Brant in Pentwater 11/10/2022

Yesterday, a rare Brant appeared a couple miles down the road at the Pentwater north pier. It was discovered by fishermen at the pier during the afternoon and word quickly spread to the birding community. Brants have been recorded fewer than 100 times in Michigan. Their fall migration route takes them from the Arctic through Hudson Bay and on to the Atlantic Ocean. Any migration through the Great Lakes region is usually limited to the eastern lakes of Huron, Erie and Ontario. Within minutes of finding out about the bird I gathered up my camera and headed down there. The small goose was very cooperative so I was able to get photos at reasonable close range.

The heavy overcast made for drab photos but today the sun popped out but the goose went AWOL for the morning. On my second attempt of the day I was able to photograph it when it showed up in the noon hour and resumed posing.

During my futile morning wild goose chase a tolerant Snow Bunting was willing to sit for photos.

The highlight on the homefront this week occurred on Tuesday, when I had a brief visit from a leucistic Evening Grosbeak.

Evening Grosbeak Irruption 2022 11/2/2022

Everything about the 2022 Evening Grosbeak Irruption is remarkably similar to the 2020 event. From the predictions of the Winter Finch Forecast, the date of first sighting (10/28/2020 vs 10/27/2022), to the arriving small group not visiting the feeders followed by a couple dozen raiding the sunflower platform a day later. Even the fact that my initial observation both years occurred while I was splitting firewood and heard them vocalizing as they landed in a nearby tree. I'm currently getting 30-50 of the boldly marked finches around and above the yard almost from first light until sunset.

A couple people asked me why I hadn't posted in a while. Truth is that there weren't many inspiring observations this summer. The summer could be defined by two words... Eagles

and Lightning

Lesser Black-backed Gulls 5/17/2022

 

  For the second year in May in a row, I've photographed a Lesser Black-backed Gull flying past my bluff.

Composite photo of 1st cycle LBBG

    The first cycle bird above was seen on Tuesday morning and as a bonus it brought a friend...

…. a 2nd cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull.

  This gull species brings my yardlist for the year up to 155. 

   The other bird of interest from Tuesday was an adult Bald Eagle which flew by at close range at eye-level.

Lewis's Woodpecker, Muskegon County 5/18/2022

 

   A Lewis's Woodpecker has been the talk of West Michigan birding the past few days.  It showed up in the yard of a birder in Fruitport Twp on Monday and word quickly spread to draw birders from across the state to see it.

   Yesterday afternoon Brian Brosky and I headed down there and after about an hour we were able to locate the bird with the help of Salar Alam who had seen the bird a little while before we arrived.

       It is only the fourth record for this species in Michigan, but the first since 2004 and the first in the lower peninsula.

Time for a Chat 5/10/22

 

    A Yellow-breasted Chat found its way into my yard this morning and set off a daylong game of hide and seek.  Brian Brosky and I first spied the bird at 10:41 am, and while the last sighting was over 8 hours later the total time that the bird was visible could have been less than a minute.  At one point it was not seen for four hours only to be relocated in the exact location it had been last seen.

  This is only the second time a Yellow-breasted Chat has been seen in Mason County.  The previous sighting by Ethel Getgood occurred on May 18, 1974. Of course this represents a new species for the yard list, number 184.  It is also the 140th species that I've seen here this year and the 100th this month.

Other birds of interest since the last post....

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Forster's Tern 

Blue-headed Vireo

Nashville Warbler

Orchard Oriole

Indigo Bunting

Baltimore Oriole

Rose-breasted Grosbeak