Bird Dog at Night 3/13/2022

 

   A prediction of a Northern Lights display had me outside last night waiting for a show that never materialized.  Turns out it had already peaked before the Sun went down.  While out I decided to try to do some owling.  I started by imitating a Saw-whet Owl's toot call.  No response.  I had better luck when I tried the Eastern Screech Owl's whinny and monotonic trill.  After a few attempts I heard one...and then a second Screech Owl reply.

  As I listened, I noticed my dog Nico looking up at the closest tree about 10 feet away.  Sure enough with her super night vision she had located the owl who had relocated and was silently checking us out.  With the camera already out, I repositioned to get a better angle at the bird. 

  Not the best shot but the lump on the horizontal branch is the owl.

     Ten years and 5 days ago while attempting another ultimately unsuccessful photo session with the Northern Lights I took the photo below. 

   It's my late dog Roscoe with Canis Major (the Big Dog) in the background sky.

   And last night....

It's almost like history repeating.  What has changed it 10 years?...new dog, I live 200 miles farther north, the dog photo taken with phone instead of camera, the bird on Roscoe's night was a peenting  American Woodcock but best of all I didn't have to drive 70 miles to find a relatively dark sky. 

 
  

Black-necked Stilt 4/10/2018

  This afternoon Linda and Chuck Scribner found a Black-necked Stilt at Freeman Pond which is located on US-31 and Freeman Rd in Mason County north of Ludington.

  The bird was a few hundred feet from both roads but lighting from the afternoon sun was better from busy US-31.  

   The Stilt eventually flew across US-31 where I lost sight of it and was unable to recover it.

  A couple of Snowy Owls were still in the area including one near the Kubota dealer west of US-31

   And another east of 31 about a half mile south of Freeman Pond

   Here are some photos that were rattling around in my camera since Sunday.

Harlequin Duck at Ludington Pumped Storage Plant.  Last seen on Sunday

Common Loon at same location

Red-bellied Woodpecker at home

Purple Finch on birdbath

Red-breasted Merganser at Pumped Storage Plant

White-winged Scoter at Ludington Pumped Storage

Roadkill? Not So Fast

  

      As I was leaving work this morning, I pulled out of the compound right behind one of the midnight-shift security guards.  As we got about a mile down the road, I saw something glance off of the guard's car and land on the edge of the road.  I suspected that it was a bird so I turned around to check on it.  What I found was an Eastern Screech Owl lying motionless with one of its wings outstretched and eyes barely open.

    

   I picked up the dazed bird and put it in my car with plans to take it to a rehabber if it survived.  When I got home I placed it in an aquarium with a shallow bowl of water.  Within minutes it was reviving and splashing the water all over itself and the aquarium.  When it became apparent that its wings were fine I took it outside and placed it in one of my spruce trees.  I took a couple of photos and promptly texted them to a friend and my daughters.  By the time I sent the texts I looked up and it was gone.  

The Watt House has no comment at this tahm.

   For some reason my friend suggested I name it Sarah Huckabilly.  I thought it resembled a couple of other pop culture icons.

Ack

You should shee the other guy

Eight Snowy Owls

  This morning I set out to make a run at besting the Mason County daily record of 6 Snowy Owls that I set in December and was tied on Thursday by Tom Bagwell.  I started in the US-31 area where Tom found all of his owls within roughly a quarter mile of the highway.

   Between 9 AM and noon I found seven Snowies within a couple of miles of the US-31 corridor.  Below is a map of where the first 6 were located.

1

2

3

4

5

6

   The seventh owl was found on a pile of tires in a yard on Tuttle Rd between Hansen and Decker.  As it sat motionless in the backyard of the residence a large Great Dane played in the front yard.

7

   The eighth Snowy was found on the reservoir at my worksite.

8

    As I was leaving my workplace a Bald Eagle flew near and provided a photo op.

More Snowies

     Woke this morning and found a message on my phone from Van Burmeister who found 4 Snowy Owls on the south breakwater of Ludington Harbor.  A second message was from Dave Dister who suggested that I check the pumped storage reservoir to see if I could find any of the 3 owls that I saw Wednesday.

    I was only able to find one owl at the reservoir before heading to the harbor to document the 4 birds that Van found.  With a little more effort I was able to find a sixth Snowy along Scottville Rd.

   Twelve of the Snow Geese that I saw at the reservoir on Wednesday were still present.

Make that Three Snowies

      I can hear it now. "Snowy Owls? Is that all you got?" Well if these Arctic interlopers are going to keep crossing paths with me, I've got to keep blogging about them.

    This morning I stayed over into the daylight hours for a meeting and afterward took advantage of the sunny skies and light winds to check if last week's owls were still up on the reservoir.

      At the four mile mark of the six mile, one-way loop I spotted two birds atop of a small structure.  These appear to be young females that I have been seeing up there.  One of the Snowies stayed put as I passed the structure.

    A little further ahead as I passed a transformer I noticed a young male in my rear-view mirror.

   Other birds of interest included a flock of 14 White-phase Snow Geese, that circled the reservoir for about 10 minutes.

  A single Blue-morph Snow Geese hung out with the Canada Geese.

   

Rough-legged Hawk

    After I made it home, Dave Dister called to report a Glaucous Gull at Ludington Harbor.

Second Snowy Owl

   I stopped by my work on my day off to see if the Snowy Owl found there last week was still present.  It was and it brought a friend, a second Snowy.  Only one bird was close enough to photograph.

   Also present in the reservoir were a Pied-billed and Horned Grebe.

   The Snowy Owl stood its ground with an angry Crow, until the corvid realized that the Owl wasn't fazed.

  The owl stood by as I was heading down back ramp, which allowed me to increase the distance between us and still face her head on.

 

     On the lower reservoir road a handful of bucks contemplated a rearranging of the accepted hierarchy. 

10-pt Buck- " I'm going to let that guy know what I think of him......"

".....Maybe tomorrow".

Next up the buck who looks like he got his rack at the factory seconds outlet. 

He better walk before he makes him run.