Ludington CBC 12/18/2021 and the Winter Finches That Stayed 12/26/2021

  The above photo was taken today in rare December sunlight, in contrast to the shroud of clouds that muted photos during the Ludington Christmas Bird Count a week ago yesterday.  Despite the clouds I was pleased that the White-winged Crossbills that occasionally zipped over my yard since October 23 finally came down to be counted and feed on the spruce cone crop.    

Yeah, now what.

  Also on the count a single Common Redpoll showed up for only its second appearance of the season.

  Today it appeared again..

  Another winter finch that appeared on the count as well as today were Pine Siskins.

    The American Tree Sparrow below also showed up to be counted last Saturday but hasn't been seen since. 

   

Pine Siskins 10/7/2020

 

   At this point in an irruption year the first Pine Siskins of the winter start to appear in small numbers.  Early this evening I had 36 Pine Siskins at the front yard feeders while at the same time 39 were at the back yard feeders.  If 75 represents the winter population trickling in, I better start saving up to buy a lot of seeds this season.

 

More Rough-legs 3/15/2020

  An early afternoon ride around the reservoir at my worksite provided an opportunity to photograph a couple of Rough-legged Hawks.  The light morph above was more cooperative, while the more attractive dark morph below kept its distance.

Snowy Owl Ludington Harbor 1/6/2019

  Late this morning Dave Dister relayed that Linda Scribner had found a Snowy Owl near the little pier at the Loomis Street Boat-launch of Ludington Harbor.  Since I had yet to see a Snowy this season I headed right out there.

   When I arrived the bird had moved from the location that Linda had seen it but a binocular scan of both piers revealed that the bird was perched near the top of the Ludington Lighthouse.

    The bird seemed unfazed and unnoticed by the few pedestrians who hiked to the end of the pier.  I would have attempted a closer approach but I had my dog with me whose presence I'm sure the owl would not have appreciated.  So I headed home dropped the dog off, picked my wife up and drove back to the lakeshore.  As luck would have it the bird had fled the lighthouse but we fortunately ran into Matt McConnell who saw it head toward the south pier.

    We were able to relocate the bird on the sand near the beginning of the pier.

  At one point as the owl scanned its surrounding it tilted its head up to check out a.... 

 ...piston-twin plane on final approach to the local airport.

   The plane flew straight overhead as the owl kept an eye on it.

    Back at home White-throated Sparrows are still making daily appearances.

Common Redpolls in the Yard 11/13/2018

   Common Redpolls showed up in my yard today quite a bit earlier than last year's December 26 arrival.

A Fox Sparrow has been lingering since Sunday

 Pine Siskins have also been hitting the feeders in singles and pairs.

The Rock Wren at Ludington State Park was still hanging around on November 5.

  Its also getting late for White-crowned Sparrows but an adult and 2 immatures were at the State Park feeders on November 9.

Pine Siskins Invasion 1/12/2018

   In mid-December I noticed the first Pine Siskin of the winter at one of my feeders.  Since then I've seen them nearly everyday  Up until last Friday when I saw 16 of them, my high count for the season had been 6.  Then Thursday of this week when 50 degree temperatures melted most of the snow, the number of Pine Siskins surged to 55.  Then Friday the temperatures cooled back into the teens but the Siskins kept on coming.  The most that I was able to count by scanning with binoculars was 110.

  With the camera however I was able to get a wide angle shot from which I was able to get a count of  165 Pine Siskins as well as 77 Goldfinches.  To ensure that I didn't double count, once I downloaded the photo I marked each Siskin with a green dot and the Goldfinches with a yellow dot.

Crop of the Wide Angle shot from which the count was made.

  Shortly thereafter I took a series of 5 slightly telephoto shots that revealed a similar count of 162 Siskins and 82 Goldfinches,

   Also on Friday I had a single female Purple Finch visit the birdbath but not the feeders.

   Back on Monday the sun came out for the first time in weeks and provided decent lighting for a Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll Yard Bird #115

   Had a single Common Redpoll on the driveway around noon today, which became yardbird #115.  It also was the 102nd species seen in the yard this year.

 Below is a photo of a Snowy Owl that was one of four seen on Friday 12/22 on the upper reservoir road at my work.

First Snowy 11/10/2017

   The change of seasons from fall to winter occurred yesterday afternoon, when the south wind which pushed morning temperatures to the mid-40's,  shifted to the northwest and dropped the late afternoon temps into the upper 20's.  In the evening, lake-effect snow showers dropped about an inch of snow on the area while the trees were still deciding if they should drop their leaves even though the complete color change has yet to occur.

My yard

   The clash of seasons gave me the opportunity to  photograph two of my favorite subjects (snow and fall colors) simultaneously.

Leaves at Ludington State Park

Buttersville Park

  At Buttersville Park, which is on the grounds of my employer, I ran into my coworker Brad who told me that the Snowy Owl that he found yesterday was still up on the reservoir road.

  About an hour later I drove the upper reservoir road and found the Snowy and a Dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk at eye level. 

Snowy Owl, Mason County

  Dave Dister left a message on my phone about 11 Ross's Geese initially found by Linda Scribner in Free Soil Twp, Mason County.  By the time I arrived at the location on US-31 the only geese at the location were Canadas, but a Snowy Owl was a nice consolation prize. 

   I later refound the Rosss' a couple of miles south on Fountain Rd they were too far out in a field to even get an ID photo.  Here the consolation birds were Rough-legged Hawks.

Geese at Work

   Yesterday at my worksite I found a single Blue-morph Snow Goose mixed in with 600 Canada Geese.

  It was still present this afternoon when I drove around the upper reservoir road.

  Scanning the Canadas today I found 5 Greater White-fronted Geese.

   An adult Bald Eagle momentarily spooked the geese.

  Other birds of interest were...

Lapland Longspur

American Pipit

Red-breasted Merganser

  At home yesterday the female Pileated Woodpecker made the case for a larger feeder.

  This morning I searched unsuccessfully on south breakwater at Ludington Harbor for the Purple Sandpiper.  Only shorebird was this Sanderling.