The Junco and the Merlin 4/8/2021

 

  This morning just before the rain sent me inside something caused the small birds at and under my feeders to scatter. As the other birds fled a single Dark-eyed Junco remained on the ground frozen in fear.  Luckily an alert Merlin swooped in like Superman and grabbed the Junco and carried it away to safety.  I never did see what startled the birds but I'd say that the Junco owes the heroic Merlin a meal.

   On Monday I saw this low Common Loon fly over my house.

  Northern Flickers are building in numbers as they migrate north along the lakeshore flyway. 

 I've been seeing Wood Ducks flying over the lake nearly every day so far this month.

Cooper's Hawk

Spring Migration Peaking. 5/16/2020

Yellow-throated Vireo (#107)

   The southeast winds overnight brought a great variety of migrating birds to my yard.  I ended up with 60 species for the day which included 8 that were new to the yard list. 

Philadelphia Vireo (#108)

Magnolia Warbler (#109)

Chestnut-sided Warbler (#110)

Pine Warbler (#111)

Veery (#112)

Least Flycatcher (#113) - National bird of Chebekistan

  The only new bird that I wasn't able to photograph was a male Scarlet Tanager that flew over while the camera wasn't handy. Regardless the yard list is up to 114.  

 Other birds of interest in the yard this morning.....

Common Yellowthroat

Black and White Warbler

Baltimore Oriole

The Orioles have gone through 8 lbs of oranges in 3 days, seen here at the grape jelly bowl

  Earlier in the week the Blackpoll Warbler below became the 100th species on the yard list

Multiple Catbirds are being seen daily

Merlin

Indigo Bunting

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

Spring Migration

    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.

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.

Immature Bald Eagle

Local (not-migrating)Red-shouldered Hawk

I'm going with middle bird being a Cooper's and the other two being Sharpies

 

Merlin at Ludington State Park this morning

Late Monarch plus birds this week

I was surprised to see a very late Monarch Butterfly this afternoon at Ludington State Park.

  Also at the park today was a small group of Buffleheads

  Earlier in the week out on the south pier of Ludington Harbor I saw this Merlin

This Dunlin

  and this Sanderling

  At Buttersville Park there was a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

  and a few Tree Sparrows.

   Back at the State Park  I saw this standoffish Red Squirrel

As I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage

Ludington Harbor Dunlin, White-rumped Sandpipers.... 10/6/15

Dunlin

Sanderling

White-rumped Sandpiper sunning itself

Preening

Equally cool bird taking exception

Bonaparte's Gull with prey in sight

Did he get it?

No.

  Noticed a Merlin nearby when I parked my car in the South Pier parking lot.  It took off as I walked toward the pier.  Upon the return to my car the Merlin had also returned to its parking spot.

Merlin

  The significance of these next photos is that they represent the latest fall records for their species in Mason County.  Both photos taken in my yard this afternoon.

Black-throated Green Warbler

Black and White Warbler