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.