   Since November 26th a White-throated Sparrow (WTSP) has been seen almost daily feeding on the seeds that I put out at the base of the spruce at the end of my driveway.  I was hoping that it would stick around for the Christmas Bird Count but had some concerns when I didn't see on either Monday or Tuesday this week,  I was relieved when it returned on Wednesday just in time to be included for the count week.  On Thursday the odds of a Count Day (12/15/2018) WTSP increased when a second bird showed up and hung out by the same tree.
   Of the previous 47 Ludington CBCs  WTSPs were only recorded on 6 counts but 3 of those have occurred in the last 3 years.

   I wasn't able to check for the sparrow this morning because I left before sunrise to look for a Snowy Owl that a coworker had spotted at my work site earlier this week.  From there I had to head back to town and meet up with Van Burmeister and assist him with his assigned count area.  Luckily the White-throated Sparrows were both present when I returned home in the early afternoon.

  I only took a few photos as I traveled with Van in and around Summit Twp.

House Finch

Eastern Bluebirds

   After Van and I parted ways I went back up to the reservoir at work and found a single Snow Goose hanging around with a flock of over 800 Canada Geese.

Snow Goose and Canada Goose

 

Red-breasted Merganser

   Down by the powerhouse a pair of Long-tailed Ducks were seen.

   As well as 3 American Tree Sparrows

Goldfinch and Tree Sparrow

      Other birds at my feeders that posed for photos were....

White-breasted Nuthatch

Sharp-shinned Hawk

  Moments after I photographed the hawk it dropped down, grabbed a Goldfinch and flew off with the tasty morsel.