Red-Shouldered Hawk

   The new yard list is up to 14.  So far I've had 2 birds (Red-shouldered Hawk and Tufted Titmouse) that I only saw one time each at my old yard and another (Common Raven) that never appeared (nor was expected) at my Wayne County house.

    With my move Goldfinches have replaced House Sparrows as the nuisance bird.

Northern Lights 3/17/2015 (with video)

    For the first time in about ten years I was able to observe and photograph a display of the Northern Lights.  A Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun on March 15 sent a shower of charged particles that interacted with Earth's magnetic field.  The ejected matter actually arrived early in the predawn (EDT) hours of March 17.   During the daylight hours for the eastern US the intensity of the interaction increased dramatically,  giving skywatchers in the eastern hemisphere a vivid display.
    Just before the onset of dusk for my location there was a slight drop off in the Auroral activity.  Usually this signifies a trend downward and the end of the geomagnetic storm.  But as the sky started to darken a quick check of spaceweather.com  showed that the fall off was just temporary and the activity re-intensified.

  Before astronomical twilight had begun the display was detected by my camera, as I set up on the roadside leading to Ludington State Park.

Green glow visible in twilight

   Who knew that a road that leads nowhere but the park, would suddenly become the busiest road in Mason County.

Long exposure of passing car

  To avoid headlights washing out my photos I climbed over the dunes and reset-up the camera

   It wasn't the best display I've ever seen but I had my best camera I'd ever photographed the aurora with.

  I strung together about 200 still photos and made a video that I put on youtube.  Here is the link.
Video of Northern Lights

New Backyard Bird List

  Closed on my new house today.  Put the feeders out and had no takers.  Only bird seen was a American Crow flyover.  

Not my house 

  The house shown above is not in my new neighborhood but rather about a mile from the house I've been staying in since November.

2015 Great Backyard Bird Count

     I spent a couple of hours this chilly morning counting and photographing the birds that have been visiting the feeders at the Oceana County house I'm renting.  The breezes off of Lake Michigan warmed the temperature up to -2 F, by the time I set up my camera gear at 9 AM.   

   Didn't get any unusual birds at the feeders, but I did get plenty of photo-ops of the birds that did show. 

 I ended up with thirteen species.
Mourning Dove -2
Red-Bellied Woodpecker -1
Downy Woodpecker -4
Hairy Woodpecker - 2
Blue Jay - 6
American Crow - 2
Black-capped Chickadee -13
Tufted Titmouse - 7
Red-Breasted Nuthatch -1
White-Breasted Nuthatch - 1
Dark-eyed Junco - 3
Northern Cardinal -1
Pine Siskin -2

Ludington CBC 12/20/2014

  After a postponement because of fog the previous weekend, the Ludington Christmas Bird Count took place yesterday.  I spent the morning riding around with Van Burmeister finding widely scattered groups of birds.

Gadwall with a pair of Mallards

   In the afternoon I came up empty at my worksite for a Snowy Owl and even Snow Buntings, after both species had been pretty reliable in the weeks leading up to the count.

  I decided to search an area northeast of Ludington where I had seen a Snowy Owl last Saturday  Last week's owl was not to be found but a small group of Snow Buntings, 30 Robins, 33 Cedar Waxwings, a Rough-legged Hawk and a different Snowy Owl.

Cedar Waxwings

Dark morph Rough-legged Hawk

Much whiter than last weeks owl.

Another Snowy Owl in Mason County

   Before this autumn, I had only found 3 previously unreported Snowy Owls.  Since October 30 I've found seven, Today I found the 7th one located in Victory Twp, northeast of Ludington in Mason County.  It was on a utility pole on Stiles Rd. just south of Manales Rd.

  Tomorrow is the Ludington Christmas Bird Count, which I'll miss due to work obligations.  Hopefully someone on the Count can refind this bird tomorrow as it's location today was just inside the boundary of the Count Circle.

Snowy Owl in Ludington 12/7/14

  This afternoon there was a Snowy Owl on the shore of Ludington Harbor just north of the south breakwall.  As I was photographing the bird, a guy coming in from the pier told me he saw a very white one near the end of the pier.  

    Another bird of interest was a single Snow Bunting.

   On Friday afternoon I was driving through Ludington State Park when I saw a female Common Merganser having a bit of a struggle.  I pulled out my binoculars out and saw that she was trying to consume a pretty good size perch.

There she got it.

Oops... not quite

   Just as I thought she was giving up, she changed her grip and was able get a better angle.

 

Looking for the next one.