Dave Dister called this afternoon with a tip on some singing male Dickcissels in nearby Custer. I was able to get to the location about an hour later and heard up to a half dozen of the birds in the area of Johnson and Schoenher Rd.
The first one that flew into view ended up on the power lines over 100 yds away. It made for an aesthetically unpleasing ID shot.
A short while later while parked on Schoenher a bird landed right across the road from my car and alternated between posing and hawkwatching.
A wayward, breeding-plumaged Pacific Loon was found by Stan Lilley earlier this week in Littlefield Lake in Isabella County. I was unable to breakaway from life's obligations to chase after this striking bird until today.
Many birders previously reported the bird at the DNR boatlaunch off of West Stevenson Lake Road. When I got to that spot the bird was nowhere to be found. Luckily another birder came by and directed me to the location where the bird was being seen from Birch Rd on the most eastern edge of the southern portion of the lake. Here are the locations marked on a Google Map
Today's location marked with an x in the circle
Location in zoomed detail
Here is an unedited video that I was able to shoot.
