Dr. Bob's Bird Blog

Summer Fall Winter Spring - -09-2019-09

2012-02-10T00:21:00.000-05:00

OK, I just "rambled" on the Michigan birders list. With great personal lazy drivers, I repost it here. Geez! I just have to "reuse"

Begin post:

OK, I miss-spoke about “Spring sprung” broken. We did have one more wonderful day of “winter spring”. Now, I really suspect Spring really sprang and our wonderful false Spring will now be broken in the following days bringing the jet stream down upon us from the north. (I suspect all local birders know Judy and I are “fair weather birders” so we will “hibernate” for awhile…) Judy coined a new word for the winter we have had so far: “uncomplainable”. Cool!

Today was a beautiful day in high 30’s with wind chills in the high 20’s and Judy and I went to Stoney Creek Nature Center to “hang out” and watch the feeders. We planned no big walks, just wanted to see birds,.

With about an hour of observation, we again saw and photographed the Pine Siskins (feisty birds – they “win” over goldilocks at thistle feeders – see pics) and the Common Redpolls (pics). We saw several Juncos and both Downy and Hairy WP as well as many other birds. Great winter stuff!!! Wonderful!

Note: Y’all should visit your local Nature Centers for fun and warm birding at their feeders!!! Forget the walks! At least as far as I have seen, most birds are around feeder areas! No, not the “best birds” who, albeit displaced, know how to “make it” here in winter, but if you want to see lots of cool birds, some area around a place with feeders is best.

Then we went to Winter Cove (the whole parking lot was open again vs. the last time we went here) and saw two Coopers Hawks and two Eastern Bluebirds! Huh? - Bluebirds? Spring!? OK. Now I need to give up on “land birds” and think about the wading birds as possible harbingers of Spring! Hey, you can’t wade in a frozen pond! (See, I am learning!) Really, what IS the true birdie sign of spring in Michigan? And, do not say Robins, or Red-winged Blackbirds (my former choice) or even Bluebirds or Sandhill Cranes! And do not get too fancy (like the Clay-colored Sparrow). SO WHAT IS the birdie harbinger of Spring in SE Michigan? Please, “Come on back Good Buddies”!

I am not sure about summer and fall, but seeing winter and spring birds in the same day was just SO cool!

Now back to winter that as I predicted in my last note was about to “fall” upon us! In “summery” (sic), how often can one see spring Bluebirds and winter Redpolls and Pine Siskins in the same day?

The obscure ref in the subject of the e-mail was to a phrase I remember from my childhood. I remember Mom talking about “Princess Summerfall Winterspring”. Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Tyler. I think I might have seen Howdy Doody on some occasions but it really made no huge impression, but I have remembered that name after all these years. Interesting that today re-triggered the memory.

See my PBase (URL below) for winter and spring birds in the same day.

I don’t know, I just remember Mom’s words. I certainly do not remember why, but I guess it must have been an important moment for her when I was a kid (I assume we shared something important!) , just as like why today was an important moment for me seeing special winter birds at the same time as I got FOY spring bluebirds. It all comes back sometime. I always really think Mom was the reason why I appreciated Nature and the outdoors to begin with! God bless you and the memories I have of you Mom!

Just thinking/rambling: if I could think of anything especially wonderful to do with kids in our area, I would certainly take them to Kensington Metro Park to hand feeding birds near the Nature Center area. In California we had the ocean where Mom liked to go. Yet with all the wonders and treasures of the ocean, I never had a lighter than air being light on my hand! (Geez! Y’all do not know what you miss ….!), I suspect nothing would have compared with a flighty weightless being landing on your hand. Never mind, it is not seasonal, I just went off into another ramble … Point here is half of a memory of a childhood princess triggered today …

I put the pics on my PBase site: Oh, just click around … and enjoy …

http://www.pbase.com/doctorbass/image/141414346

Do “next” for a total of 4 new pics.

Recent stuff - Spring sprang and now springing Spring broken?

2012-02-07T20:33:00.002-05:00

I posted this on the Michigan Birder's list. I copy it here. I really no longer have the energy to generate more than one "ramble" at a time, and wanted to thank Mich birders for their help. Yes, I often "ramble" on the Mich birders (a very accepting forum!) and ignore my blog ...

Many great days recently! My indicator of spring – the Red-winged Blackbird – appeared twice. Yes, Allen I really appreciated your note to me (relative to robins and my spring RWBB indicator) about your sighting of so many RWBB at Erie Marsh this January and I see some postings on the list about RWBB recently and so maybe I need to revise my spring indicator. So, maybe – like Robins – some RWBB hang around. Or is this a weird year? So if not Robins, RWBB, Bluebirds (Stoney recently and Kensington most years), Sandhill Cranes (most recently at Stoney and I am sure Kensington as in most years) and the Kinglets and “butter butts” also being reported this year, what bird is the true indicator of Spring?

At Holland Ponds we were rewarded with the sighting (and backlit pics) of American Widgeon male and female. (Thanks listers! We rarely go there in winter). This is only the second time we ever saw a Widgeon and never so close! As we were walking the main road to Waterfowl Pond to see the ducks, four Red-winged Blackbirds (“tik”, “chuck”, or whatever the familiar sound issuing forth) flew overhead. Huh? Spring?

The next day a RWBB appeared on my deck! Spring! Geez, it was 50 degrees – could have been spring! There were a few more back in the woods making beautiful “here I am” noises at Streamwood. Silly birds…

And at Holland Ponds, I heard some other weird noises – short whistles! Seemed like the older bird-watching couple across the pond was whistling, but the noise did not seem to come from them. From my books, I learned Widgeons make a whistle. Interesting. It was sure strange! Geez, I sure would love to see a Fulvous Whistling Duck (not in Michigan) just to be able to say I saw one! It is in the books and its name sticks in my memory and just rolls off the tongue enough to make it so fascinating! Well anyway, I think I heard a whistling duck (Widgeon), but not the unrelated Whistling Duck. Or was it just the older couple on the other side throwing their whistles and messing with me? We later saw them walking back to their car holding hands. That sight was a true treasure and a lasting memory of a beautiful day birding!

Also while I was watching the Widgeons, I heard some new sounds. Mallards for sure, but very weird - Judy pointed me to the source and I managed to get a few pics of a male Mallard pushing a female under water while biting her neck. First time we ever saw that. Quick!!! Ah, spring! (Is this the time they DO that? What’s the gestation?)

At Stoney Creek Nature Center, we were lucky to get two Common Redpolls (male and female) and a Pine Siskin – both FOY for us. Again, thanks to the list for steering us there! By chance (binocs are good for people too!) we saw my former best bass tournament fishing buddy Terry across from the observation deck where we started and called him over to the Nature Center. He has now traded his bass boat for optics and is hooked on birding. It sure makes sense! Fishing and birding are not so different – seeking, finding, capturing (pics). Both are addictive! And, it is a heck of a lot cheaper considering the amount of gas the 250 hp engines on a bass boat eat, and also more convenient considering that you can “bird” anywhere at any time! It is cool that Terry is now birding! Anyway, the siskin and redpolls were “lifers” for Terry.

On another recent day, while walking the Stoney Creek West Branch Trails, we were fortunate to meet up with Kevin again. On the phone while I asked about the last location of my nemesis PIWO, he had asked me if we saw the Barred Owl. No, I said. I knew exactly where it was supposed to be, and we looked and did not see it as we had walked by. After we met up with Kevin (Thanks, Kevin for meeting us there!), we looked with “new eyes” on the same tree. There it was! It looks like a “bump on a log”! The streaking on the owl’s breast blends perfectly with the bark pattern of the tree! A beautiful “bump on a log”! Go see:

http://www.pbase.com/doctorbass/image/141279901 (do “next” for one more pic)

Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone for reporting your sightings and to pass along a new “ramble” of the brief spring we enjoyed. I suspect from the weather reports I may finally be able to get “doing” what I need to do at home instead of impulsively birding every nice day. (Hey, in Michigan in winter we take any great day as an opportunity!)

Well, if the brief “Spring spring” is rewound and winter cometh, then bring on more Redpolls, Siskins, and Crossbills – and a few Lapland Longspurs would be nice as well! That would be wonderful! And, for sure the Snowy Owls are amazing! Let’s hope they find food and stay healthy!

BTW, I am going to repost this on my blog. I notice I never posted anything since last summer. “Doing” sure beats blogging… and as much as I would like, it seems harder as I age to do both. I sure heartily applaud the people who can do both!!!

2011 Recap

2012-02-07T20:28:00.000-05:00

Placeholder! I want to recap our last year.

Lots of stuff to post! Been busy "doing" and not posting. This has been a mild winter in Michigan, so we have been still "doing". I suspect winter will soon be upon us and I wil have time to catch up.

2011-09-16 & 17 Ottawa NWR (Ohio)

2011-09-19T18:37:00.001-04:00

2011-09-16/17 Friday & Saturday - Ottawa NWR (Ohio)

[more later - placeholder ...]

We left the Michigan Hawkwatch on Friday to head off to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge (northwest Ohio) to be able to drive the auto tour. Based on a blog posting by Kenn Kaufman, we knew that Ottawa NWR was probably going to open a special part of the drive in conjunction with the Midwest Birding Symposium. They did - and it was great! Many (most?) people had not read Kenn’s posting, or neglected to pick up the orange sheet at the beginning of the drive (!), and did not know they were allowed on the special part of the drive around pool MS5 that had been especially pumped to create shorebird habitat. Judy and I mostly felt we had it to ourselves. A ranger at Ottawa said it should be best tomorrow (Sunday) based on weather conditions, but we really enjoyed what we saw. Snowy Egret was up close and personal (great pics!); a Long-billed Dowitcher (LBDO) was probably the best shorebird for us, but many Yellowlegs and tons of Killdeer were reflected in the still water and made great pics! And, of course, Great Egrets were literally everywhere. Throw in a Bald Eagle and what a great weekend! (Pics later…) Thanks SO MUCH Ottawa NWR for opening this special place to us!!! It was a life time memory, yet we will do it again! And thanks Kenn for inspiration!

Kenn’s post:
http://cranecreekbirding.blogspot.com/2011/09/ottawa-nwr-auto-tour-update.html

2011-09-16 Pte. Mouillee Hawk Watch

2011-09-19T18:29:00.003-04:00

2011-09-16 Pte. Mouillee Hawk Watch

[ work in progress - more pics later]

Judy and I had a great couple of days last week starting with actually seeing our first kettles of migrating hawks at Pte. Mouillee. We had gone to Hawk Fest at Lake Erie Metro Park (LEMP) the last two years and never saw anything like this!

Now I am talking hawk watching, not the LEMP festival. Hawk Watch vs. Hawk Festival. The LEMP Hawk Festival is always fantastic! http://www.metroparks.com/calendar_item.aspx?ID=2275

Hawkfest (a weekend thing) was in conjunction with the Detroit River Hawk Watch program (an on-going survey): http://www.drhawkwatch.org/

Judy and I love the annual Hawkfest! Even if the weather does not allow good migration viewing, we get to see wonderful birds up close and personal. This year, on Saturday, Joe Rogers presented (always an incredible show and showman); on Sunday, the Howell Nature Center showed off birds; and on both days, the Michigan Hawking Club (Falconry) showed their birds. Fun! We went a day early and missed it.

This year, we really wanted to go to nw Ohio to drive onto the Ottawa NWR for a special auto tour. We did - another blog topic, so passed on the LEMP festivities.

This blog is about hawk watching. A Michigan birder, Jeff Schultz, had been making predictions that Friday would be a good day to see the migration. His enthusiasm drove us there!

Friday, we started at Sigler Rd. – no one and no birds (that we could see …). We went to Pte. Mouillee HQ where we met a group of maybe 20 birders – serious birders with scopes set up and all. Boring … nothing we could see (but others could see them going somewhere – how do they do that???). There seemed to be a “ringleader” - who we learned to be the same Jeff Schultz whose message inspired me to try it on Friday - who shortly suggested the birds were moving south and led a move to the Roberts Rd. parking lot at Pte. Mouillee.

We went there. Soon birders were reporting kettles of birds. Where? There! Where? Etc … I could not see anything!

Fortunately a Facebook Canon SX30 friend of mine (Curt Powell) recognized me and took me under his wing. Like the other experienced birders there, he could see kettles where Judy and I only saw sky. After directions like: “over the dead trees, in the white clouds”, I could finally see “dots” in the sky with my binoculars! With his help, and looking at the scope directions of other birders, I finally was able to get glasses on a lifer bird (actually hundreds!) of a Broad-winged Hawk.

Curt was accompanied by his daughter. That really impressed me! For a high school kid to go birding with her Dad ("Boring!" I can just hear it ...) means a great bond! That's how you get kids into birding! Here's a wonderful Judy pic at the (really boring - like I said) previous Pte. Mouillee HQ site. I love it!

Biker Andy and Curt and daughter

I rarely could see the birds without binocs – but how do these guys know where to look with binocs??? Younger eyes and experience - I guess.

A few times the kettle came close enough that I could see the “dots” with the naked eye. I am not sure Judy ever could see dots more than once.

Fortunately, I had just received my replacement camera from Canon (now a T2i) and IT could also see dots once I got it on the right area after finding the birds with binocs. Unlike the SX30 (actually a great camera despite my whining), the T2i has the continuous shooting and faster focus I prefer (trust to luck!) so I was able to post a few pics on my PBase site. PBase pics of “hawk dots”: http://www.pbase.com/doctorbass/image/138144785 (Do “next” to see total of 4 pics).

The message here is that you really have to be with someone who knows hawk watching! (“Don’t try this alone!”) Fortunately Curt and the others could see imaginary dots in the sky that really were hawks! Another message is that I have always doubted anyone really seeing (for example) 4000 hawks or more in a day. Like – “oh, come on …”! But really it is true!!! In the brief time (about an hour) we were with Jeff’s gang at Roberts Rd., even I (!) saw at least three kettles of about 400 hawks! Ten kettles are not so far to figure – I could even imagine a hundred kettles. Incredible!!! OK. I am a believer!

Another wonderful thing was meeting some birders I knew only by reputation or personal communication. I admit, I was a bit intimidated because I am a relatively "unknown" birder and really have nothing to offer but enthusiasm, but I did introduce myself to a couple of birders I knew from their postings. Of most interest to Judy was Andrew Dettling. I overheard at Mouillee HQ that he had already ridden his bike 90 miles. At first Judy did not understand. I told her about a BGBY (Big Green Bird Year). All bird recording must be without using any fossil fuels, and it must start at home! Andy has almost 250 BGBY species so far this year! Now, that got Judy's interest! She watched for him to arrive at Roberts Rd. on his bike, then turned around and he was already there! Fast! How did he do it? (actually his fast bike... and we were busy meeting people.) Here's a Judy pic. It was nice to meet someone "of legend"!

Andy Dettling at Pte Mouillee Roberts Rd. on BGBY

Interestingly, the official LEMP counts were FAR lower that day. Even a few miles make a huge difference! Jeff had it right on in his prediction! Thank you SO much “Ring-leader Jeff”!!! I have not been on many official field trips, but certainly this unofficial one was simple incredible! And, thanks so much Curt for personally guiding me!

[Note: the following day (Saturday) set the all-time record for birds observed! 190,000 (Yes, a hundred and ninety thousand!). It's all in how the birds' need to migrate stacks up against the weather! I have learned SO much!]

YES! I am a believer.

2011-09-12 A wedding, Sandhills, TVs and Shiawassee NWR

2011-09-19T17:55:00.001-04:00

2011-09-12 A wedding, Sandhills, TVs and Shiawassee NWR

[Note: I originally started to write a short note to the SEMich birder's list about our new-found place for "easy birding", and got carried away. I should have done it as a blog, and merely made reference to it on the birder's list. Oh well ... the creative spirit is hard to stop when it takes command. Anyway, I repost it here, and will add photos after I catch up on a few more trips.]

[Note 2: Since then, Steve Kahl just posted a note to the birders that Shiawassee will be open longer in October this year. I repost his complete note. It includes references.

"Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge has postponed the closure date of the Wildlife Drive from October 5 to October 28. This extension will expand wildlife observation opportunities along our auto tour route much further into fall migration. Please note that the gates currently are open from 7AM to 7PM. However, from October 8 to October 28 the gates will not open until 1PM.

Please see the Recent Bird Sightings Google Gadget on the refuge's home page to see what has been observed at the refuge over the last 30 days. The address is http://www.fws.gov/Midwest/shiawassee/.
Another good way to monitor refuge sightings is to check the Saginaw County Departures in eBird. Most lists submitted in Saginaw County are from the refuge. The address is: http://ebird.org/ebird/sightings?listType=last&locInfo.regionType=subnational2&locInfo.regionCode=US-MI-145&beginYear=2011&endYear=2011&continuous=false. ]

[Note 3: It is truly great that Steve and others are using eBird to report sightings. Not just the "fancy stuff", but also the "regulars". By following the above link, you really get an idea of what is there!]
____________
Begin "ramble" (by that I mean my story...):

Judy and I headed to Alma, Michigan over the weekend for a family wedding.

On the way up I-75 on Saturday, we saw a flyover of six Sandhill Cranes (Judy’s favorite bird) near Grange Hall Rd. (exit 101) heading northeast. WOW!!! This was the first time we saw several Sandhill Cranes flying together!!! Truly impressive! (So where were they going …?)

On Sunday -heading back- we were going to Shiawassee NWR along M-46 and saw a nice kettle of 20 Turkey Vultures near where M-46 crosses the Tittabawassee River. Another first while driving, and only the second time we saw a TV kettle!

Hey! Birds are in the air – doing something! Now I just have to figure out what it is …

We spent about 2 ½ hours mid-day at the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday. It is really a great place for us – it is like a Pte. Mouillee where you can drive the dikes! (Thanks so much to Diane Constable, Jane, and David for quickly responding to my info request to the list the night before!!!)
The auto tour can be weather dependent – there are a few low spots where flooding happens, but it was fine now. If nothing else, it is a place to enjoy “listening to nothing but nature” and just enjoy ambience. We met a senior (more senior than us) couple on the dikes. They were arguing whether the many white birds (maybe 4 dozen) were egrets (he said they were only in Florida). I was pleased I could actually tell someone what they were seeing. She “won”, and both were happy. I also mentioned the Great Blue Herons – yes they saw those also.

Prior to going out on the auto tour, we stopped by the visitor center and really enjoyed the tips provided by the on-duty ranger Kile Kucher. It turns out that one weekend each year (Refuge Open House Weekend) they allow full access (“walk anywhere”) access to the entire refuge. (No, we only did the auto tour on our first visit – but it is really something to consider next year ... there are tons of areas to explore!) It’s really so hunters can scout areas for deer hunting, but many hikers/bikers use the time to explore new areas. We grabbed Kile’s time between two hunters, and were exceptionally pleased he could “talk birds” as well as showing his expertise in hunting. He is a great naturalist and fantastic with the public! His specialty is invasive plants. He has the credentials for proper application of herbicides (think Phragmites control) and the practical experience of hand-pulling garlic mustard (the only effective remedy). Really, it was impressive to talk with a young man with so much knowledge! Many of our southeast Michigan parks could really use this insight!

Anyway, Kile suggested the best places to view shorebirds along the drive. He was right on!

For people who know the area, there were at least five species of shorebirds feeding with a lone egret in the pond behind the observation deck at the northeast corner of the drive. A scope would work well there – or binocs for someone more experienced than me. In Pond-1A (north-east corner of the drive), there were dozens of Great Egrets – quite reminiscent of Lautenshager Unit at Pte. Mouillee during the OAS trip there in August – but the distance was very far. A scope is essential! This is the area where Lyle Hamilton reported on the se-mich list (mid-August) an Ibis. Kile told us it was only there a few days.

Kile told us of the current flooding of two units on the west side of the drive. Right now one is a plowed field (cottonwood control – get control while possible!) that should be great for shorebirds as water rises. Maybe we will call ahead and check it out near month-end. Kile figures two weeks. It is really close to the tour road!

I echo Lyle Hamilton’s posting on the se-mich birder’s list: “Special thanks to Steve Kahl and his team at Shiawassee NWR for making this area accessible by auto“!

YES! This is truly an exceptional opportunity for those of us where a very long hike is unreasonable. (Pte. Mouillee - take note!) Imagine being able to drive Pte. Mouillee! Yes! - All that is needed at Pte. Mouillee are a few turnouts (and make it a one-way tour) and words on maps (like: “stay in your car except at turnouts – the car is a “blind” and will not spook the birds”, etc. - similar to those at Shiawassee to make it work!

I also want to pass to Steve (Refuge Manager) our accolades for the wonderful help and courtesy shown by Kile! Gold star! Thanks so much! We will definitely return!

I note the auto tour is only open until October 5 this year. Hey – it’s not that far! I think it is the second exit north after Birch Run off I-75.

Ref: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Shiawassee/

OK, … so I “ramble” … It was a great weekend! Oh – just to make it even better, Kile gave us a poster of Sandhill Cranes he had on the desk at the office. He noted he had one hanging in his own house – as will we!
Wedding bliss, reception with family, Sandhill Cranes, a kettle of vultures, and serenity – what more can one ask?

Go bird!

Been busy!

2011-09-19T17:29:00.001-04:00

I just totally admire bloggers who can "do it", then "write it" in a reasonable time frame!

Judy and I have been quite busy in August and September. Mostly it was family stuff - college reunions, family reunions, weddings, etc. with several birding trips thrown in. And of course we took lots of photos. From a birding blog view, this really has slowed any progress at all. Geez! Family want to see their pics too! So I have been posting family pics on Facebook, making prints and so on. Now I have tons of "unspoken" bird pics!

I am going to drop a few "placeholders" on the blog tonight to fill in later.

2011-08-13 Pte. Mouillee, Monroe County, MI

2011-08-18T21:35:00.014-04:00

2011-08-13 Pte. Mouillee, Monroe County, MI

Judy and I went on our second ever (formal) birding field trip with the very active Oakland County Audubon Society. This was a very special very event where the society was allowed to drive onto the dikes at Point Mouillee State Game Area. It happens once per year. You can gather from my previous blogs that Judy and I had tried on a few occasions to venture out there and - to date - had only been reasonable successful once. I'll tell you - driving sure beats hoofing it!

The number of cars was limited so we met at the Sigler Road parking lot and squeezed into four cars to drive the dikes.

A few notes:

I think this is the first time I had ever set my alarm to get up and go birding (maybe that is the reason I miss so many field trips?) - but, it sures beats an alarm telling me to go to work! Interestingly, seeing recent several posts from my Facebook birding friends showed me that I was not alone in both setting the alarm and also in not getting a very good sleep due to concern about missing the 8:00 am start and also the the anticipation of the day before me.

A truly impressive bunch of birders attended this event. Some were good birding friends we had met previously, several were heroes and correspondents - some of whom we had not met, and many were just fine birders I knew by reputation. It was a true joy to see so many sympatico "relatives" all assembled for one purpose! I'll sprinkle some pics in this blog.

Here is a map of Pte. Mouillee I put together from three maps referenced on Bruce Bowman's website (click the embedded link to go there - scroll down to “Southeast Michigan (not Washtenaw County) - Pte. Mouillee”). Having a map is essential. You need one to communicate. You need one to know where you are. And especially when on foot, you need to know how far you went and far far you need to go to get back to the parking lot. It is always really easy to keep going to reach the spot where someone told you birds were located, but you gotta remember your legs and body will double the effort!

Accolades really go to Allen Chartier who first published the main map in his great book (click to go there ...) published by the American Birding Association. References on the map to "sites mentioned in text" refer to comments in his book. Allen tries to keep the book current.

The day started great as an eagle flew over at our first stop when all cars had passed the gate and we waited fot the gate to be locked again.

Our basic route was:

Sigler Road. Pause by gate. Stop at nw corner of Nelson Unit. Stop midway down the road between Nelson Unit and Long Pond to look for possible Ibis (none). Stop at corner of Bloody Run and Lautenschlager Units (fantastic flock of distant Geat Egrets - maybe 150? - and many shorebirds below). Along Middle Causeway - stopping in the middle to rescue a juvenile Pied-billed Grebe(!). Stop at ne corner of Cell 3 and Humphries (Lead) Units. Then back around Cell 4 and 5 and North Causeway to Sigler Road. (Hey, I think I remembered it - any corrections y'all?)

BCNH flies off into the oblivion of a dead camera ...

A major downside to the day happened to me at the Lautenschlager Unit. This was possibly my best ever opportunity to shoot many shorebirds up close. Shortly after we entered, I was shooting a night heron flying by and my Canon XSI totally died! There! Why there and now? On our first really internal visit to this special place? My last pic was interesting - it looks like a heron flying into an eclipse!

Fortunately Judy had our 12x Kodak as her camera. She inherited it when she gave me the Canon as an anniversary gift in 2008. My wonderful wife passed it over to me and told me to "go for it". Such love!

Since that time, I have gone thru all the stages of loss of the Canon - including anger, disappointment, realization, etc. But shortly reality and reflection again allowed me to regain my senses. I took a survey from my date/pic numbered files and realized I had actually shot about 90,000 photos with that camera. Really amazing! And - really amazing - I have had time to reflect. Can you just imagine some dinky magical thing inside a "black box" firing off 90,000 times at speeds around 1/1000th of a second and still working? Whew!

Just why did it have to do it then - there?

My great birder wife!

Anyway, "everything happens for a purpose". Not that I really needed anything to tell me how much Judy does for me. But, I have been wanting Judy to get more experienced with the new binocs I got her a month or so ago, and now, without a camera around her neck, she faced a great opportunity. And since I was already experienced with her camera, I could record some of our wonderful memories.

I might have missed some bird pics, but the opportunity led me to get many shots of the assembled birders I might have otherwise overlooked. Yes, we all want to see birds, but the pics I really treasure are those of the birding community in which I am honored to be a member. Birds are "my friends". I relish and cherish the opportunities they give me to voyeuristically view and photograph them "doing things", but I know the times that matter most are those when people (humans, birders, heroes, friends ...) have shared a mutual experience with me.

This blog will feature photos more of the human component (the birders) than the birds. "Things happen for a reason"! Yes, that is what we usually tend to remember anyway - far longer than a "life bird"! Well at least for me - I only have about 150 "life birds" so another one is always just a trip away - wherever I go - even locally. Birding friends can never be anticipated. Yes it was a great day!

One of the highlights of the day was meeting Jerry Jourdan in the field (at Cell 3)! I read so many of his blogs on Pte. Mouillee, and sure enough - there he was! I was SO honored when Jerry came over and asked what birds I had seen! Fortunately, he is not "camera shy" and allowed Judy to take a great pic of me with one of my true "heroes"!!

Fantastic bird photographer Jerry Jourdan and his "student"

I managed to get a few shots of Jerry digiscoping. After I stayed an appropriate distance away, Jerry walked back to the group and shared a great lesson on his digiscoping equipment. It actually looks easy enough for me to try it - albeit without his better optical equipment ...

Jerry Jourdan digiscoping at Cell 3, Pte. Mouillee

Master photographer Jerry Jourdan shows how he conquersdistances at Pte. Mouillee. It looks so easy.

Judy and master birder Joe Faggan

Another highlight was actually spending time with Joe Faggan! We met Joe locally (Robert Long Nature Park, Stoney Creek Metro Park...), on many occasions before -but he was "birding" and Judy and I are a "couple", and neither Joe or us wanted to intrude on the other. It was so nice to have him "cornered". Ah what stories we can hear from this life-long birder!

It was especially fun to be in the car driven by buddy Ed (OAS field trip coordinator this year) and with Cathy Carroll, Janet Hug, and two people we just met: Ed's friend Craig and Alice.

Janet also poses with a "hero" - Jerry Jourdan!

Ed Lewandowski and Mike McCullough (field trip leader)

Yes it was a great day!

(Stay tuned - more to come!)

2011-08-11 Wetzel SRA

2011-08-18T19:22:00.001-04:00

2011-08-11 Wetzel SRA

OK, even after writing in the last post that I needed to record my memories as I get them, I am again behind on my blog. I wanted to post a blog on our recent rrip to Pte Mouillee, and see that I missed a few trips. Some are OK to miss, but I am trying to keep up with a few special places - like Wetzel SRA in Macomb County. I think few people are recording memories there.

Judy and I saw that Thursday, Aug 11, would be a much cooler day than usual this time of year, and I immediately thought of Wetzel. It is so exposed and so normally very humid we avoid it in summer - bugs aside.

After walking around a bit, we realized that indeed we had never been there in August! All of the sedges were now flowering and drooping over the path. All of the other vegetation was intensely lush as well. It was a very different place from spring!

From a view of photographing birds, it was not so good. We spent a lot of time saying "there he goes ... I mean went". No birdies sitting atop plants and singing and advertising their need for mates. Plenty of places within mid-level of the plants to feed. Whoosh - gone!

Yet fascinating! It is so good to see annual changes in the places we frequent. On the other hand, even on a "cool" day in August (73 to 80 degrees), after a walk around the main lake (making a circle from the southern parking lot) we were dripping and relished the air-conditioning of the car.

Notably, we saw no "shore birds" as we had hoped - the water was too high and the normal exposed island flats were minimal. We saw no bobolinks - did they leave after breeding, or just are making like all the other birdies by staying in the midst of the brush?

We did not have our "hearing" birding companions. Yes - we heard several birds, but Judy and I are severely "audiornith" - impared (if you need a hyphen in the unusual word, put it wherever you want - I just made up the word)! I just "gotta get my ears on" for summer birding!!!

It WAS possibly the kindest and best August day to venture there. Temps were reasonable, mosquitoes minimal, and we collected no ticks. Oddly, we did not see as many b'flies and d'flies as we might have suspetcted given the large diversity of flowering plants, but we shot a few.

And, no, I have not worked on the pics yet. We have been busy with family events as well as birding so I am way behind.

Here is the sadly irrepresentative species list.

Canada Goose 2
Mute Swan 6
Mallard 6
Pied-billed Grebe 3
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 4
Great Egret 12
Green Heron 2
Cedar Waxwing X
Common Yellowthroat X
Song Sparrow X
sparrow sp. X
Northern Cardinal X
American Goldfinch X

2011-07-27 Robert Long Nature Park, Oakland Co., MI

2011-07-27T20:56:00.002-04:00

Note to self:
I just gotta stop worrying about trying to finish my previous blogs - like by adding photos or more words for completeness - and just start recording memories again. It is so easy to "get wrapped around the axle"! Yes, my blogs are neither complete nor perfect, but I did "put it out there", and for me at least, I do have the pics to go along with the blog as part of my "life book". My words remind ME of a part of my life. I read my former words, and treasure the fact I wrote them - there and then! I doubt I could ever replay or record tham again now. I think a really important thing for me is to record my life and memories as I go. Yes, eventually, I really want to make an illustrated book by just printing off my blog. That would be really great. (Anyone know how to do this???)

Besides being selfish, self-promoting and self-documenting by blogging, I also post things to try to give back in a very small way to the community of wonderful birders and naturalists who have supported me along the way and provide input on species IDs and just generally some encouragement, and also the many who also share the blogs of their lives appreciating nature. I really DO feel part of a larger concerned community!

I post things to share with my family. I also consider those who are not so fortunate as Judy and I currently are and who might be unable to "get out" as often as we attempt. I always hope my "rambles" give them a "space" where their memories can fly as free as my words and trigger memories of similar times in their own lives! I am writing my memories now so that I can "replay them later" when I am less fortunate in my physical abilitiies to "get out"...

The pics do not change, but I know that my memories DO change over time, so it is best to get out something now, and if the universe allows me enough time and space, I can always fill in the pics later. Smiling, I see from some of my previous blogs I have usually subscribed to this philosophy, but recently I felt an incapacitating need for completeness before I proceeded with my blogging . Silly - obviously nothing happened. Hey, y'all - if you got something to say, do it now! I'll listen and appreciate!

Anyway, here is today's "story" - a "ramble" - written today, and I hope a turn-around for my blogging Gestalt. As you might suspect, many of the pics will come later or perhaps not at all...

2011-07-27 Robert Long Nature Park

Judy and I had a great day at Robert Long! Maybe it was not "fantastic" in the sense of new lifer birds, but we saw over two dozen species of birds, got some decent exercise, had a good picnic and shot a couple target birds that had recently been reported on the se Michigan birder's listserv. Yes, great!

As we arrived we saw three young people with binocs and cameras out on the mudflat. As they passed us I asked what they saw - "sandpipers". "What kind?" "Yellowlegs and peeps, but they flew off". Yes, I guess so - birds often do not care to share their mudflats with humans... (There is a reason my pics are often not so good - I choose not to approach too closely lest the objects of my photographic pursuits and avian desires fly away ...)

We hung around the shelter and watched the mudflat for awhile, but the sandpipers did not return. Mostly we were waiting while the youngsters walked the other trails. One was wearing a white shirt - ah, yes a "white flag"! We are so sensitive to this after reading the article in the excellent book "Good Birders Do Not Wear White".

Hey! I am not "getting down" on the kids! They were enthusiastic, and sharing, and everything I would hope I was "back then". I was not a birder, but I certainly shared my fishing info! There are just a few subtleties they will learn. I am always energized to see anyone from the next generation in the field and involved with nature. I know for sure they got some great shots of a Great Egret that posed for all of us by the entrance! I do not think I ever had any pics that good as a kid! Cool!

Great Egret looking at a fake "marmot"

Great Egret takes off. Geez!! I got a good one here!

So after a short break, off we went. The "middle dike" did not produce the expected abundance of butterflies and dragons (timing I suspect, the plants are "ripe"), or really many interesting birds at all.

Instead of heading left at the next turn, we went to the covered bridge where a man and his kids were fishing. It was obvious they enjoyed seeing birds as well as fishing. They especially liked the Great Egrets. And he asked if we had seen the white hawk-like bird that had passed by about 5 minutes ago. "What was that?" Actually, I had seen the bird in a quick glimpse, but was not in a place to put any optics on it or even study the behavior. I suggested possibly an Osprey. After Judy shot pics of the kids' fish (bluegill and perch - both released) the kids caught while we were there, we proceeded. We saw one one Barn Swallow left in the nests under the bridge and listened to the multiple "helper birds" complaining as they tried to help out. (ref Julie Craves article on helper birds ...) The family of human fishers was oblivious.No doubt I would have been as well since in that situation my goal today would have been to produce miniscule fish to cement my relationship with my kids forever. Cool about "helper birds" - they know the swallow kid is there and they will persist!

I had hoped for a Red-headed Woodpecker. No such luck. Actually we did not see any woodpeckers at all today- odd with all the standing dead timber. In the swamp north of the bridge, we got some decent pics of a Tiger Swallowtail and a couple of dragons, and a pic of an Eastern Wood-Peewee. I heard a Common Yellowthroat and possibly a Marsh Wren (gotta hear the CDs again ...)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Then back thru the bridge, down the path, turn right and ... "off to grandma's house" we went. Well, not really - but that's the directions I provide...

There were many swallows flying just above the green surface. I think: OK, I'll try it again. It is a constant challenge to me to try to shoot one of these fast-moving creatures - hey, digital "film" is cheap - "delete, delete, delete"! I got a couple of reasonable pics of a swallow with a bug in its mouth! (Thanks again Janet Hug for teaching me about my camera! - cool trick) Maybe not the best quality, but if I am swirling around like a man possessed, it is sure nice to have something to show for it!

Tree Swallow with d'fly

Really I cannot fathom how any dragonflies can ever survive to maturity! Last year I was going to shoot a fancy d'fly when a female Red-winged Blackbird plucked it mid-air before me.. And now I see swallows like d'flies as well. Easy pickings! Geez! Why eat mosquitoes when these d'fly guys give far more protein for the effort and they have a larger profile? It's no wonder it is hard to shoot the "other flappy things" when their mere survival depends on constant movement! I suspect they would be far better off by just alighting and posing nearby for my pics than by staying in the air with maurading birdies on the loose ... Maybe evolution will give generational benefits to those that pose for "Dr. Bob"?

Judy spied a Great Blue Heron just as I was observing and shooting my first sandpiper of the day. "It has a white head". "Leave me alone, I came for sandpipers" (but I did look long enough to see the head was in the sun and body was in the shade). I had fixated on a Spotted Sandpiper - no spots, but I learned previously from mentor Mike Mencotti that the spotted guy - esp. juveniles - have a distinct white wedge into the shoulder.

Near where the metal bench used to be, we met a nice young woman with an instrument that looked like it was used for core samples and a handful of very enlarged satellite images of the area. I was curious. Sue Tepatti (works for GWE) was performing surveys for the township. She appeared very interested in hearing about the use and history of the park - particularly as it might relate to water management - and she was also very knowledgeable about invasive species at Robert Long. The township seems to be aware. It is SO encouraging that Commerce Twp. continues to recognize the importance of this unique area in Oakland County, Michigan! It was also obvious Sue loves her work. I think they have the right person and consulting firm on the job. I offered to serve as a contact should she need any help from the birding community (No, I am not the expert, but I know who they are for Robert Long). We exchanged contact info.

In the "back bay", the Double-crested Cormorants were in the usual place. One was drying its wings.

Now Judy and I were feeling the heat and humidity. Both were extremely low today compared with what we have been experiencing, but what else could we expect while walking in "water world" but enhanced levels of each? Anyway, time for lunch (Thanks Judy), so we retired to the shelter and set up the spotting scope. After a much needed drink after dehydration (Dr. Pepper), I scanned the mudflats and saw an object of desire - Semi-Palmated Sandpiper. Whew! My eBird Oakland County records for the year now show 101 species! It's the first year I have ever broken 100 species for a county. I say "not bad for a home boy". (Think cheap "staycation")

After Judy's nice lunch, I was hopeful that we might sit awhile and await a Yellowlegs or Least Sandpiper to appear on the flats. It was not to be. Just at the time I finished my lunch, a heavy-set woman with a folding chair walked out onto the mudflats. (Previously, she and her husband had been eating lunch across from us on the path towards the road). She turned around and glared at me - like "why are you watching me with the telescope"? (Well I wasn't - she adequately filled the frame of my normal glasses ...) Then she walked back, collected her husband, and together they walked onto, across and around the remaining mudflat and set up their chairs on the mudflat and commenced afternoon sunning to read their paper and book. Oh well ... at least they were "out in nature" ... I folded the scope and we left. Oddly the "semi-palms" had adjusted, and moved a bit, but were still there. At 6 inches high, it was hard even for us to spot them ("specks are moving"), and Oakland County offers few Sandpiper Buffets, so I suspect anyone who wants record this species will find success even with someone singing (sic) ...

In summary, of the "cool birds" today, we got Spotted and Semi-Palmated Sandpipers. We were disappointed not to see a Red-headed Woodpecker (anyone see one there this year ?). We shot many pics - some of them quite good for us. We had a great "adventure" fairly close to home! Robert Long is a wonderful resource. It is so great it is protected!

Species list from eBird follows. For us amateurs it was really a very decent total (30 species) for the day.

Robert H. Long Park, Oakland, US-MI
Jul 27, 2011 10:15 AM - 12:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.5 mile(s)
Comments: 78-84 degrees; sunny; fairly low humidity

29 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan 6
Wood Duck 1
Mallard X
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 6
Killdeer 30
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 3
Ring-billed Gull 50
Mourning Dove 6
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Eastern Kingbird 2
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 10
Tree Swallow 10
Barn Swallow 20
Black-capped Chickadee 2
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Song Sparrow 2
sparrow sp. 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 20
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 10

2011-06-17 New eBird - much nicer - a common-man review

2011-06-17T19:31:00.007-04:00

2011-06-17 New eBird - much nicer

A couple of days ago I entered eBird to submit a new bird report and found the submittal page had changed. I knew eBird had a beta test going on, and wondered if maybe because I was a subscriber to eBird Tech Talk (a really cool idea of behind-the-scenes action) thay had pushed it on me for trial. I posted a note on the Michigan Birders list that included the question. Only one birder responded. (Thanks Sarah!) Sarah told me that the new eBird data entry had indeed gone live! She agreed that she liked it better.

I am writing now about a great new feature. When you go into "Submit my observations", on the right side you are allowed to select how to present the species list. The default is the new version of the old form. The new version is much cleaner and much easier to use in itself. It much more readily allows scrolling to visually identify the group in which the search object might appear. I had gotten used to the old form and generally had an idea of what bird group preceeded what group. The same order is maintained. Lacking any specific info, I have always assumed it might be partially related to the evolutionary emergence of bird groups. In my case looking for a bird to record, I postulated jays are more ancient that warblers and sparrows, and that doves predeeded both of these groups. Heck, it is my blog, and this is what the eBird organization of groups told me. I would be interested to hear from ornithologists on this...

There are many other enhancements - like in the area of allowing direct species searches - but I really like playing with my quasi-phylogenetic idea right now and just want to know who is before whom.

The really cool thing (!) today is that there is an option on the right side to request the presented list to "Group by Most Likely". An underlying algorithm analyzes your most recent bird submittals, and presents these at the top of the entry page.

WOW! As a faithful procrastinator, I had finally decided to catch up on adding my daily feeders records to eBird. It was a New Year's resolution of mine to keep up with it ... so be it.

Anyway, I added the last two weeks of April, and then wondered about the new grouping thing. Couldn't hurt. WOW! The "Group by Most Likely" put all of my recent records at the top of the submittal screen. Instead of scrolling up and down all over, the most likely were all in one place. This is fantastic for birders mostly recording feeder activity. It is especially fantastic for procrastinators! I can enter a stack of feeder observations over many days (weeks...) without scrolling hardly at all. Yes, I can enter an infrequent visitor easily, but for the main part, I get about the same "dirty dozen" (or so) visiting my feeders day to day.

I already dropped in the first two weeks of May, and had to pause to write this note. I love it! Procrastination actually works sometimes.

Yes, you have to uncheck the box to see the normal entry list (phylogenetic order???) for reporting, but if the majority of your sightings are in the same area it is a blessing.

Here is a pic of the top of the entry screen I see now. Note the "Group by Most Likely" box is checked.

The list goes on to include the rest of birds in Michigan, but I really had to move away from the top only once. Cinchy! These are my normal guys. I already printed off the list so now I can just add numbers and notes daily without writing down my shorthand for each bird's name. (Pretty cool in itself!)

Another really cool feature of the new eBird is that when you enter a number for some species, you are immediately given an option to enter more data. In "the old days", you had to enter quantity data for all species, then you went to a second screen (but only if you had selected "enter more data" on the initial entry screen) to add sex/species comments/etc. info. As a "long-hand" recorder it forced me to go thru my list twice. This is so much easier. Caveat: Yet, for now, this feature is slow in response ... albeit bearable from the "old days" when I might have decided entering additional information was boring. OK, yes, my computer is "small" in RAM memory (2 gB), but I imagine many people have much smaller boxes. Newer computers might not experience the same problems.

Here is a pic of the "Group by Most Likely" with expanded options for additional data:

After you enter all your data, you get a page that said you did it successfully. It also gives you options for sharing. I successfully emailed myself the results. I also shared a recent list from Wetzel when we birded with Janet Hug, and she successfully added it to her eBird account. Janet also successfully shared the Facebook link to our trip by clicking the button.

So far, it has not worked for me to share on FB directly as my FB status after I submitted my data. Maybe I just do not understand. Everything else works fine, and I have email anyway!

Successful submittal page:

Not a bad "ramble" for a day's work! We have a great new tool available!

Go bird. Try the new eBird!

- "Dr. Bob"

2011-06-15 Wetzel SRA (Macomb County), Michigan

2011-06-17T18:08:00.068-04:00

2011-06-15 Wetzel SRA (Macomb County), Michigan
I will probably put more words and pics here later, or at least add other pics to my PBase site. I got lots!

Judy and I had the great fortune to bird with Janet Hug today at Wetzel SRA. We had only met her once before - at Kensington MetroPark - serendipity! - but we have been Facebook friends for a long time. Janet is a really great photographer - especially for birds.

We slowly birded for about 2 1/2 hours and walked a mile and a half (per Judy's inseparable pedometer).

I was really proud to able to put Janet on her first Bobolink of the year. Other birders have done that for me ("do you have a whazzit?") on many occasions, but this was my first time leading the way. Better yet, the Bobolink came with a matched pair - even I got great pics of both the posing male and the much harder female! The male kept up antics - including overhead aerial when a nest is nearby - to draw attention away from the family. Once we figured out we were near the nest location, we shot a few pics and left them to their normal activities.

Singing male Bobolink

Janet's pics will be much better. I just felt really proud I could put her on the exact spot for the Bobolinks (must be the name - smile...) she needed this year.

In addition, Janet had brought her iPod, so when we saw a brief glimpse of a dinky bird at the edge of the pond, she could play and verify the lovely song of her lifer Marsh Wren we were hearing. High fives! What a lovely gurgling wren song! Lacking Aaron Copeland, anyone have ideas of an extant classical music composer to whom to suggest the song as an adapted inclusion in a musical score?

My "lifer" companion, photo-biographer, and general love of my life - Judy - took a pic of Janet and me at the start of our walk.

Judy took another on the trails. It is fantastic that DNR keeps the main trails mowed but does not mess with the natural habitat! In my experience locally, Wetzel is truly unique! We are in the Savannah Sparrow habitat. Bobolinks are just "aways down the road". You might notice the fact Janet has her pant legs tucked into her socks. We do as well. Our normal protocol at Wetzel is to "tuck and spray" lower extremities with DEET as a tick barrier. It is not a big deal, but it is easy and helps.

The Bobolinks were in the same area as last week , but a different specific location. It leads me to suspect that there at least two breeding pairs there this year. We started at "6", and the Bobolinks were at "3". Round trip was 1.5 miles. Last week they were between "3" and "4".

We were lucky enough to get pics of both the posing male, and the feeding female. We watched the female with bug in mouth - probably a dragonfly - checking out several locations before heading back to the nest. My guess is that she wanted something for everyone. On many occasions I have seen my "deck birds" stuff their cheeks before leaving. Maybe a big family is why? I suspect Momma Bobolink was just trying to make sure everyone would get something. She tried (bug in mouth) in at least 4 spots before heading to the nest. Fascinating! I think if I ever wanted to take home a dragonfly for the kids, I would take one first, and then go back out for more for the others. On the other hand, I am not sure what I would do faced with gaping mouths and no knife or ability to wield one to slice my catch. Certainly I would not want to give my kids the impression of playing favorites! "Sorry 'Bobeeta', 'Junior' eats first!" Well there were plenty of d'flies, so I am sure "every-bob" got fed! :)

Female Bobolink with d'fly food for kids

The most abundant bird was the Savannah Sparrow. We must have seen at least two dozen, and were quite amazed at the morphological variations we observed.

- insert Savannah pics -

Oh! Not to forget other "flappy things". Lots of dragonflies and many butterfly species. I think dragonflies must be the preferred food of the blackbird family - which includes Bobolinks - who would have thought about birds eating dragonflies? OK, I can see the resemblance between Bobolinks and RWBB. Learning am I!

I well remember watching a dragonfly last year at Holland Ponds and waiting for it to land so I could get a pic, when a female Red-winged Blackbird caught it in the air and took off. I wonder about the "ode guys" (dragonfly catchers) with big nets trying to catch dragonflies when a bird with essentially tweezers (i.e., bill) can catch them in mid-air. Now THAT would be a pic! I can just imagine a cartoon of good buddy Darrin O'Brien chasing "odes" with tweezers. Ha!

OK, Darrin, here are a few for you to ID for me. I am calling them all "clearwing dragons" because I can see right thru the wings. For communication reference I named them all myself. I'll update after you have a look.

Note: I just updated the photos with the right names per Darrin's IDs - Thanks Darrin! Not a true "Clearwing" in the bunch - so much for my naming efforts... I must have been thinking about the Hummingbird Clearwing I shot on the next trip - but that was a butterfly ... OK, now I can see it - or see thru it as the case may be - clear wings are rare in b'flies, but too common in d'flies to mean anything. Interesting!

Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa) - I called it Yellow-striped abdomen clearwing

Common Whitetail (Libellula lydia) - I called it Rocky Clearwing

Per my reference, this looks like an immature male. Interesting that I thought it was a totally different species than the abundant bulky white-tailed things that are so common there.

Dot-tailed Whiteface (Leucorrhinia intacta) - I called it Yellow-butt-dot Clearwing

We had a wonderful day, and can't wait to bird with Janet again. Great fun! Not only that, but she again showed me a new trick with my camera. I actually read my camera booklet, but never knew what some things meant in practice. I have been too complacent just getting a pic to possibly adjust to get a better pic - and obviously need help. (Thanks Janet! My Clay-colored Sparrow pics a couple days later benefited greatly!)
Wetzel is an amazingly unspoiled natural place so relatively near us. I highly recommend any local birders to visit the Wetzel "Friends" website, and if you are a Facebook user, to "Like" them (link on the referenced page). Community support for such unspoiled places is essential to guarantee perpetuity - especially in these hard economic times.

We anticipate birding with Janet again soon.

What fun!!!

Note: Rob Golda (Hiking Michigan) made a great map for Wetzel SRA. Another fantastic addition to Wetzel was the recent posting of trail maps by the Michigan DNR (per my photo above) on posts at trail branches so you can see where your are and where you might want to travel. We really appreciated these - thanks DNR!!! Between Rob's map and the DNR signposts, it is really easy to navigate! Check it out!

Michigan Prothonotary Warblers and Great-Crested Flycatchers!

2011-06-04T00:26:00.005-04:00

2011-06-03 West Bloomfield Birding - OC Nesting Prothonotary Warblers

Following postings of Oakland County Prothonotary Warblers on the Southeast Michigan Birders list, our friend and mentor Ed Lewandowski called us up and asked if we wanted to bird with him. He knew it was perfect "Setzer birding" - that is: it was local, nice weather was predicted, a rest facility was available if needed, and there was a decent chance of seeing new birds. Ed knows us well. Sure; yes, yes, yes! What a great teacher and mentor. Thanks again Ed!

I also offer many thanks to Leslie, Kathy, and Mike for pin-pointing the location and increasingly accurate directions on the "Michigan Birders list" and for "firing Ed up"!

First to set the stage:

Last night Judy and I were walking/birding around Streamwood. Birding was not great - too many leaves! After awhile, we just really enjoyed sitting on our neighbors' deck and chatting awhile while watching the forest. We told Gary and Linda we were going out tomorrow with a friend to see a Prothonotary Warbler. (Geez. This does not look like much in print - but just try saying Pro-tho-no-tary Warbler (wrong!) or Pro-THON-o-tary Warbler (correct). And say it in mixed company. Well, anyway, off goes Linda - bending her recently hurting neck looking at imaginary birds in the forest behind her home! Fun!

It was very significant to me! I realized that with a straight face I had said something that was always very strange sounding thing to me before, and a source of humor. I spoke the names of fanciful - yet real - birds. I realized that I now must have fallen into the very strange - almost sci-fi - world of being a "birder"! I talked some "weird talk". Whew! Am I "are one" now? Guess so ...

So back to the story.

Not only did we get the advertised Prothonotary Warbler, but we saw (and I photographed!) a pair together. And we saw their nest hole. Yes! They are nesting in Oakland County! We had seen them at Magee Marsh (Ohio) last year and also this year and marveled at their beauty, but this was a Michigan lifer. I think it was also one for Ed - certainly an Oakland County lifer! Whee!

Not only a Prothonotory Warblet (amazing in itself), but a great pic!!

A pair of the most fantastic warblers. In love - in Michgan!

Prothonotary Warbler eats blue dragonfly

Not only the pair of Prothonotary Warblers, but also a Great Crested Flycatcher talked to us incessently and posed for pics! This was only the second time I saw one, and the first time I had really good looks. Great indeed!

There were lots of other birds as well, including a Hairy Woodpecker feeding young in another dead tree. Alas, it was too far away for pics, but we could see a small head occasionally pop out of the hole.

In addition to birds, we saw a snapping turtle on the path, many butterflies, and more species of dragonflies (bird food) than we have ever seen at one place before.

Incessant talker!

OK - just an amazing shot of a Great Crested Flycatcher in flight!

Geez! What deck talk this will make!!! (Yes, I think "I are one" - a birder ...). Makes for interesting - albeit bizarre - conversations with regular folks. Thanks Linda for understanding, and being so knowledgeable as to put on a great charade to exemplify what birders must look like! I do hope your neck is OK! Fun! And, it was all true.

Then we went to Drayton Plains to see Mike Mencotti's Common Moorhen (more good deck talk,and another local lifer), but without location specifics and with the flightieness of birds, we "dipped" = birder talk for we missed it. We walked the whole circuit around the ponds there. From its distinctive song, I added a Common Yellowthroat to my OC life list.

I plan to drop a bunch more pics on this blog (or more likely on my PBase site) later, but for now just want to get the initial story "out there". Ed has always been our "lucky charm" for local lifers, and indeed we seem to do likewise for him. Fantastic day!

Directions:
Go to the West Bloomfield Woods Nature Preserve and Trail Network. This is off Arrowhead Road just south of Pontiac Trail. We parked in the main lot and walked across Arrowhead to a newly opened gravel trail on the bed of the former Grand Trunk Railroad. As Leslie and Mike had indicated, the Prothonotaries were about a couple hundred yards down the trail. Ed was surprised to see that a formerly closed area was now open for hikers/bikers and birders. I was personally amazed that I found an alternative to our beloved Holland Ponds, and that it seems to have far more diversity and potential than Holland. Great day indeed! It will also be fun on return visits to explore the park itself.

Most Michiganders have no idea what it is like to live without easy access to public lands within a suburban environment (...says the guy from California ...). "Backyard birding". Magee Marsh may concentrate migrating birds, and the Prothonotary Warblers are often the birds people remember best, but they are nesting right here in Oakland County! Go local!

Thanks Ed!!! And thanks all for the inspiration and references from the list that started this fantastic day!!

Go Bird! Go local!
- "Dr, Bob"

May 2011 Ohio Trip

2011-06-03T20:01:00.000-04:00

2011-May 08-09 Northwest Ohio - Magee Marsh and Metzger Marsh

This was the most amazing ever trip to the area. We actually went during "The Biggest Week in America Birding". Despite the crowds we avoided last year - we hate crowds - we really benefitted greatly from the combined talent of local and international guides as well as the expertise of "just regular" birders. Next year we will again go during the most crowded week. Wherever and whenever else can you harness the expertise of so many birders at one time.

I have hundreds of pics to process before I fill out this blog, but needed to drop it in now as a "placeholder" ... Stay tuned ...

Spring 2011 - Local Birding in Southeast Michigan

2011-05-28T22:13:00.000-04:00

(Pics enroute ... come back again)

Interestingly, today Judy and I walked locally at Streamwood and one of our friends (and correspondent) kiddingly said "how can I know what you actually saw when you never post photos anymore"? Ya, sure - point taken.

I am quite embarassed I have not posted since February. This has been the best spring for birding around here ever in my short birding life! Yes, I have been meaning to update my blog, and I am really embarrased! I am really been proud of the fact I have a blog and that many people like it. Thanks so much! Here is my start.

Yes, it has been a great spring! What to do? Work on my hundreds of pics, and try to find words to express my excitement and joy at dozens of new lifers, or go birding? I guess y'all know my choice. I have been "doing" rather than writing. I have often posted sightings and "rambles" on the southeast Michigan birder's listserv, but my postings have done nothing for this blog.

Now the darn leaves are out, and the heat and humidity return. Maybe it is a good time to catch up.

The greatest thing about this spring was that the temperatures were cool (like a high in 50's on a good day). While we enjoyed non-freezing temps and got out birding, the plants did not have enough warmth to go "all out". It is the first time I remember migratory birds arriving before the leaves. I guess they must have had a few bugs to eat enroute to their final destinations, but I am sure the bugs were not in normal quantities. All the better for us I suspect! No leaves, lingering migrants needing more food before continuing north, and few 'skeeters - whew! Great spring for birding for humans and photographers!

We also followed the recommendation of a scruffy man we met at Beaudette Park this winter while we were observing the diving ducks that concentrate there in open water when local lakes are frozen. We normally just go to Beaudette to see the ducks, and when they leave, so do we. Scruffy man (cloaked in winter hair camo) said Beaudette Park is great for warblers during migration. Try it. OK, fine ...

Well he was right! He also said that he often sat on a picnic table overlooking the forest and could see warblers. Right again!

We were so lucky to see two birders at Beaudette Park when we made our initial spring visit this year. We watched them surveying the trees, and respectfully paused in approach, and they waved us to come in. It turns out our "winter friend" - now clean-shaven and no longer looking homeless - remembered us. "Dr. Bob and Judy". Easy for him - we did not look much different except for lighter jackets, and one of his birding friends is named Judy. Huh? Eventually a few synapses fired and I remembered the now-shaven Bill from our winter walks. This time he had his friend Gordon (another excellent birder) with him.

It did not look like they were seeing much until they said "look there" and named a bird. Sure enough! Again and again!

Eventually I "got into it" and offered places to look. They always knew the name of the bird. On a rare occasion or two (a "rattling" Baltimore Oriole for one), I could actually point out a good one for them before they saw it. Synergy!

So much fun! So many new local lifers!

We also birded other local places.

<< add places, lists, pics >>

On my own, I saw and shot a Black-throated Green Warbler right here at Streamedge!

<< add pic>>

Another highlight was definitely meeting Kevin Rysiewski at Stoney Creek. We met him near the lake down the path heading west from the parking area by North Dam. It overlooked where I had proposed to Judy over a decade before, and actually is a good fishing spot! Kevin - also a fisherman - confirmed the fishing idea. Needless to say, my best catch was recorded there! It was I who hooked the best!

<< add sightings, pics>>

Anyway, Kevin suggested we try the mountain bike trails at West Branch of Stoney Creek and told of wonderful birds to seek. We did so.

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I later suggested to Kevin that he join the Michigan Birder's listserv. He did so. He has become an amazing contributor to "the list", providing not only bird records, but also specific mile-markers at West Branch, Stoney Creek where they were sighted. Not only has he become an important contributor to "the list", but also a wonderful resource to Stoney Creek Metro Park in compiling a species list. Great "kid"!!! It is so nice to see Stoney Creek MP recognized as a great birding hotspot in our area! Based on the Nature Center area, we always thought it quite boring, but we never walked the West Branch trails before Kevin suggested it.

I am so happy to report as I age: "And a child shall lead them"! (I think Kevin is in his 20's - still a "kid" to me...). I proudly acknowledge this now as I age; yet I was - and sometimes still am - a great teacher. I find that I am learning so much from my juniors these days. And I am so proud to have the "kids" recognize me as a colleague (if you will) or at least as a birder to be befriended. What a great community this birding endeavor breeds!

Thinking here specifically about Kevin (but appropriate to many more "kids" who help us), Kevin tolerated my slower walking pace. In a way, it really did not hurt "the hunt" much. I seem to have learned that the more you slow down and wait, the more birds will come to you (hey - a "lesson"). But I remember specifically that Kevin (who knows the trails at West Branch so well) told us "there is just one more hill, then it is all down hill". Thanks! I needed that! What had started as a projected less than 2 mile flat walk had turned into about 4.5 miles on the "mid-difficulty" trails at West Branch. Whew! Yet, I doubt Kevin ever knew that when we started following him.

To our birder friends I say, if you ever pick us up along the way, or ever choose to take us with you from the start, we will go as far as we will. We have the choice to disconnect if we need to, yet we will continue to push forward. Our most memorable experiences have come by pushing ourselves. I tend to call us "fair weather birders" - and might add "lazy" sometimes. Yet, we will follow your lead when available!

Following Kevin on the trails was great. Just after the comment of "one more hill", I caught my first ever sighting of a Barred Owl in the wild! Similarly, walks with other birders always offered more new species after a time we might have normally quit on our own.

Gotta love "kids"!

Sure, even Allen Chartier is a "kid" compared to me. Certainly my buddy Ed Lewandowski; my mentor Jerry Jourdan; Darrin O'Brien; Janet "Kissin Hugs"; Cathy Carroll; Chris Goulart; so many more - sorry if I forgot anyone... just rambling ... Y'all push me and indeed I need it!

But when talking "kids", of course James Fox, Harold Eyster, Sarah Toner, Andy Johnson - many more? WOW - real "kids"! Someday I want to bird with them! Hey, kids, lead me!

It is so wonderful to have inspirations! At this point in my life, I know I can never achieve what I might have done before, but I am so delighted that it seems like I have teachers and inspirations everywhere. Yes, and often a child shall lead!

Anyway, I dispersed a few pics throughout this "ramble" and I hope you like.

And, once again, I thank all my mentors, friends and "kids" for the inspiration to share my "ramble"!

2011-02-04 Winter visitors photographed on a rare sunny day!

2011-02-05T21:06:00.001-05:00

2011-02-04 Dutton and Lapeer Roads

Judy and I went back yesterday to the place off Dutton Road that Ed made us start visiting. We were wondering if any birds were still around after the large snowfall this week. Judy always thinks of what the birdies do when there is a big snowfall.

We were in luck. The flock was much smaller than we previously saw there. Instead of about 100 individuals, it was now about like two dozen. But the great news was that all three winter visitors were present!

It was full sun. My "cheap" Canon DSLR only seems to get decent renditions when it is sunny. Judy's Kodak always seems to work just fine. I will always wonder...

Anyway, the lighting and pics were great. I can now add some decent pics of the three major "winter visitors" to my blog. Also in playing with my pics, I also found out that now I have a "birdie foot fetish". Allen Chartier commented on an earlier photo of mine that it showed the long curved hind toe that gives the Longspur its name. So now I gotta look at birdie feet. Hey - it turns out quite fascinating. Check them footsies out.

Lapland Longspur

The related Snow Buntings also have long spur as well. (Note I said related ...)

Snow Bunting

I am starting to think of the spiked "ice creepers" some fishermen use ... On the other hand, I also think about nuthatches, titmice, and others that I know have curved hind toes. Each is for a specific adaptive reason, so now I just gotta pursue my new fetish.

Horned Lark - showing horns

The foot thing with Larks is different. Interesting. I did notice that they were in a different family than the Longspurs and Buntings. Maybe this is one reason? Maybe pursuing my birdie foot fetish may shed some light on bird families as well as environmental adaptations. Always learning ...

Horned Lark - showing straight hindtoe

Anyway, just wanted to share my really great pics (if I do say so myself...) with everyone.

2011-01-26 Lapland Longspurs in Oakland County

2011-01-27T20:22:00.041-05:00

2011-01-26 Lapland Longspurs and other rare winter birds off Dutton Road

Darn (well ... I really mean bless!) Ed Lewandowski! I had just settled down for a short winter's nap and Ed called to tell me that he had just seen Lapland Longspurs (Monday, 2011-01-24) at the spot where previously I had seen his Snow Buntings. I immediately recognized the name of a bird we had never seen ("lifer" in bird-speak) - all the while thinking in my waking moment "Where the heck is Lapland?" It's not as easy as you might think. I knew Scandinavians had something to do with it, but different countries seem to lay claim. Since the Finland tourism agency pays for the top ad on Google, I guess they win. I do think they have really cool costumes in Finland. I guess if I lived there I would have a really cool costume as well - just to stay warm! Hey, sounds like birds to me ... they all have evolutionarily-expensive down jackets. Even the more "southerly" Michigan birds have down jackets! I suspect if we were "street people" only those of us with good winter coatings (and a good food source) would survive here.

And what is a long spur anyway? I guess it must have something to do with the birds foot - spur, get it? I have not pursued it yet.

So up I get, and off I go. Ed knew it was a "lifer" for me and he always knows how to get my attention with a quick call telling me of a nearby bird. What a wonderful friend!

The weather was overcast with light snow. In other words it was not very good for photos. But I was rewarded with a large flock of Snow Buntings and a few Horned Larks. On my prior trip to this spot I had seen and photographed a single Snow Bunting (a "lifer" then) with the Horned Larks and that was exciting enough. Snow Buntings are beautiful birds. Now I saw a bunch of Snow Buntings. Indeed beautiful!

Because of less than decent pics, I doubted the Longspurs I saw and photographed Monday - until today (Wednesday, 2011-01-26). In comparing my pics from today with the pics from Monday, I found - indeed - I had shot a couple of Longspurs feeding with the Horned Larks at the back of the area. Cool! I can now recognize the differences between some of the very rare "drop in birds" from up north.

So after my initiation and original frustration to the presence of fin birds (I always thought that somehow birds were related to fishes - I think maybe somehow involving an evolution thru herps ...), I returned each day this week.

Yesterday (Tuesday) there were no Longspurs present in the brief 20 minutes time I was there, but the flock of Snow Buntings was now in the order of 80 birds. Simply incredible! Today I believe a second smaller flock joined them so the Snow Buntings now number over 90 birds.

I am so happy with the Snow Bunting pics I have processed so far.

Flocking Snow Buntings - how pretty!

Snow Buntings doing breast stroke! Incredible!

I am really amazed at this lucky pic. Over the last year, I took many pics that look like many different individual birds were being shot into dart boards, but never several at the same time. Now I finally understand. Some bird species "do the breast stroke" as they are flying. They are cutting the air very similar to how we cut the water when we do a breast stroke. OMG! I surely wish I had such muscles in my chest! Or ever did for that matter! Maybe I could have been a "water bird" to show off before female friends! Flap - push thru medium - glide as a bullet. Repeat as necessary. Geez! It happens so fast we never even see it with birds! They just kind of look like they are constantly flapping.

Gorgeous birds! Another lucky shot.

Off we go into the wild grey yonder ...

Hey! Food here! Come on in!

I am not really sure about "the story" on how Longspurs relate to Snow Buntings or Horned Larks. On Monday, the Longspurs were hanging out with the dozen Horned Larks in the rear of the area. They did not fly off much. On Tuesday and Wednesday the Horned Larks (again about a dozen) fed for quite awhile, then went off to sit on the retaining wall. The Longspurs were not with them. I was even using my Christmas binocs!

Horned Larks are much less spooky than Buntings. I do not know about Longspurs, I have never seen any Longspurs on the wall. Where did they go?

So far I think I have seen that the Snow Buntings have two flocks at Dutton. The largest one has about 80 individuals and is "pure". The second one has about 20 buntings and the longspurs seem to join it as they like. Sometimes they "flock off" together, but I am guessing that the longspurs are not very loyal to the flock. I really wonder when the longspurs detach and do their own thing!

From postings on the UM Birders and Ohio birders lists it seems that Lapland Longspurs are a regular rare minority within flocking buntings and I just can't help but to think maybe they opportunistically join either larks or buntings as they will. (Not that this makes any sense when thinking of a bird from "up north". I would certainly want to make the long flight with buddies ...) So many questions...

Buntings fly in together, eat briefly and take to the skies. In 20 minutes they might do this several times. Often they fly a quick loop and return. Sometimes they just go away. Their flight is such a marvelous sight with their contrasting wing patterns! I wonder how the tidbits they grab so briefly justifies the energy expended in flying in and out so often!

Horned Larks do not seem to be triggered by whatever drives the flocking buntings. Here I think about my deck birds. House Sparrows come in, eat, and leave almost instantly like the Snow Buntings. I have learned from birders that flocking has this distinct advantage. Bird paranoia triggered by probably one individual. With so many birds, some bird is always looking in every direction. Quick! I saw a possible bird-eater! Flee! Dumb trigger bird probably forced the flock to use up all the calories they ate in the last minute? Well, it seems to work well, so who am I to second guess?

Horned Larks - the right one is definitely horned!

Mourning Doves on our deck will just sit there when the flockers flee until I approach the window, and even then will not leave until I approach further and smile at them. Maybe that is why Mourning Doves are so much bigger and fatter than Snow Buntings or House Sparrows? To me at this moment Horned Larks are the Mourning Doves of winter migrants. They eat - then just go sit on the wall until they get hungry. Yet, I tend to wonder why they are not larger... So many questions ...

Anyway, back to the story. The Dutton Road place Ed set up is just a fantastic gift to all local birders. It is perfect. I am normally not willing to leave the house in the dead of winter except for sure things - like needing groceries - and this spot is a sure thing. Barring "weather" - I mean scary roads or bad visiblity for my camera - I plan to go there often while the property is "Ed-tended". It is like having my deck feeder yet away from home where I can sit in my car and watch birds in my new backyard! I am warm. I am happy. I see fantastic birds! What more could I want?

I tried on my first visit to get out of the car to take pics of the Horned Larks. Just then a flock of Snow Buntings (then they were my lifers) flew in. They made some of the cute bunting noises I have heard since ("Let's get the heck outta here") and left me quite disappointed. My brief out-of-focus wing shots gave me enough confidence to call my lifer bunting for eBird.

I persisted in revisiting, knowing that Ed was ensuring the vistations. This has been one of the most memorable experiences of my birding life. I know exactly where to go. I know for sure that if I sit there for 20 to 30 minutes, a flock of buntings will drop in - normally several times. I love the wonderful colors and patterns of Snow Buntings on the ground and in flight. I will not pull the scope out of the trunk when it is freezing, nor do I need it here. I certainly will return again and again when I think there is an excellent chance of seeing birds that are normally found so much farther up north. Ed was the main person who got me into using eBird and I just recorded three species for Oakland County I will never see again before next winter. Great "car-birding"!

Suggestion: do NOT get out of your car. I suspect the birds are becoming accustomed to cars, but not moving people. I learned this last week - they flew in, saw me, flew off, and never returned for the twenty minutes I stayed there.

I have over 1000 pics I took there. I am still processing them. I'll eventually add them to my Pbase site, but just wanted to share highlights now. I set the camera to bracket my shots so I have three shots for each one! Bracket means the camera shoots one at original setting, then one at a "stop" darker and a "stop" brighter. Yes, most will be deleted. The most frustrating thing is that when I shoot the three pics almost simultaneously, most often the best pose is not the one with the best lighting. So goes frustration.

Oh - and the Lapland bird? This really has been fun. Just seeing the lifer bird was great. Looking at the pics was fun. Quizzing Judy from the pics was even more fun. She knows what it is. She remembers looking for it along the road in all the freshly-manured fields last year and this year as we visited relatives in mid-Michigan. We never saw one. I realize now it was an impossible quest - espacially at highway speeds! Heck, I can drive up to the Dutton Road site and still never see any birds until I stop the car and pull out a lens to focus on the "spots" there. I guess it is like most birding - birds are always hidden by natural camo, and the main indication of presence for something on which to focus is triggered by seeing flight and landing. Anyway, quizzing Judy was fun. It takes her awhile as it does for me. Her best answer was a Laplong Landspur. She knows what it is, but until you get one yourself it does not stick very well. It's all fun! Now she knows it.

Here are a few pics. I suspect that James, Darlene and others got much better pics with their better lenses and look forward to seeing them soon, but I am just so happy I had a chance to "be there then"! Yes, the Lapland Longspur is quite different than a Horned Lark.

Lapland Longspur and Snow Buntings

Lapland Longspur and Snow Bunting

Lapland Longspur and Snow Buntings

What fun!!!

And for y'all on the UM Birders list, refer to Ed's posting this week. Ed made this whole story possible. Thanks so much Ed...

2011-01-21 Beaudette Swans a' Swimming

2011-01-27T17:58:00.005-05:00

2011-01-21 Beaudette Swans - Three Species!

On the advice of my good birding friend Ed Lewandowski, I went to Beaudette Park in Pontiac today to see the swans. Last year Judy and I were rewarded with decent looks at Trumpeter Swans and especially rewarded with their trumpets blaring - confirming the identifications. We had to walk thru the snow and beat a trail to the point where all the swans were congregated then and thought we had a decent ID of a Tundra Swan, but the pics were not good.

This year was much better. It even allowed "car birding" which was nice in the frigid temps and even more frigid wind chills. Most of the water at Beaudette was frozen. The only open water was east of the boat launch and the birds were all concentrated near the shore. I was delighted that all three species of swans were there. I was even more delighted that they were so close that identification and a confirming photographic record worked well.

I have been having fun playing with my pics. I have decent photos of the birds sideways and front-on. Both views together really help with positive IDs. For awhile I had to flip back and forth in my bird books to see what characteristics were stressed. It was much easier this year than last! I had captured the salient features.

I also remembered that last year Bruce Bowman had offered a summary table of swan characteristics to the UM Birders listserv. I found the list in my files. It well summarized what I had been trying to do with my "flipping". I think I had been trying to make (and was close to making) the same list in my mind. I found it quite interesting that Bruce often commented "must be near to see this feature" - this is very true. Also to get a decent pic showing the feature!
Anyway, with confidence, I now happy to report I shot all three species this year. I am still not sure about the juvenile. It seems to have a "V" over the bill, but it hung out more with the Tundra Swans, so I am going with familial connections.

My intent here is to post pics on this blog entry with all the salient features to complement Bruce's summary table. I think I have covered most of them with my pics.

FIX - (Many pics to go - pics here are just starters ...) (I now need drop a blog on the Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs with which I have been occupied since, then I'll come back)

Adult and juvenile Tundra Swan

"My Three Swans" (unfortunately not three species...) - Tundra Swans

Tundra Swan (nicely shows yellow patch near eye)

Trumpeter and Mute

Tundra and Trumpeter

I thank my buddies: Ed (for telling me about the swans and forcing me to get out of the house!) and Bruce (for always being helpful, and for the great summary table).

Hey, even in winter, birding does not have to be so hard. With good friends and good luck it all comes together. Go car-bird!

2011-01-08 "Squirrel tree'd a cat" and Snow Bunting pics

2011-01-10T21:31:00.003-05:00

2011-01-08
Happy New Years Y'all!

I use the southern contraction and inflection because Judy and I started our year with black-eyed peas on New Year's Day as always. This tradition started for me in Texas in the 50's when the entire neighborhood went over to our drunk neighbor salesman's apartment on New Year's Day to eat his black-eyed peas. He welcomed visitors and kept the pea (actually they are beans) pot on all day. The adults got more than the peas, but everyone could walk home so it was cool. Mom and Dad never drank much (if at all) anyway. I will always remember this guy because when I was a child he gave me samples of what he was selling. I got lots of empty cans (with lids even) and boxes of grocery items. These were free fun playthings. I wish I had a few today. They were just like the real products, but empty. Mom always kept the tradition going. My brother and I have always done likewise. You are supposed to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck throughout the year. I have no idea what might happen if I do not eat them, but why mess with the "Balance of Energy in the Universe"? (My term for a philosophy I have). I admit that life has often been more challenging sometimes than what I want -especially lately- but I just cannot imagine what might happen without black-eyed peas! Life is good! Keep the balance!

Fully intestinally functionally (the peas start you off right - pardon me, but you gotta get your s**t together), we started 2011 with sightings of Horned Larks and a flock of Snow Buntings at a local Oakland County site referred to us by our good friend and birding lucky charm Ed Lewandowski. Thanks again Ed!
What a great way to start the new year! These birds only come down to our area during winter and are hard to get for my new list keeping. (I note I am a firm believer in eBird - not only does it allow me to maintain personal records, but it also helps Cornell University to compile an impressive database of the birds in the USA!)

I got some great views (great mental pics - snap, snap, snap) of Snow Buntings through my new Christmas binoculars (Thanks Judy!!!), but by the time I had exchanged the binocs for my camera, they were spooked by a car and left.

It was a great New Year's Day (if I exclude the football losses by the two Michigan teams I recorded while we were birding. I purposefully did not listen to any news or scores after we got back so I could watch the games, but wound up deleting both of them before halftime).

Anyway the 2011 story continues.

Friday January 8 was a great day!

The story starts while I was having morning coffee. Judy came down fresh from her shower, and with wet hair was starting to get on her coat to go outside. "Why?", I asked. "There is a squirrel in the tulip tree and a black cat hiding in the bushes. I am going to scare the cat away."
Without belaboring a point, I mentioned that it was in the low teens outside and the squirrel could take care of itself. She finally accepted that.

Not too long after, I noticed that the cat was in the tree and the squirrel was nowhere to be seen. Did the cat get the squirrel? Were Judy's concerns realized? Nope. Now the cat was "tree'd". And no, I was not about to call the fire department to help out a feral cat that eats my birds!
It soon got much better. The black squirrel ran all the way from the back of the yard, climbed the tree with the cat in it and just taunted the heck out of him. The squirrel actually went up and down the tree several times, then also went up and down the adjacent tree - all of the time staring at the tree'd cat with the cat staring back. This went on for about 15 minutes. What fun! I almost "busted a gut" laughing at the cat's situation. "Come and get me you stupid cat!"

The cat was frozen. After the squirrel tired of the game, he ran back across the yard to his buddies. He and two other black squirrels raced each other up and down trees in the back for sometime. I can only assume he was relaying his adventure and they were laughing all the way!
Once the squirrel left and the cat got over its initial fear, it worked its way down the tree with short calculated leaps from branch to branch and eventually backed down the main trunk and dropped to the ground. This took quite a long time. Then, the cat made a beeline (catline?) for the squirrels in the back. Or so I thought ...

What I did not realize was that there was another - larger, darker-colored - black cat in the vicinity. It chased the formerly tree'd cat to the back while the squirrels went up their favorite trees. The cat formerly known as "Tree'd" went up a tree in the back with the larger cat in hot pursuit after him. I guess the new name of the cat in discussion here could now be "Tree'd Two" and qualify as a potential cat rapper. I have no idea if he ever got down from there, but his more experienced chaser very quickly backed down the tree and left and I got bored. Exciting morning!

Anyway, y'all expect some birdie talk here. I was just so happy that a feral birdie villain was subjected to some ultimate humility (intra- and inter-species!) I wanted to share.

In the afternoon, we went back to the Lark/Bunting location and I finally got a few decent pics. So here's the pics:

Horned Lark flies in for landing

Snow Bunting flies in and Horned Lark decides to belly-ski (a nice term for "crashes").
Good example of distracted flying! Do birdies text? Or maybe he was just looking at a fancy new bird for the flock. Wow! ... Huh?

Here are more pics of Snow Buntings and Horned Larks. These are really cool birds! (Well actually they ARE really COOL birds; we do not see them except in the winter. List them now or wait for next winter ...)

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked my first "ramble" of 2011! Hey, if you did, please comment on this post or email me at doctorbass@att.net and I will put your name in the drawing for an autographed copy of a first edition of my first book. (Hey, Bob Tarte, look out! Well - maybe not immediately ...)

Happy New Year!
"Dr. Bob"

2010-12-04 Local Bald Eagles at Stoney Creek MP

2010-12-07T19:23:00.009-05:00

2010-12-04 Local Bald Eagles at Stoney Creek Metro Park!

Judy and I went to Stoney Creek Metro Park today to look for the Bald Eagles reported by park naturalist Mark Szabo on the Michigan birders listserv. (Hey, Mark, please do this more often!) We checked out the northern lake (we parked at Ridgewood and walked down to the lake) and saw more "hoodies" (Hooded Mergansers) than we could count and "ticked off" (birder term for "added") Common Mergansers on my Macomb list for the year. No eagles. We were there about 1 pm when the siren test went off - as well as the birds. It was amazing to see a "skyful" (I just love the sound of this - "skyful") of mergansers. They circled the small north lake about three or four times (hey, that was pretty cool!) before they left - mostly heading toward the main lake. Interestingly we did not ever see them on the main lake although we stopped at most of the access sites. So where did they go? A few "hoodies" returned fairly soon to the northern lake, but what of the rest? Darn birds just go wherever they want! I used to read the Hardy Boys when I was growing up, but at least the author gave hints to allow me a chance to solve the mystery. I guess I need quite a few more decades of experience before I could even begin to solve the bird mystery books.

Flying Mergansers

We checked a few places and finally at Winter Cove saw an eagle flying past the island toward the boat launch. Thinking I saw it in some distant trees, I pulled out the scope. I was wrong - just another "vegetative bird" (that's what I call the impelling shapes in the trees that cause me to think I see something of interest and shoot photos just in case). Just then a "black dot" emerged in the distance past the tree. Finally I got the scope on it. Whew! It's very hard working a scope to see a moving target even without freezing fingers! Eventually I snapped a great mental photo thru the scope - perfect - a Stoney Bald Eagle! Lovely bird! Scopes are great for detail! (I just wish I could plug a USB connect from my brain to a computer!)

I did get a couple of identifiable regular pics - not great, but you can easily tell it's the mature eagle.

Shortly thereafter, we also saw a large immature Bald Eagle fly right over our heads! I guess this accounts for the second one that Mark reported.

Now it gets more interesting. We stopped at the Shorefishing Parking to see if anything besides the few hundred coots we saw from the road were present. No. Just lots of scattered coots (note that I said scattered). The tree behind the coots is where the Eagle eventually landed.

Just as we were back at the car with cameras packed and ready to warm up and leave, we saw the eagle fly in to take a few passes at the coots. Wow. Quick! Out of the car, into the trunk. Cameras out. Shoot, shoot, shoot! Recognizing the serendipitous moment and fully knowing it was transient, I just started taking pics. The coots were behind the berm so I had no idea what was happening there, but I just wanted a better shot of the eagle. After several pics, I again hooked up my camera harness and we walked towards the scene. By then most of the action was over. Have y'all ever heard me say "luck"? Yes. Wonderful luck again. I got a decent shot or two of the eagle, and even more interestingly, had the opportunity to watch it harassing the unseen coots. Well, I call it harassing. I suspect the eagle had much more - like a meal - on its mind. Oh, I just wish it had all happened five minutes earlier when we were standing on Shorefishing Point with a clear view of the action. But maybe our mere presence would have caused it not to happen. "You never know". And I am so happy that we were privileged to see the eagle in action. What a gift! What luck.

The eagle eventually went off empty-taloned to its "regular tree".

After we reached the road/berm and the eagle had given up after four or five futile passes at the coots, it was quite fascinating to see how the coots had responded! The previously widely-scattered coots had tightly bunched up. It reminded me of why fish pack together tightly when a predator is in the vicinity. Maybe a fish-eating killer whale with a wide mouth scoop could claim a gigantic meal, but normally predator fish need to focus on a bite at a time. They especially pick off the wounded ones (hence the importance for fishermen for "working" their lures...) Clustering protects the flocking/school. Oh how I wish I had seen all of the action! Now I am really curious if the coots (diving ducks by nature) all dove simultaneously (splash!) at the right moment, or if they just were so tightly packed it was unnecessary. Questions - always questions! The end result is fairly obvious.

Bunched up coots

Fascinating wonderful luck.

For those planning to seek out the eagle, its usual location is near the Shorefishing Parking. Walk across the road to the fishing point and look to your left. The eagle likes the tallest first tree at the first point (marsh grasses at base) to the left. Actually this tree is easily visible from the road so it is a quick check. Other than that, go with our hopes for luck.

Besides the coots we also saw a diving "critter" there. We always like to see the rarely seen mammals. They do not have the option of winged flight, but they can sure hold their breath for a long time and pop up somewhere where you least expect them.

I say this like I know something ... Yes it was just luck, however I guess I really DO know something. A couple at Winter Cove pointed out a horizontal branch on a tall tree (about half way to Shorefishing from there) to us as its usual place. You can see the branch above the scattered coot pic. And while we watched the eagle from our vantage before crossing the road at Shorefishing Parking, the Metropark Police officer we had met previously drove by, saw us and pulled over, and told us that this was the eagle's usual hangout. He knew we were looking for the eagle because we had talked with him at Winter Cove earlier.

Cool! Maybe not tri-angulated, but definitely now bi-angulated - and actually pinpointed! We know a specific place and tree! Of course the eagle is just a darn bird, so there will always be a mystery. Will he choose to show himself? Where will he be? Maybe on "his tree"? Maybe at the north lake?

I can tell you this for certainty. You can never catch a fish without your line in the water, and you can never "tick" a Stoney Creek eagle from your couch!

Thanks to Stoney Creek Naturalist Mark Szabo for his posting! That is why we went today. Also thanks to the Stoney Creek officer for sharing his interest and info about the eagle at Winter Cove and Shorefishing Parking. You guys are what Metroparks are really all about!

Reference map for locations:
http://www.metroparks.com/images/maps/stony_creek.pdf#pagemode=thumbs

I hope you enjoyed my story. We certainly enjoyed this rare experience!

- "Dr. Bob"

2010-11-28 Holland Ponds - November Trips

2010-11-28T18:33:00.002-05:00

Now that the weather has turned cold, and many birds have left, we only visit infrequently. This will allow me to go back and add pics and stories to previous blogs (and this one as well ...). For now, just dumping eBird lists. I have all of our records from eBird here, but I intend to add photos as soon as we stop "going" and start "doing".

As I said previously, I think it is important to document on a fairly regular basis a few chosen local spots. I doubt we will go to Holland Ponds or anywhere else regularly during the winter, but it is certainly one of our most favorite spots when the temperatures are above freezing!

Location: Holland Ponds Observation date: 11/28/10
Notes: 41 degrees, full sun. Shallow ponds are mostly frozen now. Canal and Waterfowl Pond are open.
Number of species: 9

Mallard 30 (10 in pond by road; 20 in Waterfowl Pond)
hawk sp. 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2 Saw female; heard another
Blue Jay 2
Black-capped Chickadee 1 Heard only
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Eastern Bluebird 8 north and west side of HP
American Tree Sparrow 1
sparrow sp. 4
Northern Cardinal 1

Location: Holland Ponds Observation date: 11/11/10
Notes: Another day of gorgeous weather (61 degrees; calm; light haze) and very few birds! Walked back along the heron trail with nothing to report. Several red damselflies and one painted turtle.
Number of species: 6

Mallard 30
Cooper's Hawk 1 Perched in tree. Good photos.
Red-tailed Hawk 1 Flying high
Belted Kingfisher 1 Heard only
Blue Jay 1 Heard only
American Crow 1 Flyover

Location: Holland Ponds Observation date: 11/8/10
Notes: Sunny 58-63 degrees; amazing November weather. About the fewest species we have ever seen there.
Number of species: 7

Mallard 34
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Downy Woodpecker 1 Excavating dead tree
Blue Jay 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Eastern Bluebird 10 Very busy in corner of HP by landfill gate.
American Robin 2

2010-10-22 Osprey at Stoney Creek

2010-10-23T21:14:00.002-04:00

Judy and I dropped by Stoney Creek to see a special grebe.

On the way up my cell phone rang, and Ed Lewandowski said was going birding. He joined us at the Stoney Creek boat launch. We saw lots of birds on the other side of the lake (Winter Cove), so off we went. Ed decided to stop at the Shore-fishing access for a quick look. Often it is good place. Nothing in the immediate vicinity, but we were closer to the rafts of birds at Winter Cove. Optics revealed hundreds of coots - whew! Also a few other goodies mixed in (Redhead, Bufflehead, Scaup, and regular grebes).

Just then Ed saw a flying dot – a flash of white! Eagle? Osprey? It came closer and closer! Yes! Closer please! We were treated to a wonderful experience with the Osprey circling our area for quite a long time. It dove twice in our cove. Alas it missed a catch!

I did not.

For other pics see:

http://www.pbase.com/doctorbass/image/129688706

(Click “next” to see more)

(I still get goose bumps from pic 9655 where the bird has talons unfurled and ready, and I took the pic. Lucky!)

I shot about 200 pics and I am so happy some turned out. If nothing else, my other pics are informative as to flight movements. Quite interesting! I’ll probably post more later.

Ed always seems to be not only my mentor, but also a lucky charm! Thanks Ed!!! Another great day!

Nice to see an Osprey at Stoney! I do not believe they have nested at the pond along the Osprey Trail for a few years.

Enjoy!

2010-11-03 Holland Ponds - 2010 October and September Observations

2010-10-18T21:21:00.015-04:00

2010-11-03 Holland Ponds - Multiple Trips

Holland Ponds is in Macomb County off Ryan Rd. just north of 22 Mile Rd.

Several trips! Hamlin Road construction is finally finished and we now go more directly and more often to our favorite near-by spot again. I think it is important to frequently visit the same place (if possible) to record seasonal variations in the avifauna. Besides that, it is much cheaper on gas, and something to do on the spur of the moment. And, of course, our motto ("You never know ...") always drives us forth.

This blog is still "in process" like road construction, so please come back! I have all of the records from eBird here, but I intend to add more pics as soon as we stop "going" and start "doing".

During the time period in September and October, we watched the Holland Ponds trees turn pretty colors and then lose their leaves. We have one tree in particular that Judy photographs each time to show the progression. Fall fell, and the tree is now barren.

This is the first year we learned that many knowledgeable people park at Holland Ponds to take a hike to Yates Cider Mill as a fall adventure. Yates is located at Dequindre and Avon / 23 Mile Rd. and is normally a "zoo" for parking and traffic. If you go out the back end of Holland Ponds to the right, you soon will find a trail that goes down some stairs to a path along the Clinton River and a good trail that takes you to Yates Cider Mill. You can grab some cider and donuts to fortify yourself for the return walk. We often recently saw folks walking at Holland Ponds with a partially empty half-gallon of cider. We also saw a really buff guy carrying a full gallon in one hand and a half-gallon in the other followed distantly by his whining ("I'm tired") companion. Ah, yes; the toll of the return trip must be considered! We also saw fairly young and still energetic (donuts are rather energizing I think) kids with their parents, so it is quite "doable" for a family. It is more barren now, but still a nice hike.

Cool birds - new records! This was a wonderful thing to do more consistently than ever before. I have to remember to try it more frequently in the spring if I can just get the "sirens" (think Greek mythology and sailors) of new bird postings elsewhere calling me away.

Notes:

1) All of the listings below were taken from eBird emails sent to me because I checked the request e-mail box when I submitted the data. I am a firm believer in eBird (Cornell University). I have the opportunity to add to the global birding database. It also makes it so easy to share my listings.

2) I am still a very inexperienced birder and only record those birds for which I am positive of IDs. I have pics to process that will add to the lists below. And, that is OK with eBird as well. Cornell allows me to update my eBird lists later as I process photos and discover additions or changes.

3) I am not sure of the real percentage, but I guess I miss maybe 10 to 20% of the birds I actually see. (Hey! That was something different.) I am also positive I miss maybe another 30 - 40% of the birds I only hear.(Hey! That was something different.) Anyway, I am learning. Yet I know really good records are out there for an experienced birder to add to Holland Ponds.

4) It was wonderfully special for me this year to propose Holland Ponds as an eBird "Hot Spot" and have it accepted! I know there are many birders who have personal eBird checklists from Holland Ponds, and I encourage you to please merge them into the newly recognized Hot Spot. In today's economy, all municipal expenses are being scrutinized, and I fear that Shadbush Nature Center (that oversees Holland Ponds) may face a fate like Lloyd Stage Nature Center in Troy (even the Troy Public Library for that matter) and be closed.
Economic times are hard. On the other hand, it was wonderful to be involved with a recent birding issue about Robert Long Nature Park in Commerce Twp. and see the impact of a consolidated eBird list and active support of the birding community. I truly know we make a difference when we get out acts together! Please help Shadbush Nature Center and me have access to similar info (just in case) by merging your lists to show the strongest possible number of birds that are residents or visitors at Holland Ponds.

The following lists are from eBird with additional notes and species comments added here.

Observation date: 10/29/10
Notes: First MINK we have seen there (two views - unfortunately no pics - fast little guy!). Also a sunning snapping turtle and an Inky-cap mushroom that had obviously erected to full height just today. Nice day - 50 degrees, sunny, medium winds. Generally it was a slow day, but the mink sighting and Kinglet activity alone were well worth the visit. Wow! "You never know..."
Number of species: 12

Canada Goose 8
Wood Duck 1 - Napping
Mallard 30

Downy Woodpecker 4

Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 6
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 - Unafraid! Best pics ever!!! These two guys allowed me to get quite close.
Song Sparrow 4
White-crowned Sparrow 4
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1

Ruby-crowned Kinglet with bizarre fly

Ruby-crowned Kinglet in a rarely observed milli-second pose of imagined glee

Observation date: 10/27/10
Notes: 63 degrees. Extremely windy!
Number of species: 10
Canada Goose 10
Mallard 40
Pied-billed Grebe 1 (I think really cool for Holland Ponds!!)
Ring-billed Gull 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
American Robin 6

Observation date: 10/19/10

Notes: 47 degrees to 52 degrees. Sunny and cool!

Number of species: 11

Canada Goose 15
Wood Duck 3
Mallard 36
Mourning Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 2 - One male perched, then chasing another kingfisher for quite awhile. I lucked into a fantastic shot of a Kingfisher flying!
Black-capped Chickadee 4

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6 - First for us in Michigan! Busy in bushes.

White-throated Sparrow 2 - First for us in Michigan! At "first fishing access" on left near entrance. (see photo)

Northern Cardinal 1

Red-winged Blackbird 20

Common Grackle 15

Belted Kingfisher in flight

(I am still working to improve the photographic quality of this ... Jerry Jourdan showed me what is possible - thanks so much Jerry! - and I am getting closer, but I've not completed my "lesson plan" yet ...)

Observation date: 10/17/10
Notes: 64 degrees
Number of species: 16

Canada Goose 4
Wood Duck 3
Mallard 36
Great Blue Heron 1
Mourning Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 4
American Robin 2
Cedar Waxwing 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 6
Red-winged Blackbird 17
Common Grackle 10
American Goldfinch 2

Observation date: 10/14/10
Notes: Had rained yesterday. Today was 60 degrees and sunny. Also saw three butterflies (white; yellow; and Buckeye) and several dragonflies.
Number of species: 6

The most exciting thing was seeing the streaked breasts of the Waxwings. Different looking! Also great to still see the Common Buckeye butterflies still around! Otherwise not too much excitement.

Canada Goose 4
Wood Duck 1
Mallard 40
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Cedar Waxwing 20 Many young ones with streaked breasts!
Common Grackle 1

Observation date: 10/12/10
Notes: 54-62 degrees. Saw several painted turtles.
Number of species: 19

Canada Goose 10
Wood Duck 3 - Heard a really weird noise. I kept looking around, and Judy told me it was the duck. It was the female WD. Standing on a log, lowering its head snakelike while making the noise. It was the first time we ever heard this sound. I gotta tell you, "it don't quack like a duck"!
Mallard 39
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Belted Kingfisher 1 - Heard only.
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 6
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin 1
Cedar Waxwing X
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 4 - First here for us!
sparrow sp. X (Working on pics ...)
Northern Cardinal 6
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Common Grackle 15

Observation date: 10/9/10
Notes: 70 degrees; sunny. Painted turtle, yellow butterfly, white butterfly. Two species of dragonflies.
The most amazing thing today was that I "pished up" a chickadee I heard and it drew closer. It perched on nearby branches. Feeling in my pockets, I found a half-dozen seeds from a prior trip to Kensington MP, and while pishing, extended my hand with the few seeds. The chickadee came within three inches of my outstretched hand several times. It never quite made a landing - I only had a few token seeds. It was certainly a remarkable occurrence. Other than at Kensington, this is the only time where this has ever happened to me! I just gotta wonder if it was a displaced "Kensington chick" that had learned the behavior.
Number of species: 13

Canada Goose 6
Wood Duck 1
Mallard 20
Pied-billed Grebe 1 - First one we have seen here!
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
American Robin 1
Cedar Waxwing 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
White-crowned Sparrow 4
Red-winged Blackbird 11
American Goldfinch 1

Observation date: 10/6/10
Notes: 72 degrees
Number of species: 12

Mallard X
Mourning Dove 3
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 2
Black-capped Chickadee 5
Cedar Waxwing 30
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Common Grackle 4
American Goldfinch 1

Observation date: 9/30/10

Notes: 72-73 degrees; sun/clouds. Also butterflies: yellow, white, Buckeye. Painted Turtles.
Number of species: 14

Canada Goose 6
Wood Duck 2
Mallard 10
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Heard only
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 4
Black-capped Chickadee 1
American Robin 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 6 West of shelter
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 1

Observation date: 9/24/10

Notes: 80-83 degrees; very windy!
Number of species: 9

Canada Goose 1
Wood Duck 2
Mallard 19
Great Blue Heron 1
Mourning Dove 2
Blue Jay 20
American Robin X
Red-winged Blackbird X
American Goldfinch 8

Observation date: 9/21/10

Notes: 72 - 78 degrees. Sunny.
Number of species: 14

Canada Goose 2
Wood Duck 1
Mallard 12
Great Egret 1
hawk sp. 2
Ring-billed Gull 1
Mourning Dove 2
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Gray Catbird 1 Heard only
Cedar Waxwing 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 8 Eating poison ivy berries!
House Finch 1

Observation date: 9/12/10
Notes: Weird day! Lots of juveniles who look quite unlike bird book pics!

Also saw snake, grass frog, buckeye butterfly (and another good b'fly).
Number of species: 7

Mallard 11
hawk sp. 1 - From a very quick view as it flew away, it looked mostly white like a seagull. Maybe an osprey? Certainly not a gull.
Belted Kingfisher 1 - Came out of forest over our heads. Rattling. Great views!
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 1 Heard only.
Black-capped Chickadee 1 - Heard only.
Cedar Waxwing 12 - Lots of juveniles. Mostly gray with streaked breasts. Acting like swallows eating bugs over lake (but higher than swallows do ...). Quite different!
Northern Cardinal 5

2010-10-07 Hawkwatch at LEMP and Sterling TVs

2010-10-18T21:14:00.002-04:00

2010-10-07

Dropping my notes to Mich Birders as a placeholder to get this into the right blog month and sequence - I'll finish later....

I just gotta write a blog about today, but do not hold your breath! I think y’all sense how far behind I am! It will come after sufficient gestation. It is just too much fun “doing” right now!

On the other hand, I just want to share a few pics I got this afternoon.

Judy and I went to the hawk watch at LEMP and met some really great birders! We learned a lot! Thanks to all!!!

Mostly the birds were not too exciting. One kettle of Turkey Vultures passed over, but I would have never even seen them except for loaned lenses and excellent directions. Even then, they were just “dots in the sky”. These watchers are truly amazing! “Look over the A-frame”, “look over the mustard house”, “look over the stacks” – say what? Where? Oh, come on!

Yet, after “tuning in”, yes there are birds there!

Anyway, we were still looking for our first more personal “kettle” of big birds when we left to check out new places for other birds in the area. After a few places and much walking around, we settled at Sterling State Park for lunch. As we exited the car, I saw a bunch of “dots” over the far hill, and had time to grab my camera. The birds proceeded to come closer and actually flew right over head! I just processed a few now to share. The overhead pics are on another card (why is it that every time something exciting happens, I need to change cards? It’s certainly not like they are 36 exposure rolls!!!)

Check out (do “next” to see all 3 pics):

http://www.pbase.com/doctorbass/image/129223775

And, that was it. We never saw another bird during lunch! As we say: “You never know”!

It made our “watch day”. We have seen a few TVs in the sky at one time before, but never going somewhere together!

2010-09-04 Point Mouillee

2010-10-18T20:34:00.004-04:00

2010-09-04 Point Mouillee

Note 2 (2010-10-18): I really got stuck on this blog. It was a really special day, and I wanted to put more of my pics here before I "published". Yet, it has now been over a month and I still have not worked up most of my pics. Judy and I tend to just keep "doing" while weather permits. The birds and birding opportunities keep changing with the seasons, and we keep discovering. I also have learned that an over abundance of photos (like from this day - over a thousand pics - which is the best?!) certainly clogs my propensity to publish. OK, Hey, what am I trying to do - publish a book? Well, maybe ... Being old school, I just gotta learn that a blog is designed to be more immediate.
Actually, I know my blog is whatever I want it to be. I want a collective "book" of my experiences for my own reference, but I also want to share with my birding friends and mentors in a reasonably quick time frame. I obviously failed on the latter and will hopefully improve, but the former (Dr. Bob's Bird Book - for Dr. Bob and friends by Dr. Bob ... or whatever) seems to offer hope as an option. Judy and I might be the main audience for the book, but I appreciate the eblog-forum for recording experiences.

Anyway, I am going to post this tonight so I can move on to more recent exploits!

Note 1 (2010-09-xx): this blog just may "go on forever", or at least thru this winter. I shot so many pics, it will take "forever" just to select the ones I want. So, come back later and see how it turns out. Hey that's another neat thing about this blog space. You can amend it as your memory refreshes ... or as your memory embellishes? I certainly strive to keep it the former.

Background and Overview

Fantastic day! We had a chance to meet up with Cathy Carroll (a special person) in a special place (Pte. Mouillee) and saw many lifers - not only birds, but also "bugs" (mostly dragonfiles, but also butterflies).

Cathy is a true naturalist! She is not just a "bird watcher" out to get check marks on some list of birds, but she is really a "birder" (a more formal designation in the sense that she wants to understand the lives of the birds she sees as well as to see new birds). Cathy is also a naturalist.
I note that when I use the term naturalist, I am suggesting that from me it is a commendation of the highest order and refers to a person who desires to understand how all aspects of "life in nature" are related. In this case I linked to a wiki ("naturalist") that requires far more work to be expressive of what it means, but it is a start. Case in point, I am referring to Cathy's abilty to enjoy and document and share the details every natural thing she sees. All life is wonderful and precious!

Cathy is fantastic! She already (and very quickly I might add!) blogged the trip on her exceptional blog "Into the Woods and Elsewhere". Our memorable day was documented!
Judy and I were very honored to be mentioned by name in Cathy's blog!

We had attempted reaching the place ("the promised land") twice before at Pte. Mouillee. Pte. Mouillee is a very difficult place to bird unless well prepared with maps and fortitude - ref my previous blog. It was an easy walk out to "Cell 3" of the "Banana Unit". The wind was at our back. Expectations were high.
We started at the Roberts Road parking area. Roberts Rd. is by far the best access to the Banana Unit cells! I need to note it is a five mile hike to Cell 3 and back even from Roberts Rd.! As we started along the access, our immediate thought was that there was little water visible along the shoreline of the lake itself. My first comment was "Wow, this has really dried up a lot since last week!" We had seen lots of birds before, and now noticed mostly mudflats on the lake below our feet. Just last trip we had spoken with a fisherman on the pier at the bend (silly guy - it was shallow even then, but he was outdoors on a great day, so who's to complain? He once caught a 20 pound catfish there and was optimistic!). Yes, it had been hot, but not that hot ... Somewhere along the walk (about the time we turned left toward Cell 3), I realized that the prevailing winds had driven the water away from the shoreline. I figured the water must have all gone to Ohio! :) Whew! What a difference!

The walk out was pleasant (great cool temps and the wind at our back). We did not see the Moorhen and chicks we saw before. We encountered a few goose hunters returning. Only one had a goose (a party of three who had been there since 4 am). I had worn my blaze orange hat out, but realized that the goose hunters were all wearing camo, so figuring that goose hunters probably would not shoot camo on the dikes, before hitting the "promised land" in Cell 3, I changed to the camo hat I had in Judy's backpack. I was worried that the birds might "see" orange as a threat. (I do know white is a bad color for birders). On the other hand, I think the color-awareness thing is mostly for land birds, and not the shorebirds. Someday I might figure it out.

I also thought it was appropriate that just after the hunters passed us, seven geese flew directly over our heads. I dutifully "shot" them proclaiming my goose hunt a success.

As we walked toward Cell 3, we finally saw a few birders ahead of us. We also saw a few birds at the edge of the dike where we were, so paused to take pics. I shot several pics of a new bird. When we finally got to meet up with Cathy, her first question was "did you see the Red-necked Phalarope"? As usual, I had no clue. She walked us back along the dike to catch it. As it turned out, I already had a few dozen pics of the Phalarope. Yes, great bird!!!

Our First Shorebirds

insert pic - Phalarope pics

It was unusually windy (35-40 mph gusts)! Here's a pic of Cathy, Rudolpho (another visiting birder who Cathy had known before) and myself. Cathy just barely caught her hat before it joined the birds on the mudflat below! After Judy's hat blew into the Phragmites enroute, Judy and I already had tightened our hats to "the next notch" on the way out to Cell 3. What wild winds!

After watching the birds on the NE corner of Cell 3 awhile (dozens of pics!) with Cathy and Rudolpho, we walked the tranverse dike towards the great expanse of Lake Erie. Rudolpho headed back. Cathy already had pointed out perhaps a dozen lifers for us. The lighting was poor - strongly backlit - and we were ready for more birds with better photo ops. Without counting, I would guess there had been several dozen shorebirds in the nearest corner of Cell 3. Yes! The "promised land"!

insert pic - Marbled Godwits

insert pics - others

Aside:

I found it interesting to see the previous footprints in the mudflat at this corner of Cell 3. It brought to mind a story told to us by a returning (really fantastic pro!) bird photographer we had met returning from Cell 3 on another occasion who recounted a story about almost being swallowed by the mudflats while waiting for one of the photos by which he is known. He normally sits and waits for a shot. Some mudflats do not accommodate sitting and waiting. Slowly, slowly you just sink. I could just picture that! Sitting - waiting. Sitting - sinking! Abandon ship!!! (I well remember clam-digging in San Francisco Bay as a youth. As long as there is a gravel base, you are fine, but go a couple feet beyond, and you will be quite lucky to even get your boots back from the sucking mud!). I "saw" the entire story of his time previous trip unfolding before my eyes as I looked at the footprints. I could not help but to smile - been there done that!

I also recalled a story told to me by another local birder who had tried to more closely approach the "Banana birds" a few years before and had returned to the dike belly-first after almost being swallowed by the mud. Fascinating! No one here ever met the SF mudflats before. I was personally lucky to even get one boot back in SF.

Back to the story:

Enroute, Cathy asked another birder if he had seen the Buff-Breasted Sandpipers. No. (Coming attractions ...)

The Bug Chapter - with whirling Red-necked Phalaropes

We wound up behind some trees that offered a bit of protection from the wind. These were lots of Dragonflies. Since they are "flappy things", I just must shoot them! And, of course, now I must learn their names. Please help, Darrin and Julie. After I get more than a dozen or so pics of d'flies for my "life list", I'll have to get more proactive in my learning and use the great references you guys have sent me, but right now, I am just trying to get this belated blog into cyberspace!

There was also a Red-necked Phalarope whirling around on the shallow water surface. I learned that because they have some lobing between their toes - quite unlike most shorebirds, they are able to create an "upwelling" from the bottom mud they stir up, bringing food articles to the surface. What trick! Now I just have to wonder, do the birds in the southern hemisphere use the reverse direction of spinning motion to bring up food? (I admit, I am thinking of bathroom drains which drain the tub in a different swirl relative to a clock face ...). I think I read somewhere that this is an individual behavior for each bird, but that brings up another question - are there left-twirling and right-twirling RN Phalaropes? Were they born with it, or was it taught?

insert pic - lobed foot

Insert whirling pic

Insert several d'flies

Insert b'flies

The Buff-Breasted Sandpipers Chapter

As we returned from our sheltered buggy Phalarope excursion, we found the Buff-breasted Sandpipers ("Buffies") right beside the dike path feeding amongst the land vegetation. I shot about 100 pics (well ... maybe more ...), with three exposures of each. Well, not really three of each - by the time the camera fired again, the bird was in a different pose - a new pic entirely! It amazes me. I am shooting at maybe 1/1000 of a second, and by the time the camera fires for subsequent shots the bird moves. I guess it is the recycle time to write the previous photo to the memory card.

Lesson learned: forget "bracketing exposures" with birds. Birds are always on the move. Usually the best exposure is not the best pose! OK, next time I might try just shooting "raw" instead. On the other hand, raw exposures take so much time to upload to the memory card, I really think I am better off just shooting a continous series and hope the exposure settings are good. (Sorry if I ramble about camera stuff, but as I have said before, this blog is at least as much for me as for you. And, any of y'all with DSLRs might just benefit from this side track.) It's just too much to handle! Yet I try.

There were initially five birds in the group we were observing. As we walked along, two more joined them.

Did you ever try to hold a non-image stabilized lens in a strong wind? Even at 1/1000 sec it is hard to get the right object on the focus spot! OK, I know - use a tripod; use an IS lens. I cannot afford the image-stabilized (IS) lenses and I did not want to carry the tripod that far. I do what I do. I shoot lots, hope to get some decent pics, and at least get many memories from my pics.

Cathy taught me another great lesson with the "Buffies". Actually there were at least two lessons.

1) Be "creepy" - that is, be inconspicous and inobtrusive. I learned this lesson again later when shooting the Palm Warblers on our walk back. I figured that they had been on the path eating bugs for quite awhile, so they probably would just continue to do, so I approached too closely. Off they flew! OK, lesson 1. Maybe I'll learn it again - probably many times...

2) Get down to a good level. Not only would I have been more stabilized - especially considering the windy conditions I am whining about regarding photographs, but also I would have gotten better "bird level" pics as did Cathy. OK, I get it - lie, crawl and shoot! Cathy was so kind to serve as an example rather than chiding me! Judy and I did recognize what she was doing, so we kept back and were still; at least we were that cognizant and respective of an expert sharing her technique. (The Buffies were just off-screen to the left and walking her way).

The "Buffies" were quite fascinating to me. Just from the way everyone had spoken about them on the SE Michigan birders list serv, and the interest Cathy and the other Pte. Mouillee birders had in seeing them, I figured out they were very special. These birds are spoken of in almost reverential tones! I knew we were privy to something very special! (Oh, heck, to me even getting a phalarope or plover would be special.) It is weird how this happens. I wind up in some places the "Michigan List Birders" talk about, and I get the special birds (I have been very lucky), but I still need the more regular birds for my life list.

Anyway, yes, these are very different shorebirds. Pte. Mouillee offered large expanses of mudflats on this day, but here were seven Buff-breasted Sandpipers feeding on the "lawn" - well, actually in the weeds on top of the dike.What is their "story"? Are the weeds around mudflats or lakes that much more special than the weeds elsewhere? Or do they not want get their feet muddy - why? Do they just like being around other birds that sort of look like themselves, but have learned that there is no competition for food away from the mudflats and the muddy-feet birds? So many questions!

Anyway, here are a series of pics of the "Buffies" at Pte. Mouillee:

A pair of "Buffies"

I think you can tell from what direction the wind was blowing. If this guy had been wearing a hat, he would have tucked it into his pocket like Cathy did.

I call this the "stalking pose". He saw something.

Our Return including lifer Palm Warblers

After Judy took a shot of Cathy and I (heck, I needed proof I made it), we faced and braced ourselves into the wind. Obviously my lovely photographer wife made it as well. Judy has been experiencing what I have experienced most of my life - the photographer rarely has a photograph of themselves anywhere. I can only say that my larger lens just does not shoot close pics, and Judy is normally so close to me I have to "run away" just to get a pic of her! One advantage of both of us using our 10x/12x Kodaks in the "old days" was that we both could get close shots as well as long shots.

"Dr. Bob" and Cathy Carroll (hero and mentor)

Palm Warbler with green caterpillar (right one)

Synopsis

Great day! We made it to the "finish line". With the wind, we often must have looked like we were walking like we were falling forwards. After we got out of the wind at the Roberts Road parking lot, it felt really quite warm - stand up - off with the jackets! (Again I thank Judy for getting my pic with Cathy and apologize for not getting more pics of Judy with my mounted long lens).

General blog thoughts

I gotta remind myself how I put this together. (Yes, I do read my own blogs - they are my "field notes" and my learning tools). I was overwhelmed by the hundreds of photos I had taken - like really overwhelmed! In post-processing my pics, I knew I had "tons" of pics in a few catregories, so I separated them into files that basically correspond to the "chapters" in this blog. Bugs, buffies, phalaropes and Palm Warblers. I generally kept temporally-related pics together, but if I had a species in another main category (e.g., phalaropes), I dropped it into the appropriate folder.

While I was processing my pics, it brought to mind the events and excitement surrounding the photos, so I switched from Photoshop to my blog - still open on the computer - and dropped in some comments. I realized that since I had created sub-categories of photos (a practical matter) for the day, I might just as well use them for the blog, so I created "chapters". As I processed the pics, I dropped them into an appropriate chapter - this was new for me. Normally I work on pics, then write a story to go with the pics and insert them later. It feels much better to do it simultaneously! Blogger software allows me to save a draft rather than "publishing" as I go along, so whenever I get something I want to publish (even if partly done),I can just click "Publish" and off it goes. Otherwise, I can "Save as Draft" and y'all will see it (or not) when/if I click "Publish".

I know - I am quite sure this is far more than you needed or wanted to know, but after all it's my blog, and besides sharing with y'all, a primary purpose of my blog is to record notes to myself. Yes, I do re-read my own writings! They are really my field notes, my journal and my bird diary all in one.

Aside: Hey, if anyone is interested in a wonderful way to keep and share your birding notes (or your family history, or your hobby or whatever), I recommend setting up a blog and can easily help you. After all, I did it. Besides that, it's free!

Another aside to me: "Hey, Bob! Great idea, so why did it take so long to post? You were on the right path." And I answer with a "cop out" (ancient term): "Writer's Block".

Oh well, this blog is now "out there" for comments and awaiting the promised pics... and, better yet, I cannow feel better about postoing more recent episodes while waiting for winter to process far too many pics!

Detroit Zoo Trip

2010-09-19T20:02:00.001-04:00

2010-09-08 Senior Day at Detroit Zoo

Well, this is not a birding blog, but we did encounter a few native birds along the way - mostly Turkey Vultures, House Sparrows, and a few gulls. And we got some cool pics in the aviary, but if you just want to read about Michigan birds, go to one of my other blogs. On the other hand, any day outdoors may produce unexpected results, so read on. This was a great day (hey, aren't they all?)! The neat thing about having a blog is that you can write what you want!

We learned about the free Senior Day at the Detroit Zoo from the Channel 4 newscast the night before. Free admission, free parking and free rides on the train! Geez! If they had handed out free lunches as well, we would never have found a place to park!

Judy had been pestering me to go back to the zoo. We had both decided that we would go after the kids were back in school. This was perfect! I guess the zoo holds two free Senior Days each year. Great idea! Thanks to all involved! The weather was quite pleasantly cool; it made for nice walking!

We hiked around and managed to see almost all of the animals. As we were nearing the end of the enclosures we had not yet seen, we stopped by the prairie dog unit. Cool! The p-doggies were "out and about"! I think they had just been thrown a bunch of leaves and they came out to chow down. We were taking lots of our best pics ever of these guys! Normally they just peek out of their holes.

Suddenly a golf cart rolls up and a photographer gets out to shoot the p-doggies. I checked out the guy and told Judy to look at the fancy camera stuff. Ah, yes, another pro; we see them all the time during special birding times. He might get better pics than us, but we always love our experiences and have our own pics for memories - not pro stuff, but "just fine". The pics that precede and follow are Judy's pics with her Kodak 12x cam. I say "great stuff"!

(This guy is as photogenic as his camera equipment!)

I have seen some fancy cams at birding locations before, but this was quite impressive! It's sure not your home video cam! So I turn and look at the cart. I am amazed who I see!

Dr. Bob? Is that you?

Yes, it was Steve Garagiola of Channel 4 NBC news.!

Steve got out of the cart so we could celebrate and take photos. I've always enjoyed Steve's style of presenting news.

This was a really nice thing to do! Unasked! I was impressed that a man driven by daily deadlines would take the time!

And, I was really glad when Judy asked him her perpetual question (she asks me every time we see him on the news)! "Are you related to Joe Garagiola?" I always (kiddingly) say: "Ask him". (Right .. when will you ever be able to personally ask a TV anchor something? Well she did - and he is (follow the highlighted links).

What fun and an amazing meeting! We never met a TV anchor before, and probably will not again. We are so happy that Steve is so personable as to get out and pose for pics with us regular folks. It was obvious that we had nothing to do with his story line, but that is just how he is. Thanks, Steve!!!

And we want to thank his lovely assistant for using Judy's camera to snap a couple of pics of us together!

Oops! Time to go!

And off they went, leaving us some cool memories. Fun!!!

By the time we got home and turned on the news, Steve was many miles away and live-covering the aftermath of the massive fires that had been wind-swept across Detroit a few days before. I don't know why they call them anchors - they are certainly not weighed down in one spot!

...

By the way, I know I have a few birding blogs to publish. It turns out they are not so easy as this one. 1) I shoot way too many pics, and only look for the best, so I have lots of post-processing to do; 2) The zoo is easy. They label everything; 3) Specifically about this day, it is more about our experiences here, and not what we need to identify. Interesting! Words flow much better with knowledge.

(I'll probably add the aviary pics later. Yeah, I am post-processing... The neatest was the gray bird that turned metallic blue when the flash fired!)

2010-08-20 Point Mouillee

2010-08-22T20:11:00.368-04:00

2010-08-20 Point Mouillee, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm, 78 - 83 humid degrees, mostly sunny

This blog is basically completed (maybe I'll add a few more pics - or maybe not ...) on 2010-09-22 - finally! Done! I think I finally said most of what I want to say. Has it really been a month? Well, yeah ... so it takes me awhile .. we have been busy fall birding and just "doing". Hey, at least I am sharing my experiences! I think I do it for us at least as much as for sharing with y'all - probably more. I hope you like!

Today ( ... for continuity I speak like I am writing this on the day we went there, and to keep current what I previously blog-posted ...), Judy and I birded at Pt. Mouillee (Monroe County, Michigan). We wanted to see the exceptional birds reported on the Southeast Michigan birder's listserv (see below link to Bruce Bowman's site).

This place is challenging – especially in heat and humidity! No shade at all!

It was a hot day and we started late, but we got a few great pics! Some of the famous Michigan birders had been there this day and saw many more birds with their scopes (most of which would have been lifers for us), but we did just fine anyway!

I had the map I printed off from the Point Mouillee DNR site, and kind of figured out how far we could go on “empty tanks” (i.e., bladders) and fully charged (i.e., MacDonald’s breakfast). We parked at the Sigler Rd. lot and ventured forth. Fortunately we also carried lots of water. By the way, the lack of restrooms there soon becomes moot as dehydration sets in on a hot day! Don't "sweat it" (as in worry about it) - because you actually will (in the physical sense)!

We learned from experienced people we met along the way (a couple of trip leaders- Jim Fowler and Mike McCullough who were scouting the place for a trip the following day) that the places where people were seeing and reporting birds (the best spots were on "The Banana" and on the Vermet Unit) were about 3.5 miles away - one way – from the Sigler parking lot. Right!

A returning birder confirmed this. “It is by the trees over there”!

We had planned to make it to the closest corner of the Vermet Unit from where we parked (it sounded from the listserv that Vermet was the place!), but enroute learned that we would have needed scopes even if we had been on the best side of Vermet. We had binocs and cams, but chose not to carry the heavy scope and tripod. We turned around after reaching the near edge of Vermet (our goal - about a mile and half one way). It was a great temptation to continue, but knowing that we were not even close, and remembering that we had to return from wherever we walked, we turned around. We followed our plan. We shot lots of pics enroute. We had a great day anyway and the memories I share here.!

We made it to Vermet Unit!

(I think the trees in the distance are the cottonwoods that have filled in Cell 1 of the Banana Unit.)

I had been reading about “cell 3” on the birder's listserv. I used the Michigan DNR map and assumed it was the the "3" of the Long Pond Unit – hey, that’s the only "3" thing on the DNR map! We met another birder with binocs, a scope and tripod – much lighter than ours we had left in the trunk – who basically was frustrated. He had made the same mistake and walked even farther and was returning, yet had not walked to the “promised land”. Actually as it turned out, we had our best shots in the DNR Zone 3 (Zone - not Cell!) of the Long Pond Unit - three species of shorebirds (including the "lifer" Willet) and our best pics ever of Pied-billed Grebes, so the "3 thing" was not too far off! (I think if we had gone a week later, we might have seen the King Rail there!). It’s a muddy canal right next to the dike and birds were up close and personal and basically unafraid! It doesn't look like much, but it worked out fine!

Our Best Site - Canal at Long Pond Unit Zone 3

Killdeer and Pied-billed Grebe

I had not done all my homework by checking out Bruce Bowman's site (I always keep making the same mistakes! If I would just go to Bruce’s site first rather than searching on my own, I would be far better off!) Bruce’s site offers 4 maps. One is the DNR map I had - it is really directed towards hunters. The best map shows actual mileages between multiple intermediate spots on the dikes (a copy of this was given us on the dikes by one of the trip leaders – Mike - who was scouting the place with Allen C. and Tom on bikes). It is really useful for judging distance and endurance – you have to remember you gotta come back as well!. And I note the real "Cell 3" (actually part of The Banana) is a damn site closer to a parking lot – the south one off Roberts Road – than where we entered from Sigler Rd. We started from Roberts Rd. on a subsequent wonderful trip the next time (blog in process...) and. yes, it is much more reasonable!

On the way, we met Allen Chartier and company returning on bikes from their birding expedition that day. Judy took a few pics as always with her shorter lens setting (Thank you, my wonderful companion!!!).

Now, this is the way to do Pte.Mouille!!!

Note the openness and lack of shade! Point Mouillee just goes on "forever"! You can see the cottonwoods of Cell 1 in the distance over Mike's shoulder. I really like this pic because it shows how experienced birders approach a place like Pte. Mouillee! Sure beats walking!!!

L to R: "Dr. Bob", Tom Schlack, Allen Chartier, Mike McCullough

(I just have to wonder about the black box Tom was carrying. Was this "The Briefcase" or "The Football" we hear about in the news sometimes? It sure looks impressive to me!)

It turns out that Allen was responsible for the best map posted on Bruce's site, and has it in his book. Yes, I know - always read Allen's book first before going to a new place! I keep re-learning this lesson as well. Read Allen's book and check out Bruce's site! Nuff said!

If you combine Bruce's map 1 and map 2, you get what is in Allen's book.

In a separate communication, Allen mentioned to me that the former "Lead Unit" in his Guide (and mostly used by birders) has been renamed the Humphries Unit. I understand it has something to do about how you pronounce "Lead Unit". You could pronounce it "leed" - as in the first unit - for which it was named - or you could prounounce it as "led" - possibly mistaken for the old shot pellets birds sometimes ingest - not so PC now! (Thanks, Allen for explaining this to me! It makes sense.)

From my research, I know that in the past there were some car break-ins at the southern parking lot, but when we left at about 12:30 pm today, we were the only car at Sigler Rd. and when we drove to the southern lot closer to the action there were six cars there. We were told that it is being monitored more now. Note: on subsequent visits, we did see the lot being checked several times each day! Good stuff!

It was a great day for us. We did not record lots of interesting lifers as anticipated, but we shot some great pics and got a great story to tell.

Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs (verified)

I have never seen them together before. Yes, one is greater than the other. I shot both species together! Really cool!

Willet! - "Lifer" (verified)

It looks rather non-descript on the mud, but lacks the yellow legs (even I can figure that out!). Yet, it does not have the drab gray breast of the willets in some bird books.

I think it is interesting that I am calling this a "lifer". I saw tons of Willets (and Avocets and lots of other goodies very rare in Michigan - ah, those were the days!) on the mudflats around San Francisco in my "former life", but I was not a "birder" then. I had taken a course in vertebrate biology and was a "bird watcher" in the sense I always carried binocs and a copy of Peterson in my vehicle when I went fishing or collecting seaweeds. I did record observations in my field books, but I cannot find the silly books now. I think I gave them to one university or another when I donated my collections. So, unless I find my old field notes, I am just choosing to start again. Oh, the stories they (the books) would tell!

On the other hand, it's cool to start again - I'm back to my teens and early twenties! Ah youth! It is really about almost as exciting as I remember it - well, at least from the birding perspective. Actually, from the birding perspective, it is even better than what I remember. Bird watchers were a rather strange sort and not as macho as I chose to represent myself then. Now birding has "come out of the closet" and represents a huge economic and social force! It's "in" and contagious! Besides that , I think it is now a great "chick magnet" for guys! Anyone who is knowledgeable in any outdoor pursuit just naturally seems to have a magnetic attraction. Hey, if women loved a guy like me who was mostly dedicated to walking beaches looking for seaweeds (oh my gosh, seaweeds!!!), once the "stigma" was removed, I can see that a birder would be even more interesting! Especially here in the Midwest lacking the natural appeal of ocean walks! Whew!

(Oh - did I digress? It happens ...)

Back to the story ...

Willet!

What a difference flying makes! I am thankful for a few lucky pics! I well remember waiting for them to fly so I could be sure of what I saw around SF. Yes, I even guess sometimes the impatience of my youth encouraged flight with a tossed stone. I sure wish I had owned a digital camera with "free film" back then!

Yellowlegs and Willet !

It is sure much easier to tell the difference when flying! And, that one is sure not a killdeer, dear!

(I make this reference remembering that just last year I had a Killdeer flying over Holland Ponds, and saw the striped wing pattern and asked for input on my terribly out-of-focus pic! "Killdeer", a few replied! OK , I got it! Judy and I now well know the Killdeer sounds! They are common and unmistakeable! We are using more of our senses now! Thanks guys!)

Osprey! (verified)

We thought ospreys were only around nesting sites like at Kensington, but this sure looked like the bird book pics. He circled many times, always coming closer. We waited. What luck! Wow! Incredible! I have quite a few pics of this bird who circled a few times. Geez! If I can ever shoot anything in the skies other than Turkey Vultures and the occasional Red-tailed Hawk, I am really fortunate! How special!!! This encounter alone was worth the walk!

Osprey!

Here are a few pics of a Greater Yellowlegs at Zone 3 of the Long Pond Unit. I like a couple because they show "bird camo" on the mudflats. Gray things on stick legs that look like plant stalks. I suspect an aerial view - as seen by a predator - would be very informative.

I like these because they show an Oedipal personality of the birds (not that they really cared about looking at themselves...). Judy always likes a bit of anthropomorphism in bird pics. I think she just likes kissing in general ...

And, I just plain like this long-strider!

The following is the Buckeye Butterfly. It came north from Ohio in a large quantity this year. Even UM fans love and seek photos of this one. :)

I love this pic where the "eyes" on the lower wing are hidden. I think it is an "anime happy face"! It is sure hard to shoot with its wings spread just right!!! We tried for a long time! Lucky!!! "Here's looking at you (i.e., me), kid"! You just gotta smile back!

Happy Face Butterfly!

Another interesting thing along our walk was seeing a whole field of sunflowers. I guess we really did not notice them on the way out, but on the way back we noticed lots (really lots - dozens!) of Red-winged Blackbirds. Cool! Besides the pure natural beauty of the expanse, I think it is a great food source for the birds. I assume they were planted. Yes, maybe for a hunter audience, but certainly the majority of avian visitors will escape unharmed and better fed. Lovely!

After reaching the Vermet Unit and shooting pics of many American Coots, we headed back. As we were trudging along the Long Pond Unit (the long walk with little to see), we saw a vehicle approaching. Melted as we were by the heat, we stuck out our thumbs. It had been decades since I last hitched, but I am pleased to say it still works. I guess the border patrol agent could tell just by looking at us that we could really use a lift, so he invited us to ride in back. Another first - it was the first time (and hopefully the last) either of us had been in the cage in the back of an enforcement vehicle. Thank you so much for "capturing us"!!! I doubt our lives had been actually saved, but at that time it sure felt like it (gotta wonder), and it sure felt good to get back in the car and crank up the AC! Shortly thereafter, we were revived enough to discuss the memories of the day, and plan a better way to "do the Mou"!

We had learned many lessons about birding Pte. Mouillee. First, always "do your homework" (suggestions were provided above). Second, never set out mid-day on foot especially when the weather is so hot and muggy! And, third, if there are scheduled driving tours led by Audubon clubs (like there was the next day), jump on the possibility! Pte. Mouillee is a fantastic place, it is just huge in scale, and most of the good stuff now tends to be about a 5 mile round trip! If you do the whole round trip along the edges from Sigler and back along the roads, it's over 12 miles! (Now, there is a challenge for the really serious Hiking Michigan long hikers! I added this last note because I know Rob Golda usually links my blog on his HM site ...)

I hope you enjoyed this "ramble" and have a better idea of the challenge and joys of Pte. Mouillee!

"Dr. Bob"

Notes:

You saw that occasionally I noted "verified" on some pics. I did this to let you know that a reputable person agreed with me.

I can't believe I am really talking like I know something about Pte. Mouille! But, actually after three visits, and after having finally done my homework, I really do! It is a national treasure here in Michigan!

You will now have to wait until sometime after hunting season to go out there. (I am not sure when it reopens for birders or hikers.) Be sure to do your homework first! It is a wonderful challenge and a great opportunity to see birds and environments you may not see elsewhere! I do not know about spring, but obviously it is a significant stop-over for migrating fall shorebirds! "What a trip"!!!

Newbie on eBird - some thoughts

2010-08-13T19:25:00.007-04:00

I am writing this blog to express my enthusiasm for eBird.

I am finally using a tool to record my bird data! I have a couple of years of checklists (i.e., 3x5 cards in the field) and notes in my journal, but I had nothing to pull them together. I started a spreadsheet with Michigan birds I downloaded from Bruce Bowman's excellent site, but it soon overwhelmed me. It had all the birds in Michigan in the spreadsheet! I thought about deleting the ones I might never see, but then thought I needed to be reminded of them as possible choices. With my life list approaching only 75 birds, you can see why it was a dilemma!!

eBird makes it easy! (like really easy!). You enter your collecting place and minimal trip data (like time and distance - or just location and sightings if you just observed in one place), and then it gives you a list of suspected birds there. eBird already has knowledge (built up by verified records) about the suspected birds in a county or a HotSpot!

It is so quick, you will want to enter your data the same day after you get home. If your memory is fairly decent, you will probably remember all the birds you just saw without even having the 3x5 cards. Entered! Done!

I hate typing! eBird makes it easy to record bird species by just "x-ing" a box or putting the number of birds seen. Then you can export your bird list into something else, or send the list to yourself in an e-mail to forward to your friends. Cool!

When you submit your data, you first enter the location. eBird provides a great mapping tool so you can exactly pinpoint your location on a satellite map. If you are not familiar with the web's wonderful satellite mapping capability, this is enough of a reason to check it out! The checklist eBird provides only contains the expected birds for that geographic area. That sure helped me out! It also allows you to add other birds, but for me it really helps to cut down of the number of species in (for example) the eastern bird books or a Michigan list.

For example, here is a pic of Holland Ponds:

Another unexpected advantage is that as I scroll through the list to check off my birds, I am learning about bird groups! Hey, the bird books now make more sense in their phylogenetic arrangement. Besides learning related groups, this will help me to better flip to a group in the books without going to the index. (Yes, eBird would also allow me to go directly to a species to enter my data, but that would spoil my new-found learning tool!)

I imported a list of birds from an Excel spreadsheet into this blog. I had first recorded them in eBird, then downloaded them into an Excel spreadsheet on my own computer. The download was quick (a click). The importing here was quick (select spreadsheet cells, copy - then paste here). The paste did insert a couple of carriage returns between the lines, but it was quite easy to delete them. The following is a Holland Ponds list I imported from eBird. (I blogged about that day in another post.) It does not include minks, butterflies, and the like, but it is a great start. In the future, I will add my birds into eBird, then import into Blogspot. No typing twice!!! And, I have now figured out how to comment in the Notes section to include the other great things we see on a trip.

Canada Goose
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Eastern Kingbird
Tree Swallow
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Or you can ask eBird to just e-mail you the results of your reporting. That way you will have an individual record (but you really do not need one - eBird will keep it for you!). Anyway, you can copy/paste from the e-Mail and add it to a blog or whatever. Here is exactly what you get (a different example - again I had to take out a few extraneous carriage returns). You can add number of birds, comments on individual species, and even a comment for the whole trip on eBird. You can see the results here. (I am getting better, so my recent lists actually have numbers of birds, and not just "X"s, but you can see that either way works! An "X" puts the bird into your life list and your state and county lists anyway.)

Location: Holland Ponds
Observation date: 4/22/10
Notes: Also little blue butterfly and medium white butterfly
Number of species: 12
Mallard 5
Great Blue Heron X
Downy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker X
Tree Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee X Some at the nest boxes
American Robin X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
American Goldfinch X

Pretty cool, huh?!

eBird is a powerful tool. People have been encouraging me to use it for some time, but I procrastinated until Ed Lewandowski "shared" a list with me from a day we birded together recently. "Sharing" is a powerful tool whereby a designated recorder on a group trip can record the species seen and "share" with everyone on the trip. After you accept the shared list, it adds the species for the day to your eBird lists. You have the option as an individual to subtract species you did not see (I do this a lot!) or add species you saw that the recorder did not (I can only dream!). You can also add your own comments about specific birds in your individual eBird space, as well as your personal trip notes. (This I can do...)

By using eBird, you are making your data available to Cornell University and the whole birding community. You can actually be making a difference to the scientific study of bird distributions. In the long run, this is really the most powerful contribution you can make! YOUR data will help everyone better understand distributions of our feathered friends!

Even more fun and personally useful is that eBird will keep your "life list". You can find out all of the birds you have seen in all of your trips. It also tells you specifically what birds you saw where and when.

You can "slice and dice" the data in a variety of ways. You can see what species have been recorded for a particular location, or region, or state. You can see who the main listing birders (no, not the birders who are tilting, the ones who put up lists on eBird) are in any area, and the number of species they have recorded for the area. This gives you some idea of your chances of how many birds you might see there (over time).

You can see the first and last reported dates for each species in the area. You can get to a map of the area for them. You can see bar graph charts like in Allen Chartier's great Birder's Guide to Michigan book, but even for individual locations!

Since I started writing a draft of this note, I actually got Holland Ponds accepted as an eBird HotSpot in Macomb County. It is a well-deserved designation! Now anyone entering data for Holland Ponds can select the location from among the HotSpots. This allows data to be combined into a location list. Powerful! Imagine having data from all the birders who visit Holland Ponds at different times (and with very different levels of experience I might note) combined into a more complete avifauna! What a great thing for Shadbush Nature Center that administers Holland Ponds! (By the way, y'all, I encourage anyone with past Holland Ponds data to try to merge it into the newly designated HotSpot! Please! We love the place and want to see it protected!) Thank you to the Michigan HotSpot coordinator!!!

For "Birding Hotspots" you get a wealth of info. For example, I learned how to go to the birding hotspots already on eBird for Michigan. Robert H. Long Nature Park was one of our favorites last year - great place for Red-Headed Woodpeckers, local shorebirds at certain times, and just a great number of species on a regular day! The following URL will take you there. You will see all reported birds (first reports) for 2010, you can get a great map - even a satellite pic of the area (hey, click around!). Ah, technology is wonderful! Try it by following this link: eBird RH Long

Hey! I am a newbie! I only list the birds in which I am confident of my observations (not too many, but growing). Imagine if all the experienced birders with years of experience took the time to report their observations! Wow! What a data base!

Imagine if all the "local birders" like me just reported the birds that hit their feeders (I record "my deck birds" daily and will start downloading my past lists soon onto eBird)!

One thing to think about when making your field notes is the county lines. For example, Kensington Metro Park and Stoney Creek Metro Park both straddle county lines. Part of the reporting power of eBird is that it can summarize by county - hence you need to know the correct county for your observations. Just check the map sometime, so you will remember the "imaginary" (What do birds care about county lines!) boundaries for your places next time.

Oh. Another really cool thing is that even after you submit your data, you can go back later and make changes. This takes some of the "fear" out of saying you saw something and later finding out you were wrong. For example, I often take photos and look at them much later. If I see that I made a mistaken ID in eBird, I can correct it. I can add the birds I did not know when I shot them. So - fear not!

I sense eBird is making me a better birder. Since they have a place for recording the sex and comments on individual species, I now look more closely. (No, you do not have to do this - it is an option if you want to record details or comments on birds...). Now - at least for my deck birds - I have to pull out the binocs to sex and age the birds when I can. I am forced deeper into the field guides! Was that a juvenile female Cardinal? I am forced to learn more! Instead of just "ticking off" a species, I am starting to "tick off" individuals within a species!

I also now try to count the birds I see. I always had my own scale - "one, a few, many, abundant, dominant". It turns out that this translates reasonably well for eBird. They want a number, but the number is as relative as my own scale. One bird means something - a sighting, a presence. Ten birds - I can count by twos to get this. Forty birds - maybe 35 to 45? A hundred birds is far different than 200 birds, and so on! I was always intimidated with counting birds. Damn things move before I could finish my count! (If I ever tried to count more than 10 birds at a time...). I am compulsive. I wanted precision. I would not "count" because of that! Forget that! Who cares if there were 176 birds or 212? It is the relative number that "counts"! 200 birds are far more than 10 or 100! I'll now "chunk off" maybe 20 birds and just move my binocs or eyes to use that "chunk" to count the birds! I have noticed on eBird that our best birders seem to do that! I often see counts of 100 or 200, but never 186 or 227! I now fear not - I am with the best "counters"!

Yes, I really enjoy eBird (as if you could not tell...).

I really want to express my appreciation to the Cornell University staff and volunteer network for making this great tool available and for being so quick in responses to the few questions I sent them!

eBird is "chinchy"! Try it! It really has made a big difference in how I "bird"!

- "Dr. Bob"

PS, I started this note back in June when I started using eBird. I am just now posting it. I am even more favorable about the site than I was then. I did want to write a longer story, but really, it speaks for itself, so just try it for yourself.

2010-06-27 Wetzel SRA, Macomb County - Dragonflies and Birds

2010-07-16T17:47:00.003-04:00

2010-06-27 Wetzel SRA, Macomb County, 10:00 am - 12:00 noon. Overcast, incredibly humid! Mid 70 degrees.

We had the great fortune to "bird" with Darrin O'Brien today at Wetzel. Well - it was partly about birds. Darrin had his net for collecting dragonflies which are plentiful at Wetzel. He was looking for new Macomb County records. To put the "punch line" up front, I got fewer birds than I usually see at Wetzel. I was looking for dragonflies! If it flaps and flies, it draws my attention and I want to shoot it! And, of course, if I shoot it, I need to learn its name!

This was an incredible learning opportunity! In looking at my notes and comparing my birds with those Darrin saw, listed and shared with me on eBird, I again learned that I tend to see what I look for! I was out with a dragonfly expert and wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity! How did I miss some of those birds I normally recognize? Well, I was looking in my immediate vicinity, and looking closer to the ground. Focus and you will see!

In this pic, Darrin has caught a dragonfly and is comparing it with his "credit card".

Darrin O'Brien - "Stylurus"

Here is a closer image so you can see the size of the bug body.

I am astounded with the technology available to us these days! Actually Darrin is using an iPod Touch and looking at pics of the male claspers of a bluet to compare with the dragonfly in hand. On a "credit card"! Back in the old days, you would have to physically collect the specimen, then spend possibly weeks pouring over the old journals to find a match! With the new technologies, collecting is not really necessary unless it is for a special study or documents a new record. So cool! However, I should also note that anyone expecting a positive ID from just a photo (like I did in the past) needs to consult the recent great article by Nannothemis at the southeastern Michigan dragonfly site: http://urbanodes.blogspot.com/2010/07/identifying-odonata-from-photographs.html

Double striped Bluet

I did well! I think most of my dragonflies are "lifers" for me. It was not a great day for diversity of dragonflies overall. I learned that d'flies are more active in full sunlight. But for my d'fly pic-taking, the overcast made it much better than usual. When we saw them, they were less spooky and tended to stay on something longer.

There will be more d'fly pics in this blog than birds. Here's a neat one!

Twelve-Spotted Skimmer

I got three lifer birds as well! We saw a Ring-necked Pheasant on Werderman Road as we were driving in. Well, maybe not too exciting for many, but it was new for us after over a year of active birding (actually I do not EVER recall seeing one in the field!) - fantastic! No pics - it quickly cruised off into the brush, but it sure was not a turkey!

The "coolest" bird was the Eastern Towhee! I finally know the "Drink Your Tea" song! It's nothing like I had imagined from the words in bird books!!! It is unmistakable. Drink – brief pause – Your (lower – maybe an octave?)- brief pause –Teeeeeeeeee (vibrating - higher - same pitch as Drink ). It turns out that the words in bird books need to be tempered with pitch and cadence to make sense (to be the subject of another blog ). We encountered this bird at least three times.

Eastern Towhee (Lifer)

Here are two Eastern Towhees together

Below is the bird species list copied from the confirming eBird email (Hey, eBird makes it so easy to drop a species list into a blog!). I should note that Darrin had about this many more species in the shared list, but the ones below are what I saw personally. I again refer to "focus and you will see" as a partial explanation.

Oh yes, regarding list discrepancies, there also is the "one small thing" that Darrin is a great birder, similar to Chris and Ed with whom we had the fortune to bird Wetzel before and with similar double-digit discrepancies between what they saw and what I saw. Heck! Darrin is out for bugs, and still doubles my bird list! Maybe some day I'll get there. I do know I am learning all of the time, and have been blessed to have such great mentors!

Location: Wetzel SP
Observation date: 6/27/10
Number of species: 23

Canada Goose 50 - Communal gosling raising! This must be the main orphanage!
Mute Swan 14 - Includes many "kids"!
Ring-necked Pheasant 1 - On Werderman Road between 27 and 28 Mile Roads - Lifer (no pic)
Pied-billed Grebe 3
Great Egret 3
Mourning Dove 2
Northern Flicker 2
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 3
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Marsh Wren 4
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 2 - Heard only
Cedar Waxwing 3
Common Yellowthroat 3 - Heard only
Eastern Towhee 7 - Lifer! Photos.
Field Sparrow 5 - Lifer! Photos.
Savannah Sparrow 8
Song Sparrow 4
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
American Goldfinch 2

Field Sparrow (Lifer)

I shot better pics of the Field Sparrow on a subsequent trip to Wetzel, but I take them as I get them! Well, I gotta put in some more d'flies since these are mostly what I shot.

Halloween Pennant

Calico Pennant

Meadowhawk

Just to close with birds, I offer a couple more pics and a few questions.These birds are not very exciting as records, but we continue to be fascinated with their life style.

"Communal Goosers"

I find it fascinating that Canada Geese are able to pass their offspring off to other geese to raise! We see this every year! No child support problems here! What's the story? What are the relieved parents doing? Are they making new families? What is the species survival gene here - is it in the "passers" or the foster parents? I guess the kids get "passer genes" ("orphan genes"?) and will probably continue the habit with their own offspring, but why would the foster parents just take them on? Do the kids help defend the foster parents? What is the advantage to the new parents?

Goose School

("Follow me. Snake your neck and eat weeds! Stay in formation lest you eat pre-processed weeds!")

And I gotta add a new butterfly for us. It flaps and flies, and doesn't bite, so it counts! I did not shoot any other butterflies today, but we normally see many species at Wetzel.

Common Wood Nymph

A Wetzel map is on the Hiking Michigan site. Wetzel is a great place! Prepare for a few ticks if you get off the maintained trails, but go "bird" - or go "d'fly" or "b'fly" (lots of flappy things!) or just enjoy the walk! Enjoy the outdoors when you can!

http://www.hikingmichigan.com/PDFinfo/WetzelStatePark.pdf

Well maybe it might be better when it is not quite so hot and humid! Most times today I could shoot only a couple of pics before my glasses fogged up. I guess I can handle dripping sweat, but fogged glasses while trying to focus (there is that word again!) is too much! It is good that the camera has auto-focus!

On a different subject, I have a cute thing to share. Judy loves the American Gothic painting by Grant Wood. She has a whole album dedicated to similar pics. It is amazing how many celebs, politicians, cartoon characters, and just regular people have done something similar. Judy and I even made a few ourselves. Anyway, after Judy saw the photo of Darrin and myself that she had taken, she immediately added it to her American Gothic album! Fun!

2010-06-18 Holland Ponds

2010-06-20T22:08:00.001-04:00

2010-06-18 Holland Ponds, 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m., 71 - 76 degrees.

I entered my data into eBird and requested an e-mail be sent to me. The following is what you get almost immediately after you enter and submit your data. I present it this way just to let you know how easy it is! It also shows you that you can add comments in eBird to make it more memorable to you. It's a cinch! You do not even have to type names, just scroll down the expected birds in the area and remember what you saw (or tick them off the list you kept).

From eBird e-mail of what I recorded (I took out extraneous carriage returns):
____________________

Location: Holland Ponds

Observation date: 6/18/10
Number of species: 20

Mallard 4 Flying
Great Blue Heron X The oldest heron "kids" are almost as large as adults and actively flapping wings and "lifting off" the nests. It will not be long before they start leaving!
Mourning Dove X
Belted Kingfisher 1 Heard only
Downy Woodpecker X
Eastern Kingbird X Several. Feeding on bugs over the pond surfaces.
Warbling Vireo X Lovely song. Decent photos!
Blue Jay X
Tree Swallow X
House Wren X Lovely song. Decent photos!
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Yellow Warbler X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X Lots of young in pond-side weeds crying for food. They almost sounded like a short catbird meow.
Common Grackle X
Orchard Oriole X Nice pics! Just east of Waterfowl Pond.
American Goldfinch X
House Sparrow X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
___________________

OK, so now that you have seen the species, here's the comments.

It was a wonderful morning at Holland Ponds. There were no dogs! We saw only one other person out for a walk. The weather was great! We were free!!!

The Warbling Vireo was a new one for us. Fortunately it sat in a few places where I could get a pic. Hey just tell me I got it right please! It had such a melodic song I thought it was a wren. :)

Damn dinky birds are LOUD! And wonderful!

Warbling Vireo

Another damn dinky bird with a LOUD sound - a House Wren! Did you ever try to get pics of these silly dinky birds after trees are leafed out? Am I right? Certainly a lucky pic! Most of the time it was always behind something! I think there were three of these there.

House Wren

We saw several Eastern Kingbirds flying over the pond catching insects. One was nice enough to pose for my best shot ever! I was also lucky enough to get my best pics to these birds just "doing" - i.e., doing the bug-catching thing! They are not as bad as swallows, but it is really hard to catch any bug-eater just "doing"!

The cats were out! We really did see Catbirds! We were fooled quite a few times by young Red-winged Blackbirds requesting food (Now!). They started off with the beginnings of a "meow" and quit. Same pitch and tone as a Catbird. It really fooled us for a bit until we watched the show with responding parents. We never really saw the kids (deep in the shoreside weeds), but it was obvious.

Later we found a Catbird that kept calling for "Harry"! Hair-ry, hair-ry. It was really cool! It was consistent for at least ten minutes, and reminded us of the last time we had a bird that we could name with its sound - the "uh uh" bird in south Florida (Fish Crow) near Ding Darling. We have yet to see/hear a Mockingbird in Michigan, but we'll take a Catbird anytime we hear one! "Hair-ry! Hair-ry"! "Meow"!

Here's a nice pic of a Catbird (Meow!)

And another really great bird! We got our first Orchard Oriole of the year! And it was the best looks we ever had! I am sure they nest there in the same area each year just east of Waterfowl Pond in the woods south of the entrance road. Last year we saw one on the other side of the forest on the middle path in the same area. I suspect there is an additional nesting place west of the gazebo half way to the path to Yates because I saw them there last year, and think I saw one this year (unconfirmed with pic).

Orchard Oriole!

Yes, a great day! Some other "crtitters": butterflies, Painted Turtles, and more, but today the birds were the main attraction! What a place!

Oh, and to end with a pic, here is a pic of a Tree Swallow flying right at me! Wow! These guys are hard to catch in flight anyway, but I just happened to be in the right focal plane!!!

Tree Swallow coming actcha!

Holland Ponds 2010-06-08

2010-06-18T21:47:00.001-04:00

Holland Ponds 2010-06-08 2:00 - 4:00 pm

We had another (mostly) nice day at Holland Ponds. We had a chance to get some great pics of a Belted Kingfisher! Normally we never see them fairly close. They are usually "rattling" (reference to the sound they make) and "doing" far off. We see them flying and then watch for awhile. This time I saw the bird before she saw us (rare indeed - they are about the spookiest birds we try to photograph!). A lady kingfisher just "hanging out" and resting! Wow! Other than that, we did not get too many pics of new birds, but we saw our first mink there!

Any day outdoors always seems to be interesting. We always remember "our song": "da doot de doo doot!", and our mantra: "You never know...". We also know that if you do not get outdoors, you can sing all you want and never have a personal encounter with nature!

Species list (it is not a big list - a very small day at Holland for species):

Cardinal
Mallard - female with 3 large kids
Red-winged Blackbirds
Tree Swallows (1 emerging from nest box)
Catbirds (heard)
Belted Kingfisher (best pics yet!)
American Goldfinches
Mourning Doves
Bluebird (only one. We have not seen as many this year as last year)
Baltimore Oriole
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Robin
Canada Geese (heard only - odd)
Great Blue Herons. Feeding young. Lots of squawking when a parent returned with food. What a ruckus! The "kids" are now about adult height and are testing their wings. It will not be long before they fulfill every parent's desire and leave the nest! I wonder if herons feel remorse when the kids leave? I imagine not. If I were a heron, I would just swallow whatever fish I brought back to the empty nest and take a nap! (Human parents tend to be quite different and wonder what to do next with the rest of their lives).

Great Blue Heron Rookery - What a treasure in our midst!

Feed ME!

Belted Kingfishers - Females!

This is one bird where the prettiest are females. (At least to humans!) I guess the Kingfisher ladies like the "non-scuzzy look" on the chest. No extra belts for them,! The cleaner the better!

Mink!!! Crossed the road between the two small ponds just east of Waterfowl Pond. First time we saw one there. Darn thing was too fast for a pic. It was a great record! (No pics - quick little thing!)

Green Frog (very cooperative for pics!) We call this the "boing frog" because of its sound. Usually it is just "splash and gone" before we even see them!

"Boing Frog"

Can you say "timpanic membrane"?

(Oh, go look it up...I just did because I thought I remembered something from long ago ...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eardrum

Largemouth bass - first one we have seen in the shallows in mid-day. I know this is a great spot for bass for those using refined techniques for fishing shallow areas with lots of snags. (I would not eat anything from here so catch & release!)
Snake - Too quick for a pic or ID!
Butterflies
Dragonflies (several species)

Here's one for code name "Stylurus" (which also just happens to be the Genus for some silly dragonfly...)

James Fox tells me this is a Dot-tailed Whiteface. Thanks James!

The area where the snapping turtles laid eggs last year was showing the ground upheaved and cracking in one place. Action soon!

A down side of the day was when a muzzled un-leashed dog jumped up on me. Basically the dog seemed friendly (thank God!), but his owner was quite scary! A bit shaken after being jumped on, I angrily told him it was a law that dogs be leashed. In response - his testosterone obviously pumping - he threatenly told me to "Chill Out" along with a few other choice words. I think the only thing that saved me from being physically attacked by this man was the fact he was with his family.

Adrenaline (mine) and Testosterone - a scary encounter! You can guess who might win!

One woman (the man's mother?) leashed up the dog and apologized to us for the incident. This incident further emphasizes what we have seen as a growing trend to run unleashed dogs especially at Holland Ponds as well as other places where we bird. In most cases the owners and dogs are reasonable, but many times the owners are indignant that we suggest they follow the laws. Usually we are quite a way from roads and other people, so there is always a concern for what happens if we are really attacked. Yes, carrying a cell phone gives some assurance, but hardly serves as a defensive weapon. I note that the "dog rules sign" at Holland Ponds was never replaced - or maybe it was again torn down. In the case today, the man and his family entered from the trail from Yates Cider Mill, so there should be a set of Rules and Regulations signs posted where the Yates trail enters the Holland Ponds site as well as at the main entrance.

The Calvary Arrives! As in the old movies, just in the nick of time! Whew!

You can see from the pic that the man is restraining both his dog and his son. Sadly, I think the "like father like son" lesson has already taken hold. Maybe today was just another lesson in bonding for them? Now, that is what is really scary! What was the lesson for the kid? "Never let a couple of defenseless Senior Citizens tell you what to do! Show them who is boss!" (No wonder the guy had to muzzle his dog!)

Holland Ponds is a true joy for us. We love going there, and adding to the records of its natural history. It is close. It is an unusual area and very rich in all forms of wildlife.

It needs protection, as do the visitors! Hey, Shelby Twp. Police, the shelter is a great place for lunch, and your occasional presence would be appreciated! I know y'all have gate keys - we have enjoyed seeing you there before. And, Shadbush Nature Center, please be sure the dog rules signs are up! With recent articles in the papers about the heron rookery, more people are learning about the place, and they will probably return to enjoy walks in nature throughout the year.

Wetzel SRA (Macomb County) Michigan - 2010-06-09

2010-06-13T00:09:00.002-04:00

Wetzel SRA (Macomb County) Michigan - 2010-06-09

We birded Wetzel with Ed Lewandowski today. Ed is a great birder and a patient teacher. We picked up three lifers (and another) with his help.

I think the most interesting lesson from today is the same lesson we learned the last time we birded with Ed. It is also the same lesson we learned from Chris Goulart (another great teacher!) at the same site. The birds are there - you just have to know what to expect, and you just have to remain expectant on seeing birds. We will probably always keep learning the same lesson!

I think so often Judy and I go somewhere and walk around and keep seeing the birds we know, and missing the ones we would like to see because we tend not to stay very long in spots where we do not immediately see birds. And, we do not bird new habitats very often. Especially, we do not stay very long in the spots where it is difficult (impossible? ... well almost ...) to get photos. And, on hot days, we are always looking forward to hanging out in the next shady spot (did I ever mention we are "fair weather birders") and tend to miss birds in the more exposed areas. Such is life for seniors or the less inspired among us.

Yes, it is the same story: Keep doing what you always do, and you will get the results you always get.

Here is the species list I wrote on my 3x5 card ("field notes"). I just finished editing and annotating the eBird "shared" list Ed put up. Always the teacher, Ed made me sign up for eBird to see his darn list! Hey! Ebird is easy! I'll tell you about it on another blog.

Here is an extremely hard bird to get! A Sedge Wren! (Lucky shot!)

Sedge Wren !
Yellow Warbler
Robin
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-winged Blackbirds
Great Crested Flycatcher !
Swamp Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Canada Geese (communal gosling raising!)
Song Sparrows
Eastern Kingbird
Mute Swans with cygnets
Bank Swallow !
Savannah Sparrows
Bobolink !
Spotted Sandpiper
Catbirds (H)
Indigo Bunting
Forster's Tern
Northern Flicker
Killdeer (on Werdeman Rd.)
Mallards
Great Egrets
Turkey Vulture
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift "flying cigar" - I now recognize the flying cigar thing, and the next time I will count it as a lifer!
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Chickadee
Cardinal
Grackle
Baltimore Oriole

I think we had 35 species vs. Ed's 49. Not bad at all for us! (Thanks Ed!)

The best birds were the lifers! I always wanted to see a Bobolink (go figure - maybe it was a Dr. Bobolink?)

I got my best pics ever of Savannah Sparrows!

We saw a Spotted Sandpiper walking on the dam (dike) road! And when I approached too closely, it flew off to the normal habitat where we might expect it.

And we got another lifer with the Bank Swallows. Hey! Did you ever try to shoot pics of swallows? If you ever did, you will surely appreciate the fact that these lousy pics show enough field characteristics (banded collar) to appreciate the effort! Heck, Ed, I'll bet you thought I was just damn nuts for trying! Never overlook the power of luck on such a wonderful day! Lifers!

Just to close, I offer a quite good pic of a familiar bird. When they pose, who am I to resist?! They are always asking for a portrait!

Regarding the eBird thing. I am really quite happy my teacher made "me do it". Many of my heroes on the Michigan birders listserv have suggested in many ways that I start listing on eBird rather than keeping my own lists or spreadsheets. They have suggested personal advantages and also told me that I could be helping science. So why did I resist? Ignoring an obvious stupid answer or self reflection and incrimination, I can just say "I tend to keep doing what I have always done".

I think that is where I started. So - having closed the circle I opened near the beginning of this blog - I can only offer: "I hope you enjoyed the story and the pics of our new lifers"!

And I add, be sure to thank your teachers! From teachers, we learn and advance! From complacency or inertia, we just keep "doing".

Cheers! - "Dr. Bob"

ps., after joining eBird, I found out that Ed and Chris have listed more species from Macomb County than anyone else in the world! Wow! I am truly humbled and honored that they invited us and allowed Judy and I to bird with them!!! We have been truly blessed! And, I really understand. A great teacher makes the difference in the lives of so many people! I think they just have to do it! Please always recognize and thank your teachers! Yes, thank you guys so much!

2010-05-20 Magee Marsh

2010-05-21T21:17:00.801-04:00

2010-05-19 and 20. Ohio Trip

I think I finally finished my Ohio blog tonight (June 4, 2010)! Just for info, I dropped a "placeholder" on Blogspot on the 21st. That is why it shows this date.

(By the way, I think "blog" must mean "belated log". Right? Or maybe that is just how it works for me. I may stick out a placeholder dated somewhat around a trip, but it may take a week or more to get around to writing about it. For example, I really started to write this on May 27). I can just imagine what it takes to write a book instead of a "ramble"!

Note: the inderlined things usually are references to web sites for more info. Just roll your cursor over them and if you get the finger (smirk smirk) rather than the arrow, you can click on it and go elsewhere in cyberspace. Then, just use the back arrow at the upper left corner of your browser to return to my story.

Judy and I took a two day trip to northwestern Ohio on Wednesday and Thursday. We purposely avoided the weekends and the projected thousands of visitors for the Biggest Week in American Birding and watched the predicted weather reports to select good days. Yes, we are "fair weather birders". We may not have hit the best birding "migration fallout" the prior Friday, but it was a great trip! This was so much better than a two hour drive each way on the same day, and allowed visiting many more spots.

We spent the night at a reduced rate at a birder-friendly motel in Port Clinton. Our Guest Inn and Suites (419-734-7111) had a special rate for birders, and even would donate part of their proceeds to the Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO)! They have microwaves and fridges in the rooms, so we could take food for both days in our cooler and "recharge it" overnight. What a deal! There also is a Wendys immediately adjacent, and a grocery store two traffic lights east down the main street where you can grab supplies or beer if you forgot anything.

We stopped by Metzger Marsh on the way to Magee Marsh. On our two prior trips, we just drove past the signs to Metzger, Ottawa, etc., even while knowing they offered good things.

Mostly it is the drive out to Metzger that is interesting. We did not walk the wooded area at the end of the road that is supposed to be good at this time, but loved seeing the action in the wetlands enroute. My favorite bird was a Common Moorhen - a new one for us.

Common Moorhen

Then we dropped by the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR) to check it out. It is a beautiful modern facility and is situated on a huge expanse of wetlands. Anxious to get to Magee, we did not walk around then, but went back later in the day (that's what an overnight stay allows you to do!).

I'll start with species lists, and embellish as I go with more of a "ramble".

Metzger Marsh, 19 May 2010 about noon
Refs: Metzger Marsh1, Metzger Marsh2

Great Egret

This was pretty cool! The egret was acting quite a bit like a tern! Hovering and looking. I expected a head-first dive at any moment! I'll drop more egret pics (and other Ohio trip birds) on my PBase site soon (maybe in a week?) . Ever see a hovering egret?

Ring-Billed Gulls

Great Egrets - many

Ring-Billed Gulls - lots
Eastern Kingbirds - 2
Red-Winged Blackbirds - abundant
Swallows (at least Barn, probably Tree as well)
Green Heron (flushed almost at our feet)
Pied-Billed Grebe - 2
Double-Crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron - a few
Cardinal
Robin
Mourning Dove
Turkey Vulture
Common Moorhen !

Green Heron was flushed - fuzzy pic

Common Moorhen

Magee Marsh 19 May 2010, 1:30-4:15 pm

Reference: Friends of Magee Marsh

This was a great day for us! There were not many normal birding pests like mosquitoes or ticks, yet we learned one more critical thing about birding this time of year. Close your mouth! Yes, the normal awe-struck, warbler-necked, head-back, open-mouthed birding thing can be an inhalation and a choking hazard! The cottonwoods chose to present another spring time phenomenon: spring snow! Whew! Well, "Shut my mouth!".

Magee Marsh - spring snow in the parking lot!

Red-Winged Blackbirds - very abundant

Trumpeter Swan (how come Mute Swans are not all over here? Do they not like "wild things"?

Great Egrets (several)

Canada Geese - lots of little goosers - they seem to like walking on the roads (less predation?)

Ring-Billed Gulls - few

Tree Swallows

Wood Thrush
Swainson's Thrush (many!)
Eastern Kingbird
Robin - many
Baltimore Oriole - several
Grackles - many
Prothonorary Warblers (many - a few nest here)
Yellow Warblers - many
Magnolia Warblers - many
Blackburnian Warbler - 1
Grey Catbird - a few
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
House Wren - a couple
American Woodcock ! - 1
White-Throated Sparrow - 1

"Orange-shouldered Flying Dark Duck" - we saw this over a canal, but I was trying to stay on the road and all I really had was a brief impression
"Black-capped, Speckle-breasted Chickadee" - weird variation
Snapping Turtle crossing the road. I stopped and waited to be sure it made it!
Q: Why does a Snapping Turtle cross the road? A: Probably to eat little goosers crossing the road!

Trumpter Swan

Swainson's Thrush

Magnolia Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler

Cross-billed RC Kinglet

(so what's the story on this guy? I missed the Crossbill irruption last year, so this is my first example)

Speckle-breasted Chickadee

The American Woodcock (a lifer for us) was in the same place on both days. Fortunately, Bob, the unofficial "Mayor of the Boardwalk" as we had learned he was called on a previous visit, was watching it and shared its location both days. It was quite aways back in a mini-clearing around marker 6, but fortunately on both days there was sufficient sun to allow pics even at that distance. I found it interesting when reviewing my pics that it was hard to tell if I were looking at the back or front of its head. It seemed like it was always watching me! The big eyes and head markings created this strange illusion. I suspect that anything creeping up on the bird would have the same reaction! "I can't pounce now, it's looking at me!" Interesting!

American Woodcock

... and at the Magee Sportsmen's Center during lunch under a tree, we added:

Barn Swallows (they nest in the eaves)
Purple Martins (in birdie condos)
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
and another Yellow Warbler.

Judy shot nice pics of all of these.

We went back to ONWR after using the Magee facilities and having our nice picnic outside the Sportsmen's Center. We had heard that the "Entrance Pool" at the beginning of the road to the hiking trails often held good birds, but without getting out of the car did not see much. We parked and examined the "Show Pool" and saw little action. Then we walked out to the Observation Platform in quad 8B. Along the way, we saw several Yellow Warblers, many Great Egrets, and a Great Blue Heron, and flushed a Black-crowned Night Heron, but not too many other species of note. Interestingly, quite often the Great Egrets were being hassled by Red-Winged Blackbirds. Maybe they were too close to the RWBB nests?

Black-crowned Night Heron flushed and flying

Then we went back to Metzger Marsh to see the "evening birds". We were very disappointed to discover that it was not very interesting at all. The good birds of the morning were not present in the marshes. I suspect this was because there was a local bass club tournament in progress. They had launched their small boats from a site on the marsh near the end of the drive, and a half-dozen boats were plying the marsh.

Yet another reason for us to visit the area again! As a bass fisherman, I had seen wonderful potential in all of the areas we visited in the morning! Maybe I had not quite reached the drooling stage, but damn, I wanted a rod in my hand! Maybe next year a non-resident fishing license is in the cards?

So ... we were now at Metzger Marsh. By this time we were quite burned out (it was quite warm) and looking forward to seeing our pics - geez, digital pics are so great! - and headed off to the motel.

Enroute to Port Clinton, I kept my eyes out for a special Marathon station (thank you list birders!!! - or was it the trip report from Macomb Audubon Society? Anyway, the fore-insight was great!). I managed to pass it, but found a place for turning around. Judy wondered about what I was doing, and when I pulled into the station with an attached restaurant she thought I was taking her out to dinner. She said, "I thought we had Wendys coupons", and was really wanting to get to the motel. The restaurant looked like a classic cafe and the bass fisherman in me wondered about the stories I might hear there - maybe another time! But the real suprise for Judy came when I pulled behind the station and parked in view of a big dumpster. After a moment she noticed there were weird birds sitting on the dumpster! Black-crowned Night Herons (BCNH)! We never had a chance to see any closely before. There were at least six on the rims of the dumpster. We shot lots of pics! In my excitement, I had again changed the darn knob on top of my camera, so my pics were over-exposed and lousy, but Judy got some decent pics.

BCNH Judy pics

The dumpster held the carcasses of the fish from the nearby cleaning station. I always knew gulls were opportunistic feeders of dead fish, but this was a great first for me! BCNH!!! Yes, I think it is predictable and consistent here! We went back the next morning enroute to Magee, and saw only one BCNH there. I suspect it is better in the evenings - "fresh fish"! And maybe the approaching night has something to do with it - after all, they are not called "day herons". (I gotta look this up sometime...). It is better if you are upwind - whew!. The dumpster scene recalls to mind the opening lines from Steinbeck's Cannery Row, especially the "stink" part, but the poetic part was apparent as well as odd noises. What a wonderful side trip. Judy will always remember this!!! (Again, thanks list birders!).

My BCHN pics the following morning.
Only one bird was present in the area, but he posed beautifully!

We repaired to the motel for recharging our camera batteries as well as our own.

The next day, we started with a breakfast at the Subway across the street from the motel. We still had half of our half-gallon of milk from the grocery and took that and Subway breakfast sandwiches to picnic tables overlooking the river. Yes, we again handed out "birders calling cards" from the Magee Marsh volunteers for our breakfast - it is good to give credit for birding economics to the area businesses! I think maybe we even got another discount because of this. We did not see many birds other than swallows and gulls, but heard an oriole singing across the river. It was a lovely relaxed start to a day. We watched as they tested the drawbridge on the main road into Port Clinton.

Port Clinton harbor - a nice place for breakfast

Then we headed back to Magee.

2010-05-20 Magee Marsh, 9:00 am - 12:30 pm

We did not add many different species today. The numbers were less, as well as the diversity. We again saw the Woodcock (!), and picked up:

Wilson's Warbler
Ovenbird
and several American Redstarts.

We shot a great snake sunning itself on a tree, and I saved a baby turtle who was in the middle to the road at the parking lot. As I carried it to the woods by the boardwalk, one of the birders told me to be sure to wash my hands because turtles carry lots of Salmonella. Wipes!!! Just fine - I had saved another turtle's life! It looked like a little rock in the road to me, yet it was moving. Cute little thing! I thank Steve Pendleton from the Ohio birders list for the snake ID and Jim Fowler from the Michigan list for the turtle ID. The snake has a very limited distribution near the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio. The map turtle gets it's name from the fine yellow lines on the back of the shell that somewhat resemble the lines on a topographic map.

Eastern Fox Snake

baby Northern Map Turtle (Graptemys geographica)

I shot a nice "chin-dot warbler", and suspect it is an American Redstart as well. Am I right?

"chin-dot warbler"

Then we were ready for lunch and headed to the Magee Sportsmen's Center. It was closed! There was a district-wide meeting that day. I did not understand then, but now I do. I really appreciate the responses to an e-mail I sent out to the Ohio birders list about this. Several birders in response to my e-mail also expressed disappointment - it is amazing how many people were impacted on just one day! I had apologetic replies from all of the local Ohio Division of Wildlife employees including the superintendent to whom they forwarded my message. It was a necessary one-shot event and everyone recognized they could have timed it better. Ohio regulations do not allow volunteers to staff a site without state employees present. No problem really, just confusing.

So we went off to ONWR. It was open. It turns out ONWR is a federal facility, rather than an Ohio state facility. It falls under different regulations relative to volunteer staffing. Refreshed, we ate a nice picnic in the shelter out back. This is really a place that deserves much more exploration on our future visits! We did not bird the hikes or dikes this day. We were ready to head home.

We went back to Metzger Marsh enroute to home. Again we saw the Common Moorhen. It may be "common", but it's our poor-man's version of the Purple Gallinule recently reported on birding lists! Cool bird!

To summarize, this was a fantastic trip! The overnight stay really helps! Instead of getting there mid-day, we could arise at a decent time the following morning, share breakfast outdoors at the harbor, and still get to Magee Marsh before we normally would have arrived. It allowed a possibility of seeing evening birds (well, they were not quite as good as expected - wrong place, wrong time - we tried), but mostly it gave us the time to be more relaxed together outdoors rather than sitting on freeways. Highly recommended for a repeat! In my humble opinion, it sure beats the heck out of Point Pelee in Ontario where we visited last year. 1) No border hassles, and more importantly 2) much better photo ops - the birds are really cooperative! It also sounds like Pelee is getting overgrown by garlic mustard so the understory birds we found so compelling at Magee are unlikely to be abundant until they address the problem! (Message to Pelee: I think the Magee mustard pullers are about halfway done on a seven year project - and without herbicides. They are dedicated and are doing great! Start something soon, "Pelee please"!)

I really appreciate anyone reading my words to this point. Yes, I tend to "ramble". But "it is my story" and I get to do that. I personally like rambles. If you have a bird blog going, please let me know!

So here is what I think I just did.

I wrote about a wonderful trip Judy and I took to NW Ohio this May to see a special bird migration event. I hope I suggested that this is a wonderful place to visit - especially in the spring!
I documented our bird lists. Our lists are not very comprehensive. They are not great lists compared with experienced birders, but this is what we saw personally! We caught several new species for us. (Hey! If we can see and count new birds as inexperienced as we are, you can certainly get new birds there!)
I shared a few of our photos from our trip. Most of these are not fantastic shots compared with the ones I presume the pros shot with the optical goodies we saw on the boardwalk, but we shot them ourselves! It was great for us! Anyone with any type of camera (even cell phones!) can expect at least a few pics of good birds along the boardwalk at this time! Many birds really do "get up close and personal" in the spring - even on "off days" !

I hope I have made our trip interesting. I hope my words encourage you to take a trip to NW Ohio in spring next year. In my mind, if we can do it, YOU can!

Go bird! And, please tell me about it! I hope you enjoyed my "story"!

"Dr. Bob" (doctorbass@comcast.net)

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Having "caught the fever", next year we will certainly return to NW Ohio. Maybe we can try to stay several days. I tried to embed reference URLs (the fickle finger pointer thing) as I went, but here are a couple main references that include significant sites with maps for pre-planning:

To get energized and to help set our expectations next year, I will check out the blog by Kenn and Kim Kaufman, and if they are doing the Biggest Week in American Birding again, I will watch that site faithfully. Through the Kaufman, the Biggest Week and other sites referenced previously, you can get about all the maps and info you need to make this a truly fantastic event! I sincerely thank Kenn and Kim Kaufman and all of the wonderful Ohio birders and agencies for putting it all out there for us! Wow! This was truly a fantastic experience!

Oh, heck, even as much as we dislike crowds, we will probably go back next year at the height of the frenzy! There is such an advantage - especially for newbies like us - to having helpful birders and experienced photographers willing to share their information. No wonder people come from all over the USA and the world to be there!

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Your comments are welcome. Maybe I mis-identified some birds; please correct me. Maybe you have something to add about behaviors on which I only speculate. Maybe you have something nice to say. I do like encouragement! If you have something yukky to say, please pass. I happen to think this is one of my better "rambles"!

Wetzel SRA (Macomb County) Michigan

2010-05-02T10:42:00.002-04:00

2010-04-30 9:30 am - 12:30 pm

Judy and I were fortunate to be able to bird Wetzel with Chris Goulart today. Chris is an outstanding birder and knows Wetzel very well. We were especially impressed with his "birding by ear"! Even through the annoying flyovers of Selfridge helicopters, Chris would pick up the sound of a bird, point and make an excellent melodic vocal imitation to tell us what to listen for, and we could hear the bird. So cool! Or sometimes he would call up the bird song on his phone. What technology is available now!

It was really interesting when Brian McGee wandered up. He and Chris would go back and forth with "That's a (some bird)" and all without seeing it. Wow, I have a long way to go!

Chris walked us around a new area at Wetzel we had not visited before - the loop at the northern end of the southern ponds. He had specific birds he sought at certain locations. For the most part we did not find the special birds, but we sure learned a lot! Chris is a great teacher! It was a wonderful day.

I'll post a couple of pics later. Here is the species list. I note that I am including only the birds and critters I saw. Chris' list would include a dozen or more additional ones he heard.

Mute Swans - several, many on nests
Canada Geese - several, including one family with 6 new babies
Mallards - a few
Forster's Terns - several - two pairs apparently nesting
Turkey Vulture - 3
Red-Tailed Hawk -2
White-crowned Sparrow - several
Savannah Sparrow - uncommon
Goldfinch - several
Blue Jay - a few; one flock of 7 flew by
Yellow Warbler - several
Tree Swallows - a few
Rough-winged Swallow - 2 flying over lake
Cowbird - a few
Bufflehead - 1 female
Spotted Sandpiper - 2 (small; characteristic flight low over the lake with rapid wingbeats)
Black-crowned Night Heron - 1 (being chased in air by two Forster's Terns! Chris said the only bird he has seen the terns chase is the BCNH)
White-breasted Nuthatch - heard
Northern Flicker - heard
Chipping Sparrow

Some other wildlife:
Leopard Frog (a first!) - a few cooperated for pics
Butterflies:
     Mourning Cloak
     Red Admiral (a first!)
     A dinky blue one
     A dinky white one
     A small light yellow one
Tent Caterpillars (finally found out what made these silky homes full of crawlies - I learned that it is a moth)
A fish-fly relative
A medium-sized dragonfly - could not get close enough for a pic

Crane Creek State Park (Magee Marsh) Ohio

2010-04-28T18:09:00.005-04:00

2010-04-27 11:00 am - 3:00 pm Magee Marsh

This was the first time we ever went there. Last year as a new birder I kept reading about this special place from postings by Michigan birders. Yes, it is a great place, and I can see where it might really be "magical" at times! I wanted to go before the leaves obscured the birds (so we could take photos) and before the crowds of birders arrived. Mission accomplished! We caught two "lifers" plus a mink never seen where I shot it at the beginning of the boardwalk! Judy called out "Critter!" while I was changing my memory card (go figure, the one time I needed to do this!) and yet I managed to get the camera up before he left!

Magee Mink!

There were a few people from a local bird club pulling the invasive Garlic Mustard in the area and when I showed my pics to one of them, he walked me around to show it to the rest - including the "Mayor of the Boardwalk" - so I know it was a really cool sighting! Retrospectively, it was probably the presence of the club members off the boardwalk that spooked the mink to run. These are the only good mink pics I ever shot!

There were only about a dozen or so (10 to 20) birders on the boardwalk. It was great! Everyone was very friendly and helpful with what we saw - with the exception of one photographer who kept getting in front of me when I saw a bird. A "fancy lens a...ole" he was. He probably sells his photos. I just wonder if we could ever find out how to sort out reputable photographers from the trash? I was so upset I did not want to ask for his card or website. You probably know the type - if not this specific trash guy.

Anyway, my pics are free as usual. If I ever get a good one that you want, just let me know and I can sell you a higher quality one very cheaply - or just give it to you. I wish I had a fancy lens , but I am quite happy that my 70-300 mm catches some good stuff. Well, the secret is (sssh!): shoot lots, delete 90%, and just go birding and have fun!

Ed Levandowski had told me thatI would get all the Ruby-crowned Kinglets I wanted at Magee. Well, he was almost right! I saw lots! But these guys were so cool, I still want more! Even though I caught the red crown, I would love to see it raised more!

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Another "lifer" was the White-throated Sparrow. I saw them a couple of times, but the most interesting thing was watching them "leaf-rustling" near the beginning of the boardwalk. These guys and a House Wren were lots of fun as they picked through the leaves - looking for bugs I think. Besides them, a female Red-winged Blackbird was doing the same thing, but I had seen it before, so it did not impress me so much.

White-throated Sparrow

House Wren on tree before "leaf rustling"

OK, so here are a couple of pics for discussion. I thought I was shooting a Great Egret, and just liked the posing and fishing, but after I saw the pics I think I might have caught the mythical "Great White Heron". What do you think? The bill is black or dark on the upper side and is very thick!

"Great White Heron"

Not too many warblers seen yet. A Palm Warbler and a Yellow-rumped Warbler (aka, "butter butt").

Palm Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Here is the species list:

Purple Martins - lots - nesting at park office ( I shot my best pics so far - they were very close!)
Barn Swallows - lots - nesting at park office
Tree Swallows- lots
Great Egret- 5
Robins
Cardinals
Red-Winged Blackbirds - lots
Rusty Blackbird?
Palm Warbler - 1
Yellow-Rumped Warbler - 2
Double-Crested Cormorants - 6
Kingfisher (heard)
Ruby-Crowned Kinglets (many) (Lifer!)
Mallard - a few
Goldfinch
Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher - few
White-Throated Sparrow - a few (Lifer!)
House Wren - a few
Eastern Phoebe?
Hermit Thrush - 2
Great Blue Heron - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Grackles - many
Painted Turtles - 5
Mink - 1

OK, to close with a pic, here is the best Painted Turtle pic I ever shot. Cute!

We will be going back next week (mid-week) to see perhaps some "magic" - like the "raining warblers" gestalt some website mentioned for this time period!

Go Bird! Go Magee Marsh!

2010-04-11 Wetzel State Rec Area, Michigan

2010-04-13T20:05:00.018-04:00

2010-04-11 Wetzel State Rec Area, Michigan 2:30 - 4:15 pm

Judy and I made a trip through Stoney Creek Metro Park to Wetzel State Recreation Area to look for birds.

We had a great picnic at Stoney (Thanks Judy! The mix of olives and pickles in the same bag was great!). By chance we met Jan Olesen at two places there, and as we spoke with her at Baypoint Beach she pointed out a lovely Eastern Bluebird atop a tree. I guess I generally ignore tree-toppers right now thinking they are RWBB or Robins. This was nice for autofocus cameras! No sticks in the way! Judy got her best Bluebird shot!

Previously while walking the Nature Center trails I shot a camo moth amid leaves. It always buried its head into the leaves. I think this worked for two reasons. First, it seemed like a deer - "if I can't see you, you can't see me"! (Yeah, but your butt is hanging out...). And, second, it was indeed the perfect camo!

Anyone know the name of this moth?

Then we went to Wetzel State Rec Area in Macomb County. This was the first time we had gone there. Ed Lewandowski told me about recent good birds there and I always listen to Ed. I was especially interested in the Ruddy Ducks. I had mentioned to Jan at Stoney that we would probably go to Wetzel, and by the time we had finished our lunch at Stoney Creek and arrived at Wetzel, Jan was just leaving. She told us exactly where the Ruddy Ducks were found. All of the good birds were in the southwest lake of the northern set of ponds. Got that? Well check out the DNR map of Wetzel and you can see what I mean:

http://www.fowsra.org/aerial%20map.htm

Wetzel is a really neat area now! I think in the summer it will be incredibly hot (no shade around the paths around the lakes!) and probably no ducks. Previously I had seen a video of Wetzel taken from a camera in an RC airplane. OK, I thought. Interesting. Well I got 4 when I added 2+2. The DNR pic had "airstrip" as part of the legend. I thought a small private air field. It turns out there is a very active Macomb County RC group that leases part of Wetzel as an airstrip for remote-controlled planes. The DNR keeps it mowed for them, and I was told by a member that this is active almost any day - especially on weekends. Cool! A private airstrip for RC craft! The buzzing did not seem to bother the birds at all. I think the club has been there since 1967 - I forget - well a long time anyway. And RC planes do not have the same silouhette as raptors. OK. For a "trippy" video of Wetzel using a one ounce cam on a RC plane check out:
http://www.rcuvideos.com/video/DH-2-Patrols-RCCD-Field
1) Amazing to put a video cam on an RC plane!!! What technology!
2) You have to check out the DNR map and then go there to appreciate what you are seeing! The pilot was not looking for ducks!

Oh, am I rambling? Sure! It's all fun! I tried to stay away from the airfield other than a cursory look at the activities lest I covet yet another flying object! However, next time (having gotten our present Object of Desire -think Bunuel movie- Ruddy Ducks) we will probably check out the action. I can easily imagine wanting a plane! (Yet with forseeable finances, never...)

Time for a pic. There were lots of Mute Swans (hated by many, but still so beautiful and interesting!) building nests around Wetzel (lakes near main entrance). Some of these nests rise many feet above the lakes! I mean many feet (like 4 feet)! Some of the birds are really compulsive! We watched one closely for awhile.

It just has to be perfect!

Oh - just go soak your head!

I highly recommend Weztzel SRA now. It has good accessible paths (well, a bit wet if coming up from the southern entrance) and clean primitive fixed restrooms in two locations and really good ducks! I am not good with the bitty flighty feathered things coming soon, but the mid-height vegetation along the margins of the southwest lake of the northern group sure looked interesting for possibilities soon.

Lest I ramble too far and miss my dinner, I offer a few pics and a species list.

Common Merganser and Killdeer

Common Merganser and GW Teal

Lady Merganser

We got our Ruddy Ducks! "Tippy Tails"! Lifers!

When you see us in the field, please forgive our wrap-around shades! It's an age thing (also smart!).

But be sure to say "Hi" to us!

We dipped on the Shovelers seen by Ed and Jan, and the Greater Yellowlegs seen by Jan, but here's our list of wet birds (most from SW lake in N quad):

Ring-Necked Ducks - 2 dozen - most abundant

Ruddy Ducks - 8 (4 pair)

Common Merganser -2 (one pair)

Mute Swans - 11 (+ several more mostly nesting - on the more northern ponds)

Buffleheads - 3 (1 pair + 1)

Redheads - 3

Mallards - 2 (1 pair)

Green-Winged Teal - 1 female

Killdeer - 1

I hope you enjoyed the ramble. Go check out Wetzel soon! We will be going back!

Thanks to Ed Lewandowski who told us where to go; and Mike Mencotti who told us about the tails recognizable from a distance; and to Jan Olesen who specifically told us where they were that day! Hey! It took three experienced birders to put us on Ruddy Ducks, but we got them! Thanks so much!

A great day!!!

2010-03-15 Holland Ponds - sitting herons and more!

2010-03-16T00:02:00.001-04:00

2010-03-15 Holland Ponds: 3:45-5:45 pm, sunny, mid-50 degrees

Judy and I went to Holland Ponds enroute to a grocery store we learned had a special hopper machine for recycling aluminum cans. Cool! We dropped in a bag, and it fed them through a machine and gave a receipt! Much faster and less messy for us than the normal single-feed machines! (Hollywood Market on Auburn in Shelby Twp). They also have a great "chicken meatloaf" (that no one makes meatloaf from) in the meat department - just fry up some patties! Good stuff!

Anyway, on to birding. (Pics to be posted later, story now...)

The best catch at Holland Ponds today was getting great pics of Ring-necked Ducks. A first for here! There were four pair on "Waterfowl Pond".

When we saw the nesting Great Blue Herons (GBH) today, there were seven (six standing) on the nests. We had observed another fly off as we approached. Maybe the same eight we saw last time (reported on the birders list on 3/6/2010). After a few minutes of watching, all of the birds except one dropped down into the nests with only their heads visible. So the big question is: are they sitting on eggs already, or did they just get tired of standing? I suspect the former. Today there were birds on all five of the larger nests where we saw the most activity last year. The nests look like they survived the winter intact! These birds are amazing architects and engineers - especially considering that they only have long bills (and "bird brains") as the implements to design, procure and build things!!! These nests have withstood winter's ravages of snow, ice, and unbuffered high winds! Forget the Army Corps of Engineers - hire a GBH!

Species list:
Kingfisher - 1 (Busy - rattling around Waterfowl Pond and flying through forest areas east and west)
Red-winged Blackbirds - at least 6
Robin - at least 2
Mallards (mostly paired) - 14
Canada Geese - 12 (honking, pairing, claiming the good spots - a wonderful noise!) Last year and now I always think of the starting words of Steinbeck's Cannery Row! This excitement will only get louder and more wonderfully noisy for awhile! John Steinbeck began his story this way: "Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light... a nostalgia, a dream." (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1252560)
(BTW, I was fortunate in patterning my life after "Doc" and actually living it in California for a decade or more! Yes! I miss the ocean!)

Blue Jays - Several
Crow (H)
Starlings - 7
Goldfinch - 1 seen, others heard
Mourning Dove - 1
Ring-Billed Ducks - four pairs in "Waterfowl Pond" -a first at Holland for us!

As we were leaving Holland Ponds, we met John and his wife with an amazing dog "Dingo" (yes, on a leash! - so many Holland Pond visitors think it is their God-given right - or something - to allow dogs to run free -impacting not only us humans with their crap but also greatly disturbing the nature park residents!). He introduced himself to me as John, and I replied "Bob". He asked if I were "Dr. Bob". "Yes". Well, it "made" Judy's day! (OK, mine as well...). Judy is just fascinated that people we do not know seem to know me through my blog and postings on the birder's list! It's just fun! She always writes down the encounters in her journal!
I was so impressed with the markings and behavior of John's dog (Australian Blue Heeler, Australian Cattle Dog) I looked it up. The best pic matching the dog we saw is at :
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/australiancattledog.htm

"Dingo" is a lovely coarse-haired, beautifully-colored dog (including some underside "rufus" coloring I normally associate only with birds) and Dingo was perfectly wonderful - even when an unleashed dog and owner went by. Well trained! Yes, a dog is what the owners train it to be! I am not a "dog person", but encounters like this make me wonder if I could be. Judy loves most dogs but in our condo it would be a great injustice for a dog like this!

Oh, am I rambling? Well I guess you probably knew that this is what I do before you clicked the link!

John mentioned that he had shot a pair of Hooded Mergansers and (significantly!) a pair of "courting" Kingfishers at Waterfowl Pond recently this year. He observed the Kingfishers together in two places at the pond. (Geez! It is hard to see one, much less two together! Cool!)

Yes! We love Holland Ponds. They are close for a spur of the moment trip to get outdoors, and we started watching them last year thanks to Jan and the birders list. And, I think it is really important to watch a few specific sites through the whole year to really understand them. We have met several birders who do this at different spots. Please continue to do so and share your insights!
No Tree Swallows or Bluebirds or warblers yet. They will come soon!

Ah, spring!

"Dr. Bob"

3/09/2010 Flying Goldeneyes are in town. Scaup! Scaup!

2010-03-10T18:37:00.009-05:00

3/09/2010 Beaudette Park, Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan
2:15-3:15 pm, very light overcast, temps in mid-50s! Outstanding March day!!!

There was still some snow and ice left, but I think it has reached the time of year when we laugh at snow! If it comes now, it will go soon! Ha!

Judy and I took a brief interlude and had a wonderful early spring day at Beaudette Park. We saw more wonderful ducks than ever before! Literally hundreds! They blanketed the water in many places! Well maybe not a blanket, more of a quilt, but there were lots and lots of ducks! I am here making a blog separately from my newly created Beaudette blog because I want to insert some pics and I am inspired to write a longer story.

I love the title I gave to my blog - The Flying Goldeneyes! It suggests a name for a family of trapeze artists! It recalls wonderful memories of the traveling amusements that mesmerized cities before reality shows! I initially considered it might have been a good name for a new rock band, but realized it was certainly not "heavy" enough for today's tastes! I guess I am still more into the Sargent Pepper days. Like who today would go see Flying Goldeneyes when you could see a 9 Inch Nail (huh?) or a bunch of Bare Naked Ladies who are all men? Forget rock bands!
This is a wonderfully lucky photo. I heard and saw them coming. Shoot Shoot! Shoot! Fortunately a couple of pics were in focus! Yes. This is much better than my previous flying Hooded Merganser shot! Hey, Jerry! I'm getting better! (Or is it just more lucky this time?)

The Flying Goldeneyes

Another very lucky shot of flight happened when I heard the birds that always seem to need oil in their wing pits - Mute Swans. They may not talk much, but you always know when they are flying around! I took several shots as they headed toward me. Most of them amazingly turned out! This pic gives a bit a of the crowd scene on the water behind.

Silent Swan a'Swinging

I just love the sound of the word "scaup" and the feeling as it issues forth! It is a wonderful exclamation of joy! Scaup! Scaup! We saw our first scaup at Beaudette. I think it is a Greater Scaup. Yes?

Scaup! Scaup!

I am going to drop in a couple of "crowd shots" of the bird quilt at Beaudette for my own memories and also for Colleen and the Macomb Audubon Society to generate some excitement about the field trip this coming Saturday. No guarantees, Colleen - these darn flappy things are so flighty (sic)! but we sure love this place, are we are looking forward to a great Chinese lunch afterwards! Dim sum, perhaps?

ref: Go to: http://www.macombaudubon.org/

(Click on Field Trips 2010, go to number 4. If Dawson's Mill Pond or Beaudette Park does not appear on the map, zoom out or scroll slightly left until you see its marker...)

I am throwing out a few "crowd shots" - not great pics, but you can get the idea of abundance!

Crowd Shot with Bufflehead, Canvasbacks and Redheads

Dam crowd shot - these represent maybe 1/4 of the total population on the pond

Crowd shot with at least five species - look in your books and get ready

Yes, scopes would be fantastic, but here you only need binocs or even 300 mm camera telephotos (as you see). Hope for the dogs on the opposite bank to help keep the birds on our side - but even if they do not, the distance is not too far!

Species list:

Canvasbacks - at least 200 hundred!!!

Redheads - dozens

Goldeneyes - dozens

Buffleheads - a few - less than half a dozen

Ring-Necked Ducks - ca. two dozen (Why are they not called ring-billed ducks???)

Mute Swans - 7 (about half as many as usual)

No black-billed swans seen...

Mallards - many fewer than usual for this normally dominant species - interesting! Maybe only a dozen or so.

Hooded Mergansers - only 2 (m/f)

Greater (?) Scaup - first seen (Scaup! Scaup!)

Canada Geese - 11 (most seen there for a month)

Herring Gull - 1

Ring-Billed Gull - 2

Cardinal - 1f

Crow -2

Why do I count in dozens?

1) I guess it is much easier than taking the time to actually count them. I would rather shoot hundreds of pics and hope something is worth printing than go "1,2,3... birds on the lake" (sound like a good song for "going up north" with kids in the car...). Judy and I get more pleasure at present from reviewing our pics together than from actual numbers of birds seen. Just seeing the bird as being present is enough! One bird pic in hand is worth far more than a missed opportunity. Of course, if I go to posting results on e-bird (after going out with Ed Lewandowski, I am actually thinking about it), I might be pushed into more accurate counts...

2) It is a good "gestalt". I have seen many egg cartons in my life. I know whether there are more or less than a dozen.

3) It seems appropriate - like what's in an egg carton anyway but an uncounted bird?

4) Oh. I did shoot a panorama for reference (ala Jerry J.) but have no idea how to put it together yet and wonder if it would be meaningful to me to count the birds if I did take the days to do so. (Hey! I am only entering my second year of birding!) Yet, Jerry's pics were just so fantastically amazing I must try it - even if I do not bother to count the birds!

5) I normally use my own vocabulary for abundance. It goes something like: a few, several, many, lots, abundant, dominant, or I use a specific number for those species with less than 6 or so. Actually I have calibrated and tested my qualitative scale for consistency with a range of numbers to substantiate my assessment. It seems fairly consistent. For this trip there were just so darn many birds I had to move the scale up a notch to the next power! Rather than going with the scientifically-copasetic metric, I reverted to the familiar English (?) system.

I hope you enjoyed my story! Enjoy spring birding!!!

" Dr. Bob"

Beaudette Park (Dawsons Mill Pond), Oakland County - Winter 2010 sightings

2010-03-05T19:19:00.004-05:00

I am making a blog within a blog where I can add bird sightings at Beaudette Park (Dawsons Mill Pond) off Orchard Lake Road near Telegraph Road in Pontiac, Michigan. Judy and I have really enjoyed this park recently. It has open water in winter due to the fact that there is moving water that comes from Sylvan Lake through Dawsons Mill Pond at Beaudette Park, and down a dam into the Clinton River. It is a great place to see "fancy ducks" - the diving ducks - and also potentially three species of swans. I can now just edit this blog with new sightings as we record them. (Thanks to Ed Lewandowski for giving me the idea of a blog within a blog through his blog with birds reported by county by observation!) (You can go see Ed's blog by checking the blogs to which I subscribe).

You can see a Google map for Beaudette at:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=42.6244771+-83.3202137

4/01/2010 Too nice for ducks
3:00-3:30 pm Sunny, warm
A lovely day, but almost all ducks have left. It is so different than a couple of weeks ago! Several people were fishing today.
Mallards: 2 pair
Wood Ducks: one pair
Kingfisher (got a couple of decent photos)
American Black Duck - 1 female
Mute Swan - 1
Muskrat
Crow
RWBB
Robin
Starlings

3/09/2010 Flying Goldeneyes are in town. Scaup! Scaup!
2:15-3:15 pm, very light overcast, temps in mid-50s!
Judy and I had a wonderful early spring day at Beaudette Park. We saw more wonderful ducks than ever before! Literally hundreds! They blanketed the water in many places! Well maybe not a blanket, more of a quilt. Please go see my separate blog for this date.

3/04/2010 12:45-1:30 pm, sunny, low 40s
Mallards - abundant, most common
Canvasbacks - lots
Redheads - lots
Goldeneye - many
Bufflehead - a few - both male & female
American Black Duck - 2
Mute Swan - a dozen
Trumpeter Swan - 1
Ring-billed Gulls - 2
Blue Jays - 2
American Crow - 2
Cardinal - 1 female
No "critters" (muskrats) observed today

2/20/2010
Beaudette Park was again more interesting. It’s back to what we like to see!
21 Mute Swans
1 Trumpeter Swan (just sitting at the edge of the pond – an outcast no doubt)
Canvasbacks were back (lots)
Redheads (lots)
20 Goldeneye
2 Ring-necked Ducks
6 Hooded Mergansers
Mallards (lots)
Ring-billed Gull (oddly gulls seem to be unusual there)
Wood Duck - 1 female
Canada Geese - 3

2/19/2010
Beaudette Park yielded only Mute Swans and Mallards, plus 5 Goldeneyes. Every day the variety diminishes. Yesterday we also saw many Redheads, a few Hooded Mergansers and 2 Black Ducks as well – still nothing like a week ago.

2/18/2010
Mute Swans - 18
(no black-billed swans)
Hooded Mergansers - a few
Redheads - many
American Black Ducks - 2
Goldeneye
Mallards - lots
Dark-eyed Juncos - 6
American Crows - 5

2/06/2010 3:00-3:20 pm, 24 degrees, medium wind (too freezing to stay out long!), sunny
Canvasbacks - lots
Redhead - several
Mallards - abundant - dominant
Mute Swans - about a dozen
Ring-Necked Ducks - 5 male
Hooded Mergansers - many - male and female
Bufflehead - 1 male
Goldeneye - a few
American Black Duck - 1
Trumper Swan - one heard trumpeting out of sight around the wooded point
American Crow

2/04/2010
See my illustrated blog posted on that date - this was our first visit. It was very exciting to find special birds so close to us in Oakland County! This will probably be our favorite winter "get away" = "staycation"!