Looking Kinda Hoary 3/19/2021

 

      Up to 30 Common Redpolls have been visiting my yard just about every day since early November and despite my best efforts I had unable to turn one into a Hoary Redpoll,  That changed Tuesday when I spotted a lightly streaked, stubby-billed, white-rumped Redpoll visiting my backyard feeders.  I was able to get a series of poorly lit, unsharp photos through dirty windows that had been blasted by wind-blown sand all winter.  I put together a composite of the photos to try to make the case for a Hoary ID.

  The composite shot looked promising even showing a side view of the reliably diagnostic white under-tail coverts.  But a side view isn't as good as a view from straight-on or underneath.  Today the bird returned after an unexcused absence on Thursday and cooperated by revealing the under-tail in a couple of different settings.  First it posed as it consumed sunflower hearts on one of my feeders.

  Next it landed in a small Weeping Willow next to my driveway.  From that position I was able to get right under the bird and get shots of the under-tail coverts.  The only problem was that it so close that my camera lens couldn't focus on it as I stood underneath it.  Instead I had to lay on the driveway in order to be outside my 500mm lens's  15' minimum focal distance.

  The Hoary Redpoll is the 155th species on the yardlist and the third addition to the list this week.  The other two were a Carolina Wren on Sunday and a House Sparrow on Monday.

   Although I have seen dozens of House Sparrows along the US-10 corridor in Ludington I had yet to see one in the yard of either of the houses that I've owned since I moved here 6 years ago.  At my old house in Wayne County I was plagued with up to 300 of them at a time on cold snowy winter days, when they would empty my feeders almost as quick as I could fill them. But here in Mason County I had accumulated 164 species (153 species at this house and 11 additional species outside the Venn Diagram intersection of the 143 birds seen at the house that I sold last year) before my yard was (dis?)graced with this invasive nuisance.

  Other birds of interest today were....

....Tundra Swans which totaled 190 in two flocks as they flew across Lake Michigan. 

.....the first Sandhill Cranes of the year

 and a kettle of 10 Common Ravens.  

  Thanks to Matt McConnell, Dave Dister, Allen Chartier, Derek Sallman and Matt Young for help in the confirmation of the Hoary Redpoll.

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

Red-breasted Mergansers

  Not sure how smart Red-breasted Mergansers are but it looks like the brains are not equally divided between the genders,  Today I photographed a pair of males trying their best lines on a female

Say, don't I know you?

If we were both drowning which one of use would you save?

Now what if  I was the only one drowning?

I'd save myself by swimming real fast

   Also at Ludington Harbor, a Horned Grebe shows more dignity.

The two Mutes

Tundra Swan Migration 3/13/2016

  At my old house in Wayne County,  I added Tundra Swans to the yardlist when 25 flew over on March 15, 2011. At the time I noted that 25 was the greatest number of any species that I recorded on the first day that I added them to the list. That was eventually eclipsed when I had 40 Snow Buntings fly through the yard in November 2012 on the day of their yard debut.

  Two days short of five years later and 204 miles to the northwest I was able to add Tundra Swans(#93) to the new yardlist and destroyed the old record first day total for yardlist addee with 2190.  

Here's the story........

   At about 9 AM this morning my wife stepped out on the deck and heard a clamor that drew her attention to a large flock of (she estimated 500)  birds flying high above the wooded lot next door. I was elsewhere in the house so it was a few minutes before she told me of her sighting.  I didn't ask what kind of birds they were since she is a non-birder. That said, I respect her numerical skills because she can keep a running total of variety of things simultaneously. She shows off this skill occasionally as I am  quizzed on her running totals in the form of questions like.... "Do you know  how many minutes late you are coming home (from work)?" : "Do you know how many times you accepted overtime when we were supposed to get together with my( her) family?" and the multi-part extra-credit question "Do you know how much you spent on Christmas, Valentine's, birthday or anniversary gifts over the past 30 years?" (trick question... the answer is $0.00). 

    I headed out to the yard and was rewarded about 20 minutes later, as I was talking to my neighbor we heard a ruckus from the east seemingly ride the light southeast breeze.  About a minute later the sky was filled with a tidal wave of Tundra Swans in configurations of V's, X's checkmarks and straight-lines in groups of 30....50... and well over 100.  I estimated the initial wave at 1000. A couple of minutes later another 500 came by.  Over the course of the next couple of hours isolated groups ranging from 4 to 140 continued on the same flight path. I was able to count these flocks accurately by twos and fives until they added up to 690.  That gave a total of at least  2190 (as the initial 1500 was estimated, conservatively, I might add), not counting the first group that my wife had seen.  

   

The significance of this photo is that its #100,000 that I've taken with my 5D Mark3

  I also added Killdeer (#94) to the yardlist this morning 

  A good variety of raptors were also passing through

Immature Red-shouldered Hawk

Almost mature Bald Eagle

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Rough-legged

   Besides the swans some Canada Geese flew over along with Mallards and a male Common Merganser.

Common Merganser

   Yesterday the lighting was much better and here are the birds of interest that I was able to photograph.

   At Pere Marquette Lake

Horned Grebe

  At the Ludington South Pier

Northern Pintail

Red-winged Blackbird

  At home yesterday morning

Common Merganser

Red-tailed Hawk

Sandhill Cranes

Cooper's Hawk

Yellow Jacket

  Earlier in the week I added Song Sparrow to the yardlist.

Pied-Billed Grebe and Ducks in Ludington Harbor

   Dave Dister called and informed me that a Pied-Billed Grebe was mingling among the ducks in Ludington Harbor.

Pied-Billed Grebe

Common Golden-eye (female)

Greater Scaup (1st winter male)

   The Greater and Lesser Scaups can be hard to distinguish but there are a few diagnositic features that can aid in the identification process.

1) Round head - Check

Greater Scaup (adult male) 

2) Prominent jowly cheeks - check

 3)  Long white wing stripe - Check

Territorial Red-breasted Mergansers

Canvasback

Mute Swan

   Did I mention that the Lake-effect snow machine has been redistributing the relatively warm water of Lake Michigan onto the region.  We've had about 15" since Saturday evening.