Countdown to 150, Black Scoters Yard Bird #149 11/22/2020

  Early this afternoon, I took an early half-time break from the latest televised inept Detroit Lions performance and walked out to the edge of my bluff to scan the small flocks of ducks on Lake Michigan. I soon found a group of three ducks that appeared to be Scoters.  With the camera I was able to confirm that they were Black Scoters.  Their addition to the yard list brings the list to 149.

   Last Tuesday, Matt McConnell found a Purple Sandpiper on a small breakwater off the Loomis Street boatlaunch in Ludington Harbor. 

  A day earlier I had a late Indigo Bunting under my front yard feeders.  The November 16 date shattered the late fall date of October 6 for Mason County.

                                       

Mostly Grosbeaks (but not Always) 11/6/2020

 

    It only took 9 days for Evening Grosbeaks to go from celebrated new yard bird to nuisance bird.  Last Wednesday when they first showed up I was thrilled by the two 2-minute visits of first 10 then one single bird. Then this week their numbers increased as the time they spent at my feeders started to grow as well.  By this Wednesday I had up to 49 of them visiting a couple of times per hour for 10-15 minutes at a time.  Today it was all Evening Grosbeaks all the time, as about 20 showed up  at 8:30 AM and were seen or heard all day until after 4 PM.  Mid-morning I counted 78 but there were more in the area, because the flock of about 50 that landed right before the high count had come from the north over my neighbors yard where an equally large flock momentarily joined them but split off and headed east before they made it to my yard.  

  Plenty of photo ops were to be had and I decided to try to get some flight shots.

  They arrive one at a time but often leave together.

   By early afternoon it was time to try for close-ups through an open window from inside the house. 

  This single female Purple Finch managed to sneak a couple seeds during a lull in the Grosbeak frenzy. 

   The Rough-legged Hawk below was photographed yesterday at a relatively low altitude.

   All kidding aside these birds are pretty damn cool.  Tips to get the Evening Grosbeaks to frequent your yard.....Striped Sunflower seeds either on platform feeders of spread on the ground.   

Late Pine Warbler 11/3/2020

 

   I was surprised to see a late Pine Warbler frequenting my suet feeders this afternoon. According to Dave Dister this is the latest into the fall that a Pine Warbler has been seen in Mason County.  The previous late date was October 6, in both 2017 and 2018

   The irrupting Evening Grosbeaks showed up again this morning just before 9 AM.  As with previous visits they quickly moved on without fueling up.  But the pair that showed up in the 11 o'clock hour hung around for 15 minutes feeding on the striped sunflower seeds that I bought over the weekend.

  For the second straight day at least one Common Redpoll mingled with the Siskins and Goldfinches at the feeders.

Common Redpoll 11/2/2020

    November has picked up right where October left off.  I added 4 birds to the yardlist in the last 8 days of October and today I added Common Redpoll as the 148th species on the list.