Evening Grosbeaks 10/28/2020

       Through ebird alerts and Hawk Count site summaries, I learned over the weekend that an irruption of Evening Grosbeaks was beginning.  Most of the sightings that I had read about were either in Ontario or eastern Michigan but a couple of reports came from west Michigan.  With fingers crossed I filled the feeders and kept the camera ready.  

    Shortly after noon today the cool breezes off the lake made me give up my vigil over the backyard feeders, but instead of going inside to warm up I headed to the front yard to work up a sweat splitting up some logs that my neighbor had given me last week.  I wasn't out there two minutes when I noticed 6 Bald Eagles overhead soaring to the south. Luckily I had the camera nearby and took some photos of the eagles interactions.  No sooner did the eagles disappear beyond the tree-line, when I heard an unfamiliar chatter coming from overhead. I looked up and saw 10 robin-sized yellowish birds circling the immediate area before landing in a nearby tree.  It was the irrupting Grosbeaks that have now spread to several areas of the state.  They stuck around only long enough for me to get a few photos before lifting off and heading north.  At 2 pm a single male(below) returned for an equally brief visit.   

  The early reports of the Grosbeaks was reminiscent of the start of the last irruption in 2012.  During that event I photographed a single bird flying over my former yard in the Detroit area. The photos that I got then were so bad that it wasn't until the irruption became common knowledge that I suspected that the bird might be an Evening Grosbeak.  Here is a composite of the bad 2012 photos. You could say this is all just a little case of history repeating because the date of the 2012 observation was...….October 28.

    Before the Grosbeaks showed up today,  I already had enough material to do a blog post.  I had my first Rough-legged Hawk for my yard list on Saturday.  Yesterday I posted that three more passed by.  Today I saw eight more and had much better light to work with than yesterday's heavy overcast.

    Bald Eagles were also busy today. Twice I saw six eagles in the sky at once. 

   A Sharp-shinned Hawk made a low fly-by too.

  The Evening Grosbeaks are the 147th species on the yard list and the fourth that I've added since Saturday.  Beside the Rough-legs, Sunday's Hooded Merganser and yesterday's Snow Buntings also made their debut at my new house. 

Rough-legged Hawks 10/27/2020

 

  In a span of 35 minutes I had 3 Rough-legged Hawks fly over my yard at a reasonable height that allowed me to get some clear photos.

      The gray skies made for mediocre photos but the beauty of the dark-morph below shone through anyway.

    Clear skies are forecast tomorrow.....stay tuned,

Pine Siskins 10/7/2020

 

   At this point in an irruption year the first Pine Siskins of the winter start to appear in small numbers.  Early this evening I had 36 Pine Siskins at the front yard feeders while at the same time 39 were at the back yard feeders.  If 75 represents the winter population trickling in, I better start saving up to buy a lot of seeds this season.

 

Harris's Sparrow at Ludington State Park 10/4/2020

 

  Late this morning Suzie Knoll found a Harris's Sparrow at Ludington State Park.  The bird was with a fixed flock of White-throated, White-crowned Sparrows, along with a few Dark-eyed Juncos.