Yesterday Donna and John Haack found a Yellow-crowned Night Heron in Grant Township. It is the first record of this southern bird in Mason County. Today with Brian Brosky guiding me by texts I got to the correct location on Nurnberg Rd, where I was fortunate enough to find another birder Joe Lipar, who was able to point me right at the seemingly glowing yellow crown of the wayward heron about 50 yards from the road.
That's enough road birding. Here's what has been visiting me at my house lately...
April 11 brought...
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| Belted Kingfisher |
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| Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
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| Peregrine Falcon |
On April 12 I saw...
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| Northern Flicker |
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Purple Finch
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| Flock of Scoters |
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Mostly White-winged but not always
Black Scoter in yellow circle and Surf Scoter in the red.
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And on April 13 the south wind brought the first of the year....
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| Northern Harrier |
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| White-Crowned Sparrow |
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| Brown Thrasher |
As well as a Common Loon.
So far for the year I've seen 95 bird species from the yard which puts me about 2 weeks ahead of last year when I didn't hit that total until May 1.
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Those yellow crown night herons are rare--I didn't see my first until I was in my 60's--Also nice variety of yard birds.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I had only seen one outside of Florida and that was an ailing immature bird at Pt Mouillee State Game Area a couple of years ago.
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