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.

Red-throated Loon 3/21/2022

 

  For the second year in a row I spotted a Red-throated Loon off shore from my yard.  Last year's bird required a spotting scope zoomed to 60x magnification and a couple of guide books to ID due to its distance estimated at half a mile.  By contrast this year's RT Loon was nearly at the shoreline 120' below the top of the bluff.  In fact it was so close that I didn't see it while I was seated 8' from the edge. It was only after I stood up to calmly remind my dog that barking at woodchucks is not appreciated by anyone, that I looked down and saw the loon. When I notified a few local birders of the sighting, Dave Dister texted back that last year's bird also showed up on March 21. 

  When predicted rain never materialized the persistent east southeasterly winds made for optimal conditions for bird migration as it pushed ducks up the coast and raptors toward the shore.  I ended up with 48 species for the day that included 9 species of ducks, 7 species of raptors, 525 Tundra Swans and  117 Sandhill Cranes.  Nine first of the year species were observed which brought the year's total to 67 and a flock of Northern Pintails became the 179th species on the all-time yardlist. 

   Here are a few photographic highlights

Tundra Swans

 

Dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk

Adult Red-shouldered Hawk

Immature Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Northern Pintails, yardbird 179

Sandhill Cranes

Mason County NAMC 5/9/2020

     The bright sunshine was deceiving as the morning of the North American (spring) Migration Count started out with temperatures near freezing and winds gusting over 35 mph.  As uninviting as the brisk wind was today, it was better than what we had yesterday and is forecast for tomorrow, where both days' forecasts included snow.  Below is a mid-spring lake-effect snow cloud making its way toward shore yesterday afternoon.

  Didn't see as many birds on the count today as I had in previous years but some of those that I did see allowed me to get some decent photos.

Common Loon

Yellow-rump Warbler

Palm Warbler

Warbling Vireo

Gray Catbird

Field Sparrow

   Only saw 42 species when I covered my assigned area of Riverton Township.  But I added  10 more species after I got home and counted birds around my yard.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Peregrine Falcon 5/7/2020

   Added Peregrine Falcon to the yard list after work this morning, when this beautiful specimen soared north riding the wind rising above my bluff.

Number 94 on the yardlist

   A little later an adult Bald Eagle drifted by also.

  Common Loons are also still zipping by almost every day.

558 Flickers,This Must Be Some Sort of Record.

     Last Tuesday morning I counted 110 Northern Flickers migrating over my yard.  According to Dave Dister, compiler of the county bird records and author of recently published Birds of Mason County, the previous high daily count in Mason County was 89.  

   This morning as I was walking around my yard just before 8 AM, I started counting as Flickers once again were flying over in a steady stream of one or two at a time. When I got to 30 I looked at my phone and saw that only 10 minutes elapsed since I started counting. So I set up a chair on the north side of my yard and kept track of the number of Flickers traveling in the south to north migratory direction.  Within an hour I had beat the county record which I set on Tuesday and headed into uncharted territory, possibly a state record (at least according to ebird). Whitefish Point may have something to say about that.  By 11:30 the pace slowed dramatically but not until I had counted 542 of the yellow-shafted woodpeckers.  Over the early afternoon hours I added 16 more to bring the daily total to 558.

     The heavily overcast skies made it difficult to get any decent photos early on.......

......but in the 10 o'clock hour the Sun poked through momentarily and gave me some decent lighting to work with.

  For the second time this month I was able to observe 6 of the 7 woodpecker species that normally occur in Michigan's lower peninsula. On Friday the 3rd I missed the Pileated...but not today.

Pileated Woodpecker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Downy Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker.

   The only woodpecker that I missed today was the Hairy, which I usually see a couple of times per week.

  Woodpeckers weren't the only birds of interest that I took poorly illuminated photos of today..

Common Loon

and another

Belted Kingfisher.

   A pair of Kingfishers may be nesting about 100' below my yard, down the bluff.  I frequently see them when I look over the edge.

    Last but not least.

Merlin

Some Days You're the Vulture....

....and some days you're the raccoon. 

 
  On a more photogenic note, on April 24 I had three Common Loons fly low over the house and was able to get some decent photos as they zipped by.