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.

Red-necked Grebe Ludington State Park 3/10/2020

  On Sunday Matt Geelhoed found a Red-Necked Grebe at Ludington State Park. I wasn't able to make it out there until this afternoon but easily relocated the bird and managed to get in position to get some decent photos

  On Sunday March 1 a Red-tailed Hawk made a close pass by my deck.

Rough-legged Hawks 2/23/2020

    Early this afternoon I rode around the reservoir at work in the slim hope of finding a Snowy Owl.  In previous winters Snowies have been frequently seen at that location but this season I've only heard of one sighting and that was back in November.
  As expected no owls were seen but a pair of Rough-legged Hawks made the ride worthwhile.

   At the same location last weekend I saw the overwintering Harlequin Duck in the lake near the powerhouse.

  WARNING : If you are an astronomically and geometrically challenged flat-earther this next part may cause an adverse reaction.

  A neat thing about living on the lake shore is that you can observe the effects of the curvature of the Earth simply by walking upstairs from the basement.  On January 7 from my ground-level basement I spotted a distant freighter that was significantly obscured by the horizon.

View from the basement

 When I went upstairs to get the camera I saw that from a 10' higher elevation much more of the freighter was visible.

View from the living room

 
   Below is a side by side comparison of the photos from different vantage points

 
  From the Boat Nerd freighter tracking website I was able to determine the freighter's distance to be 17.1 Nautical Miles or 19.68 Statute Miles.

February Merlin 2/12/2020

    I expected to see Merlins more frequently at my new house but I wasn't really expecting one in February.

Harlequin Duck - Now That's a Yard Bird 12/7/2019

   A crosstown move from a house on a mostly wooded acre to one on a larger lot with an unobstructed view of Lake Michigan, has already yielded a spectacular rarity in the form of an adult male Harlequin Duck.

  It's the first Harlequin Duck that I have found on my own and only the third that I have ever seen.  The other two were at my work a little over a mile up the road.

   Another benefit of the nearly treeless yard on the lake side of the house is that I can finally do some astronomy at home, rather than driving to the local state park.  The photo below shows the nearest spiral arm in our Milky Way Galaxy.  The skyglow on the right side of the frame is from my beloved employer, while the yellowish glow at the bottom of the photo is from my nearest neighbor to the west in WISCONSIN, 65 miles away.

   The next photo shows the constellation Orion rising over my house with the Pleaides star cluster near the top of the image.

American Avocets Stearns Beach, Ludington 10/22/2019

  Look what the wind blew in.  Being in the middle of a two day Lakeshore Flood Warning didn't stop Dave Dister from searching the Lake Michigan shore for birds blown astray.  His efforts paid off when he found 7 American Avocets patrolling Stearns Beach right next to the North Pier.

Making a case for obstruction.

Lakefront living(on the edge)

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Muskegon 10/5/2019

    On Thursday, Roger Hagerman found a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at the Muskegon Wastewater Treatment Facility. It is only the third time this species has been seen in Michigan (the first was also at this location back in August 2016).

Pectoral (left) and Least (right)

   My work site was quite birdy on Friday afternoon.  The American Golden Plover was one of two up on the reservoir.

 

Red-tailed Hawk

   Down on the lower reservoir road there was  a good variety of birds passing through....

Orange-crowned Warbler

   ...with several birds choosing to pose on the barbed-wire fence.

American Pipit

Eastern Bluebird

Lincoln's Sparrow

Eastern Pheobe