Pine Warbler and Other Birds at Work

   Added 4 to this year's list of birds I've seen at my worksite.  Pine Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Common Loon and Blue-winged Teal.  List stands at 72.

Eastern Phoebe

Northern Shoveler

Turkey Vulture

Ring-necked Duck with male's neck ring showing

Hooded Merganser getting a running start

Snowpile still hanging in there on first potentially 80 degree day.

Kensington Metropark 4/6/2014

  Took a ride out to Kensington Metropark on Sunday morning.  I was kind of surprised that Kent Lake was still about 50% ice covered but the open water was about 20% duck covered.  I noticed a nice concentration of ducks at the Martindale Beach area.  Unfortunately the parking area of the beach was closed for the season but the nearby parking lot for the Frisbee Golf Course was open.  I felt a little out of place parking there since my car may have been the only one without a pot leaf window decal or medical marijuana card displayed on the dashboard.

Canvasbacks

Ring-necked ducks

Redheads

Scaups

Ring-necked Ducks

Northern Shovelers

Common Mergansers

American Wigeons

Common Goldeneye

  When waterfowl flies in a V-formation the trailing birds expend less energy as it drafts behind the bird in front of them.  Then again there is no such thing as a free ride.

Mute Swans

Horned Grebe

Eastern Bluebird

White-breasted Nuthatch gathering nesting material

The Great Blue Heron rookery

   Back at home there was a nice mix of spring arrivals and winter lingerers

Song Sparrow

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Dark-eyed Junco

Fox Sparrow

  On Saturday I photographed the Ospreys on their Robert's Rd. platform, at Pt. Mouillee.

Pt. Mouillee Snowy Owl

    Yesterday Andrew Sturgess found a remarkable 5 Snowy Owls in the southeast section of Pt. Mouillee.  Later in the day Jerry Jourdan refound 2 of them.  This afternoon, the pleasant weather inspired me to take drive out there and try to find them.
     I found one of the Snowies on the north side of the dike leading from Sigler Rd.  It was about halfway past the start of the Long Pond Unit.  I was really fortunate to find the bird considering I forgot the numbering system of the outer cells is south to north.  As it turned out I was about as far as I could get from the area where Andrew and Jerry had their observations.

  I also saw a Caspian Tern on my way back in.

Photos from the last couples of weeks

   The Sandhill Cranes I saw yesterday were the first I had seen from my house in the 10 years we've lived here.  This afternoon I had another one fly over the yard.

Here are some photos I've taken since mid-March.  The Grebes were at Dingell Park

Pair of Red-necked Grebes on 3/27/14

Horned Grebe at Dingell Park

Red-necked Grebe also at Dingell

 These photos were all taken at my place of employment.

Buffleheads

Wood Ducks

Great Black-backed Gull

Northern Pintails

More Wood Ducks

Red-winged Blackbird

  Back at home, the table is set for any early hummingbird.