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.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron Mason County 4/18/2022

   

    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...

Belted Kingfisher

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Peregrine Falcon

 On April 12 I saw...

Northern Flicker

Purple Finch

Flock of Scoters

Mostly White-winged but not always 
Black Scoter in yellow circle and Surf Scoter in the red.

And on April 13 the south wind brought the first of the year....

Northern Harrier

White-Crowned Sparrow

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.

May is Migration Month

   May is off to a spectacular start in terms of bird migration.  On Saturday May 1, my first Rose-breasted Grosbeak of the year arrived in my yard.

  Then around noon what appears to be a Lesser Black-backed Gull cruised by, along the edge of my bluff. The gull would be 161st species on my yard list if ID is confirmed.  If you have any opinions on it send me an email at the address near the bottom of the page.

   A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was the 6th woodpecker species that I saw that day, I only missed Pileated when it comes to 7 possible woodpecker species in the LP of Michigan.

   As good as Saturday was, it was just the undercard to Sunday's main event.  The Birdcast Map below shows that Doppler Radar sites across the lower 48 detected at least half a billion birds in flight during each 10 minute interval between 11:25 pm Saturday until 2:45 am Sunday morning.

 The wave of birds brought the first Baltimore Orioles of the year as well as 10 other species.  As it goes with Orioles a dispute over the feeders quickly developed.

  And a clear underdog was soon revealed.

  I added two more to the yardlist a Blue-winged Warbler which I was unable to photograph and a marginally more cooperative Northern Waterthrush.  The Waterthrush momentarily entered a less obstructed hole in the brush and allowed me to get a few manually focused shots.

 Other warblers to arrive on Sunday were

.... Yellow

....Black and White

...Nashville.  

   Which is the 100 species that I've this year in my yard this year and coincidentally was the 100 species last year, although that didn't occur until May 10th. 

 The first Ruby-throated Hummingbirds also arrived....

.....as did the Indigo Buntings.

 

  Other first of the year birds arriving Sunday but not pictured were House Wren, Common Yellowthroat, Gray Catbird and Chimney Swift

    Although today started dingy and gray and only got worse when an all-day drizzle developed I had two more 2021 arrivals in the yard, Eastern Kingbird and..

....Great Egrets

Sparrowy with a Chance of Warblers 4/27/2021

 

   Last night the BirdCast migration map forecast that strong southwest winds would nudge up to 300 million birds along on their trek northward.  The live migration map showed that according to the Doppler Radar Network over 500 million birds were airborne just before 1:00 AM ET.  Exceeds expections, indeed.

   Like a kid in anticipation of Christmas, I went to bed a little early but had a hard time falling asleep and woke up well before sunrise.  When I went out after daybreak the first thing that I noticed were the dozens of Chipping Sparrows scattered all over my lawn.  My high count was 38.

  Next I added a couple of warblers to the year list.  Palm Warbler

...and Black Throated Green

Other 'first of the year' birds were  Red-headed Woodpecker...

...and Bank Swallow

Last but not least I added a Swamp Sparrow to the all-time yard list which is now at 158.

End of September Wrap Up

 For the past six days I've had at least six woodpecker species in my yard each day.  On five of those days no Pileateds were seen, but on Sunday one flew by and gave me seven woodpecker species for the day.

Adult Red-headed Woodpecker earlier this month

Flicker

   On Friday the first Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers of the fall showed up

Red-bellied Woodpecker and immature Red-headed Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

   When a Blue Jay started scooping up ten peanuts at a time, a Red-bellied took a stand.

   As September came to a close I still had one Ruby-throated Hummingbird but earlier in the month a lot of energy was wasted as multiple hummingbirds spent more time fighting than feeding.

More Warblers and Vireos 5/24/2020

   It took 4 years and 9 months to record 133 bird species at the house we moved out of last fall. Today I reached that total for the new yard just a day short of 6 months since moved in.  The new birds included a pair of Canada Warblers (female shown above).

    A pair of Blue-winged Teals.

Blue-winged Teals with male Wood Duck

    The 132nd bird, a Wilson's Warbler would not sit still for a photo but #133, a Warbling Vireo, momentarily came out from behind the leaves to be documented.

  Yesterday I also added 4....

                          Green Heron

#126

             Pine Siskin

#127

           Red-eyed Vireo

#128

   #129 Eastern Wood Pewee was not captured photographically
 
    Other birds of interest photographed today were

Male Magnolia Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Black and White Warbler

Female Magnolia Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Red-headed Woodpecker

Lincoln's Sparrow

   I saw a couple of adult Bald Eagles fly over today but this one was cooperative enough to wait until the clouds and fog dissipated.

Looks like Round Goby is on the menu this evening.