King Eider Ludington Harbor 4/20/2022

  Mason County birding is on fire.  For the second time in a week a county first has been found.  Over the weekend Donna and John Haack found a Yellow-crowned Night Heron and yesterday Grand Rapids area birder Steve Minard found a King Eider just north of the north breakwall of Ludington Harbor. 

  Just before 1 pm I received a call from Brian Brosky relaying Steve Minard's discovery. As quickly as I could, I headed out to the north pier where Brian had already relocated the arctic duck.  The bird was somewhat cooperative as it provided an array of activity all within a relatively short distance of the pier.

Periscoping

Flying

Shaking off water

Feeding

  With the peak of the spring migration coming in the next few weeks let's hope the county's hot streak continues. 

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron Mason County 4/18/2022

   

    Yesterday Donna and John Haack found a Yellow-crowned Night Heron in Grant Township.  It is the first record of this southern bird in Mason County. Today with Brian Brosky guiding me by texts I got to the correct location on Nurnberg Rd, where I was fortunate enough to find another birder Joe Lipar, who was able to point me right at the seemingly glowing yellow crown of the wayward heron about 50 yards from the road.

  That's enough road birding.  Here's what has been visiting me at my house lately...

April 11 brought...

Belted Kingfisher

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Peregrine Falcon

 On April 12 I saw...

Northern Flicker

Purple Finch

Flock of Scoters

Mostly White-winged but not always 
Black Scoter in yellow circle and Surf Scoter in the red.

And on April 13 the south wind brought the first of the year....

Northern Harrier

White-Crowned Sparrow

Brown Thrasher

As well as a Common Loon.

  So far for the year I've seen 95 bird species from the yard which puts me about 2 weeks ahead of last year when I didn't hit that total until May 1.

Red-throated Loon 3/21/2022

 

  For the second year in a row I spotted a Red-throated Loon off shore from my yard.  Last year's bird required a spotting scope zoomed to 60x magnification and a couple of guide books to ID due to its distance estimated at half a mile.  By contrast this year's RT Loon was nearly at the shoreline 120' below the top of the bluff.  In fact it was so close that I didn't see it while I was seated 8' from the edge. It was only after I stood up to calmly remind my dog that barking at woodchucks is not appreciated by anyone, that I looked down and saw the loon. When I notified a few local birders of the sighting, Dave Dister texted back that last year's bird also showed up on March 21. 

  When predicted rain never materialized the persistent east southeasterly winds made for optimal conditions for bird migration as it pushed ducks up the coast and raptors toward the shore.  I ended up with 48 species for the day that included 9 species of ducks, 7 species of raptors, 525 Tundra Swans and  117 Sandhill Cranes.  Nine first of the year species were observed which brought the year's total to 67 and a flock of Northern Pintails became the 179th species on the all-time yardlist. 

   Here are a few photographic highlights

Tundra Swans

 

Dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk

Adult Red-shouldered Hawk

Immature Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Northern Pintails, yardbird 179

Sandhill Cranes

Bird Dog at Night 3/13/2022

 

   A prediction of a Northern Lights display had me outside last night waiting for a show that never materialized.  Turns out it had already peaked before the Sun went down.  While out I decided to try to do some owling.  I started by imitating a Saw-whet Owl's toot call.  No response.  I had better luck when I tried the Eastern Screech Owl's whinny and monotonic trill.  After a few attempts I heard one...and then a second Screech Owl reply.

  As I listened, I noticed my dog Nico looking up at the closest tree about 10 feet away.  Sure enough with her super night vision she had located the owl who had relocated and was silently checking us out.  With the camera already out, I repositioned to get a better angle at the bird. 

  Not the best shot but the lump on the horizontal branch is the owl.

     Ten years and 5 days ago while attempting another ultimately unsuccessful photo session with the Northern Lights I took the photo below. 

   It's my late dog Roscoe with Canis Major (the Big Dog) in the background sky.

   And last night....

It's almost like history repeating.  What has changed it 10 years?...new dog, I live 200 miles farther north, the dog photo taken with phone instead of camera, the bird on Roscoe's night was a peenting  American Woodcock but best of all I didn't have to drive 70 miles to find a relatively dark sky. 

 
  

Winter Weather And Finches 2/22/2022

     A winter weather advisory for my area warned of ice light accumulation before late morning temperatures were to rise to the mid-30's.  They nailed the light ice accumulation prediction for the morning but the temperature maxed out at 30 F, so the moderate rain in the early afternoon also froze on contact.  

   The significant coating of ice that covered everything made a dramatic backdrop for photographing birds around and on my feeders.  I started with the Cardinals in the front yard. 

 

    Shortly thereafter I moved to the backyard where the nyjer seed feeder itself was worthy of a photo or two. Throw in some winter finches and watch the magic unfold.  

                                    

Pine Siskins

A Common Redpoll joins in

And a scuffle ensues

Surf Scoter, Yard Bird #177 1/13/2022

 

   The mission that I've been assigned (by Dave Dister) since I moved to the lakefront two years ago is to find a Barrow's Goldeneye among the thousands of Common Goldeneye that overwinter on Lake Michigan near Ludington.  That search had me out at the edge of my bluff this morning taking advantage of the calm winds and 30 F temperature scanning flocks of ducks with my scope.  I struck out on a Barrow's but I found an adult male Surf Scoter hanging with a couple White-winged Scoters at quite a distance offshore.  Even with my 500mm lens plus 1.4x converter I couldn't see it through the camera, so I just aimed in the general direction that my scope was pointing.

  After the Scoter discovery I notified the proper local bird authorities and invited them to come take a look.  Dave came by around noon, he was also enticed by promises of White-winged Crossbills.  Once Dave arrived it took about 10 minutes of scanning the flock to locate the Surf Scoter.  While he was looking through my scope I used his scope to hone in on a flock of White-winged Crossbills that landed in one of my spruces.

 

   A little while after Dave left and I had put my scope away, Brian Brosky texted that he'd be in the area in about an hour, I told him that I'd try to relocate the scoter before his expected arrival.  It took me 2 complete flock scans and about 45 minutes to refind the duck that was now mixed in with 20 White-winged Scoters.  Brian arrived shortly thereafter. During that search I found a single Black Scoter which completed the Scoter Trifecta.  

 Other winter birds of interest....

Pine Siskin

Common Redpolls

   

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.