Little Bird Nerd: bird

Sunday, July 16, 2017

A Big Day of Birding Michigan & Ohio

Aka Andrew's and my 2nd annual midsummer hot day of Michigan & Ohio birding

Aka birding in the "kitten" and the "mitten" (just kidding- no one really said that)

On 7/16/17, Andrew Simon and I embarked on a Big Day of birding in Michigan and Ohio. Last year's trip yielded me a few life birds (birds seen for the first time), including Lark Sparrows at Oak Openings in Ohio, Dickcissel along farm roads near Ann Arbor, and a Franklin's Gull and Black Tern at Pointe Mouillee in Monroe.

This year, we wanted to start earlier and hit more places, hoping to pick up a few more lifers. Targets included a few birds that had popped up recently, a Wood Stork in Ohio and a Yellow-crowned Night Heron in both states; a continuing Western Meadowlark in Michigan just north of the Ohio border; and reliable Summer Tanagers at Oak Openings. During the course of the day, we also found out we'd have access to a possible third lifer (for me), a Northern Bobwhite (thank you Lori & Bunny!), which made for an excellent bonus stop. We ended the day with 93 avian species, one lone pigeon being our last.

I walked away with three lifers, although I was unable to get decent pics of any of them:

#277 - Western Meadowlark (MI)

poorly lit photo

#278 - Summer Tanager (OH)

#279 - Northern Bobwhite (OH)

We did not find our targets of Wood Stork or Yellow-crowned Night Heron, though I did see some cute cats (sorry to those who might own these cats, if this is creepy let me know 😅).

I witnessed and photographed some cool moments and subjects, so I'll let them tell their stories:

"Follow me!" - a Wild Turkey with young

Why did the Wild Turkeys cross the road???

The Dickcissel who had no tail

This Turkey Vulture wanted to carrion with its business

Great Egret

Halloween Pennant dragonfly (possibly my fav photo of the day) 🎃🎃🎃

Pied-billed Grebe-lets! 💙💚

Purple Martin of House 14 provides well for his family

Part of the largest group of Trumpeter Swans I've ever seen (~70+)

The bird you'll see in the following pictures is a young Forster's Tern, a common bird around here during summer time, often seen diving headfirst into water to catch small fish. We were at this beach in search of a Laughing Gull, a rare coastal vagrant gull that would have been another life bird for me.

Unfortunately, we missed the gull, but the antics of this young tern were enough to make the stop worthwhile. We watched the tern slowly and tentatively exploring the land, never straying too far from its parents. It picked and prodded through the sand, holding objects like rocks and wood chips in its bill, dropping them when they did not satisfy the role of food. At one point, I saw the young bird choose correctly and snatch a bug. 👏🐛

Playing fetch?

Sizing me up

Species of Birds We Saw/Heard:

Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Trumpeter Swan
Wood Duck
Mallard
Northern Bobwhite (lifer!)
Ring-necked Pheasant
Wild Turkey
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Short-billed Dowitcher
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Black-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Willow Flycatcher
Alder Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Warbling Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Bank Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
Grasshopper Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Summer Tanager (lifer!)
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Dickcissel
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark (lifer!)
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Fav Lifer of the Day: Summer Tanager because I found it after a bit of a chase hearing it but not being 100% sure and wanting to see it. The chase made it worth it and super fun. Unfortunately with the Bobwhite we couldn't stay long enough to see it, so we only heard it.
Fav Non-lifer of the Day: Yellow-billed Cuckoos, seeing two together was really awesome. One had a dragonfly or something in its mouth. Then to see Black-billeds in the same small area was cool.

Andrew's Lessons Learned:

Dulcimer Band =/= Dulcimer Brand
Doves are not pigeons

My Lessons Learned

Sometimes moon roofs are closed, in which case don't stick your head through them
Nature makes trip wires

Thursday, April 13, 2017

100 Birds!!!

A Little Bird Nerd original design

Back in January, I wrote a blog post about the first fifty species of birds I'd seen in 2017 in Macomb County. Just a week into January I had observed fifty different avian species. This may sound like a lot for one week, but really, because the "year list" resets each January, each species counts as something new. This makes milestones out of even the most common birds, from Canada Geese to House Sparrows and European Starlings. Because of this, that first fifty adds up quickly.

I knew the next fifty would take much longer than a week to reach. Having spotted many of the common winter birds, it would now be a matter of waiting for new arrivals to trickle in. January passed, then February, both fairly mild and pleasant temperature-wise. I birded as often as I could, squeezing in visits to local parks, watching out the back window at home, and of course always birding while driving... or walking... er, always birding! With March came final papers and exams, so I was trapped inside for much of the month, finishing the last semester of my bachelors degree. While many of my classmates had professional plans for post-graduation, I was simply looking forward to the chance to go birding more (I know, that's probably bad). So as soon as I finished, I got back out on the trails, hitting and exceeding 100 species by April 4th.

I suspect I'll reach the next fifty milestone (150 species) in a shorter amount of time than this lot, as spring migration should bring a wide variety of birds. I can't wait!!

For now, scroll down to enjoy photos of species #51-100 I've seen in Macomb County in '17. (')< ♫