Deleware Birding

Last Sunday, Jakob Barkett and I drove out to Deleware to do some birding along the Atlantic coast. Initially we were hoping to chase the Barnacle Goose in Maryland but since that hadn't been seen in three days we decided to start off at Prime Hook NWR to look for the Eurasian Wigeon. On the way in we saw an enormous flock of Snow and Canada Geese in a field. Despite scanning the flock several times, we did not find anything else.

After a little bit of scanning the flock of American Wigeons, Pintails, and Black Ducks we were able to pick out at least one male Eurasian Wigeon (lifer #387) with his bright reddish head.

Our next stop was Cape Henlopen State Park where we saw several Brown-headed Nuthatches (lifer #388) come to the feeders after waiting for several minutes.

A quick scan of the ocean here did not find much so we moved on to the Indian River Inlet. Here there was a beautiful Boat-tailed Grackle (lifer#389) bathing in a puddle by the parking lot.

There were several Red-throated loons in the river and a flock of Ruddy Turnstones on the rocks.

At the end of the jetty there were several Great Cormorants (lifer #390),

as well as Surf Scoters and Long-tailed ducks in the water. There were lots of sanderlings on the beach.

We finished off at Ocean city where we saw a large flock of Brant but missed the Common Eiders.

West Michigan Birding

Karl Overman and I had a great day birding the west side of the state yesterday. We started off at the hummingbird feeder in Lowell to see the Rufous Hummingbird. After fifteen or so minutes it flew into a pine tree and shortly afterwards visited the feeder.

The Muskegon Wastewater and Pere Marquette Park turned up little of note but after this the birding began to pick up. At Grand Haven State Park there was a very cooperative Red-throated Loon off the pier.

This Red-breasted Merganser was also very cooperative.

The next stop at Douglas Beach was probably my favorite stop on the day. As soon as I stepped out of the van I heard Crossbills calling in a hemlock, eventually we were able to count ten.

On the lake we were able to see all three species of Scoters. One of the bigger surprises of the day came a little while late when we saw at least 180 Sandhill Cranes in several fields!

It was a beautiful day for birding and one that I enjoyed a lot.

Colorado Trip

I went skiing in Colorado last week and while I missed Rosy Finches and Ptarmigans in the mountains I had several nice birds at Red-rocks Park in the foothills. The highlight was a Canyon Wren along the rocks.

The Townsend's Solitaire was a lifer as well.

I saw all five subspecies of Junco at the feeders and the Scrub Jays and Spotted Towhee were also cooperative for photos.

Gray-headed Junco

White-winged Junco

Oregon, Pink-sided Junco, and White-crowned Sparrow

Western Scrub Jay

Spotted Towhee

The next day I tried for a Three-toed Woodpecker without success south of Denver. I did see several Red Crossbills though.

I went back to Red Rocks after the snowstorm Saturday night hoping some Rosy Finches would show up. I didn't see any of those but I did see the Golden-crowned Sparrow I had missed a few days before.

I also saw a Northern Shrike as I was driving in.

New Years Birding

For the third year in a row, I started the New Year by birding Heritage park with Mike Mencotti and two other birders. The birding was rather slow at first and the rain didn't help. That all changed, however, when we headed down the scout trail. Ever since Mike found a Long-eared Owl in the pines along this trail last February, I have always been checking for owls in the pines along this trail. As we walked into the pines we noticed some whitewash on the ground! A check of the branches above revealed nothing, however. After checking most of the trees, everybody else began to move back toward the trail but I decided to walk a little further and check the one pine further back. I was thrilled to see a Long-eared Owl looking back at me!

This was the first time I found a perched owl without directions from someone else. A little further down the trail I noticed a kinglet in the bushes. I assumed it would be a Golden-crowned Kinglet since Ruby-crowned Kinglets are extremely rare in the winter in Michigan. The face and wings looked plainer than a Golden-crowned, however, and Mike and I agreed it was a Ruby-crowned. Mike played a Ruby-crowned Kinglet song on his ipod and it popped out of the bushes and spent a minute or so looking at us.

A Yellow-rumped Warbler was a nice bird as well.

After lunch, I drove over to Walled lake to see the Surf Scoter. After a few minutes, I saw it with a group of Goldeneye.

There were also 2 Great Black-backed Gulls, 2 Gadwall, a Black Duck, 8 Tundra Swans, 3 Hooded, and 4 Common Mergansers. On the way home I noticed a female Kestrel near M-5 and 13 Mile, which brought my total to 41 species for the day. Apparently this is a new Big Day record for Oakland in January.

I finished off 2011 with this Barred Owl (year bird #313) at Stony Creek yesterday. It was my ninth owl of the year.

Great Gray Owl!!!

On the evening of Friday the 23rd I happened to check ONTbirds and noticed a post of a Great Gray Owl in Essex county Ontario. When I looked up the location and saw that it was only a little more than an hour away, I started to get really excited. At first I thought I would have to wait until Tuesday but then I realized that it would have time to chase it the morning of Christmas Eve since it was only an hour away. I started calling other birders and eventually arranged to meet Sherrie Duris from Toledo, Ohio at seven the next morning. When we arrived at the spot where the owl had been sighted the day before, things did not look good. There were several birders there but it was obvious they were not seeing anything. We found out that the owl had last been seen at three a.m.! We were just pulling out to start searching nearby roads, when some other birders pulled up and said they had found the owl over by the next road. When we got to where they had seen it they jumped out of the car and said it was still there. It took me a minute or two to see it though, because it was so well camouflaged.

Soon the Great Gray flew towards us and pounced in the grass.

After this it landed on a tree right next to the road where we watched it for at least half an hour.

By now there was a huge line of at least twenty cars from all the birders looking for the owl.

After a quick stop in town, we went looking for the Snowy Owl reported nearby. We found it on the roof of a barn, and the owner of the house let us walk over to get better looks.

After another stop for the Great Gray Owl, we headed back to the US, very happy with our day.

Today I did the Lake Erie Metropark section of the Rockwood CBC. We didn't turn up anything super unusual in the morning, but Common Loon, Double-crested Cormorant, and Fox Sparrow were all good for the time of year. The weather was a lot more comfortable than in past years! After lunch, we decided to look for some owls that had been seen earlier by other birders. This Saw-whet Owl was right where we were told it would be, it was so close to the trail I had to step back from it so my camera would focus!

We then looked for the Long-eared Owls although they had not been found in the morning where they were on Saturday. Eventually Scott fount two and we were all able to get great looks at one of them. Unfortunately, my camera had a hard time focusing through the branches so I only got this blurry photo.

I can't believe what a good month I've had for owls; I have heard six and seen seven owls for a total of seven different species.

Purple Sandpipers!

Karl Overman and I headed out to Pere Marquete Park in Muskegon today to look for Purple Sandpipers. Karl quickly spotted one next to us almost as soon as we started to head down the breakwall.

We were so busy photographing the first bird that we didn't notice there was an other Purple Sandpiper just a few feet away!

We headed further down the pier where we saw a Surf Scoter and Common Loon. While we were watching the Surf Scoter we noticed several more Purple Sandpipers on the breakwall. Eventually we were able to count five which gave us a total of seven! This was three more than had been previously reported this winter.

After this great start to the day we headed over to the Muskegon Wastewater. There were thousands of shovelers and there were two Glaucous Gulls near the landfill. As we were driving along the northeast dike I spotted a snowy Owl on a telephone pole.

A stop at the Lake Odessa Sewage Lagoons turned up a flock of Snow Buntings with two Lapland Longspurs.

I have been doing a lot of birding since I got back from school. On Saturday I did the Oakland CBC, the highlight was hearing two Saw-whet Owls before dawn. Fifteen purple Finches, thirty pine Siskins, and a Northern Shrike were also fun to see.

On Sunday afternoon I went to Superior Township to see the Short-eared Owls and saw three at 5:20.

On Monday I went to Walled Lake and saw the Surf Scoter and two Black Scoters. It has been fun birding this last week and I am looking forward to the end of the year.

Saw-whet Owl Banding

Northern Saw-whet Owls were one of my nemesis birds for quite some time so I was quite excited to find out that there was a saw-whet banding station just twenty minutes from campus. I don't have a car, however, so I had to arrange for someone to pick me up and take me out there. Every time I set something up, the weather was always bad and the banding was cancelled. I was finally able to get out there on the last weekend on banding. On the first two checks the nets were empty but on the third check we found a Saw-whet!

We took it back to the visitor center where we banded it.

The molt pattern on the wing indicated this was a second year bird.

I took several more photos before we were ready to release it.

We were expecting the owl to fly off immediately but the Saw-whet spent several minutes sitting on the railing before finally flying off.