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

Broad-winged Hawks at Lake Erie Metropark 9/16-9/19/2019

   I spent a few days at the Detroit River Hawk Watch at Lake Erie Metropark trying to catch the Broadwinged Hawk migration.  The Broadwings put on a good show on Monday (35,000) and Tuesday (23,000).  The volume tapered off substantially the rest of the week as the winds shifted from north to unfavorable south.

  Below is a video of Broadwings streaming out of one kettle and into another.  Note the lack of flapping as they conserve energy by gliding from one thermal to another.

   It was a bad week for local fish as the Bald Eagles and Ospreys patrolled the Detroit River.

Orange is the new snack

      Dave Boon tipped me off to an injured immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron at Port Sunlight Rd. near Estral Beach.

Beautiful Spider......Marbled Orbweaver 9/13/2019

  Beautiful spider...now there are two words you don't expect to see together.  But I believe it applies to the female Marbled Orbweaver that has set up shop between the rails of my deck.

Cackling Geese 9/9/2019

 On Monday 9/9  Van Burmeister found a Cackling Goose at Peter Copyean Park in Ludington.  By the time I got there a few hours later a second one had joined it.

Weekend Recap 8/27/2019

   Mid-day Saturday I took a ride around the reservoir at my work and found 12 Bald Eagles possibly staging for fall migration.

    Also gathering were about 50 Turkey Vultures that seem to move in closer and closer as I get older and older.

    The bucks that reside within the restricted-access reservoir are about done growing their antlers and will be losing their velvet in the coming weeks.  A nice crop of racks were grown this year. 

Starting with this modest young 6-point.

 There are a quite a few 8+ pointers this year.

Those two little nubs above the eyes probably won't develop enough.

    The king of the reservoir is probably this impressive 10-point.

  Back at home, this molting female Ruby-throat has been fueling up for her September migration.

First Fall Warblers 8/23/2019

     
    With hawk migration having commenced a couple of weeks ago, it was inevitable that the fall warblers would be arriving soon.  Today as a Black-throated Green Warbler was dodging my camera by ducking behind leaves a Canada Warbler popped up momentarily and allowed me to get a decent photo.

 Here is a photo of a Broad-winged Hawk from a couple of weeks ago

Early Hawk Migration 8/14/2019

     Yesterday afternoon after a pre-work nap , I checked my phone and found an eye-opening voicemail from Dave Dister, telling of a significant Red-tailed Hawk migration witnessed by Matt McConnell.  Matt had been working outside in a residential area of Ludington and noticed small groups of hawks flying over, starting in the late morning.  His informal running tally through the afternoon ended up being around 200.  Two hundred Redtails?  How long was I asleep?

    The hawk migration count that I'm most familiar with, is the one at Lake Erie Metropark conducted from September 1 to November 30.  On average (according to data from the years 1991-2008) at that premier migration location, their cumulative season total of Red-tails doesn't hit 200 until the last week in September.  So to have 200 in one day before the middle of August was absolutely unexpected, at least to me.
 
    Having woken up too late to catch any of the migration yesterday I was hoping it would continue along with the northerly winds forecast for today.  A few minutes after I got up today at 12:30pm I went out on the deck and immediately saw 4 Redtails passing over.  So I grabbed my camera headed to my place of employment, where I have access to an elevated roadway that is 150 feet above the surrounding terrain and 360 feet above nearby Lake Michigan. In the past, from that site I have noticed small groups of raptors migrating with a few of the birds passing at eye-level.

   You want eye-level?

How about below eye-level?

  Finally, among the Red-tails was a single immature Broad-winged Hawk.

  I ended up seeing 49 Red-tailed Hawks between 1 and 2 PM before a light rain halted the flight.