Doomed Sora 2021-2022 1/6/2022

 

  Last Wednesday Dave Dister called and reported that Joe Moloney had spotted an out-of-season Sora at Cartier Park.  Soras are rails and their diet consists of seeds from wetland plants and occasionally aquatic invertebrates. Since we received 4" of snow on Wednesday and another 6" in the predawn of Thursday both of those food sources were about to become much harder to come by.  

  I made it out there Thursday morning and located the bird in the place that Dave described.  It shuffled through the snow covered leaf debris in a struggle to find food.

  

   I noticed it occasionally stopping to swallow some food.  It was only after I checked my photos and heard from Brian Brosky it became apparent that all the bird was finding was stringy algae.  Not enough to sustain it to migrate to warmer climes. 

    The bird was not seen after Thursday.

.............And a Rail in Every Garage

   Herbert Hoover's 1928 presidential campaign has been credited with the prosperity-promising slogan, 'A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage'. He could have secured the votes of the birding community by offering what Mason County's Dave Dister found this morning.... a rail in every garage.  

  Here's how Dave described it " This morning as I pulled my car out of the garage, I noticed an odd shape in one of the garage windows.  It was a Virginia Rail! What the Hay! A couple of days before this, I got a call from Tim Granger who told me there was a Sora in a Manistee area garage."

Still waiting for my rails (that's right plural), I have a two-rail garage.

Want Flies With That? Magee Marsh 5/16/2014

  The Magee Marsh boardwalk was loaded with warblers yesterday affording everyone up-close views and photo-ops.  In anticipation of the close encounters I added newly purchased extension tubes between my camera and 500 mm lens.  The 32 mm of extension tubes render my camera rig near-sighted to a point where the far focus (normally ∞) is down to 35' but an advantage is gained on the close focus range which drops from 16' 5" down to 10'8".  Did I miss not being able to focus past 35'?  Not really, because almost any bird farther than 35' was partially or fully obscured by vegetation.  The 6 feet of gained close focus enabled me to get photos of some very cooperative feeding birds  

  

Chestnut-sided Warbler eating caterpillar 

And an order of flies

Bay-breasted Warbler

Scarlet Tanager

You got a little something right there.

 Here are some photos of warblers without their mouths full.

Golden-winged Warbler

Prothontary Warbler

Female Cape May Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler craning for a view

Northern Parula

Common Yellowthroat

Blackburnian Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Mrs. Black-throated Blue Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

No, you're sideways.

  Some interesting non-warblers were also seen.

Sora

More Birds at Work

  My self-assigned project for the year to photograph 100 species of birds from my place of employment needs a revision.  I've already reached the goal (although some species deserve higher quality photos) and have observed 113.  I've added 28 birds to the list since last Wednesday.  Here photos taken since Saturday May 3.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Virginia Rail

Hooded Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Black-Throated Green Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Baltimore Oriole

Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Tree Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

House Wren

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Palm Warbler

Hermit Thrush

Another Nashville

Chipping Sparrow

  After extensive searches on Sunday and Monday the Worm-eating Warbler has not been since Saturday.