Louisiana Waterthrush (lifer #303)

My family was in Ohio on Friday and we were able to stop by the South Chagrin Reservation which is south of Cleveland. I wasn't able to find out anything about it on the Ohio Ornithological Society's website so I got the impression that it is not considered a very good park for birding. I was rather surprised to find the park very hilly with many clear, rocky streams as I don't associate this kind of habitat with Ohio. The species variety was not very high, I only found a little under twenty but I found four Louisiana Waterthrushes chipping and singing while chasing each other around. Later three of the waterthrushes left leaving only one that I was able to get some pictures of.

At first it was singing in a tree but then it flew down into the stream where it was foraging a little over ten feet away from me.

I was also surprised to find singing Dark-eyed Juncos, I figured that the ones in Ohio would have headed north by now. While I didn't find many other birds, I did find some other interesting wildlife. There were many Redback Salamanders under the logs and I found some interesting stuff in the streams.

I think that this fish might be a southern redbelly dace but I could be wrong. It had a little patch of the stream that it was guarding and chasing all of the other minnows away from.

This is a perloided Stonefly larva, I'm not sure exactly which species it is but I have had one

person who suggested that it might be Clioperla clio. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any photos of this species.

Here is a picture of one of the waterfalls to give an idea of what the park looked like.

Here in Michigan, I found a few new arrivals this weekend. At the American Center Marsh on Saturday I saw my first Double-crested Cormorant of the year (I'm not quite sure how it took me so long to see one) and heard my first Virginia Rail of the year. The highlight for me though was the Vesper Sparrow in the vacant lot north of the marsh. It was the first one I have seen at the marsh and this spring was probably the last chance I had to see one there as they are building a new building there. Today I went to Robert Long and Indian Springs Metropark. At Robert Long I saw a pair of Blue-winged teal and a Caspian Tern. At Indian Springs I saw another Vesper Sparrow, two Brown Creepers, several Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and I heard and saw one Louisiana Waterthrush and possibly heard another. All things considered, it was not a bad day for late April, I had several new park birds and the Louisiana Waterthrush was new for the state.

Red-backed Salamander

I went to Woodland Hills today but didn't see a whole lot of birds, the highlight was finding a Red-backed Salamander under a log. Ever since I visited some friends up north five or six years ago and they showed me the salamanders under the rocks I have always been looking under rocks and logs for them without any success until today. I also checked the nest box in my yard today and found a Black-capped Chickadee nest with eight eggs in it. Although I was expecting chickadees to nest in it again this year I was not expecting that many eggs this early. Last year the first egg was laid on April 17th and only a total of seven eggs were laid so this is over a week earlier.

I have been birding a lot lately but haven't had much time to post. The best bird I saw in the last week was a Common Loon flying over my house on Monday. Mike Mencotti tells me that they are actually fairly regular migrants here, he usually sees a few fly over each spring. I also Saw a Vesper Sparrow at the Novi Wetlands and three Blue-winged Teal at Robert Long on Sunday, migration is really starting to pick up.

More Spring Arrivals

With the warm weather we've been having the passerines are starting to return. I heard my first Eastern Phoebe of the year about a week ago and saw one today at Woodland Hills. The highlights of my trip there were two male Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and two Yellow-rumped Warblers. I did get a few shots of the Sapsuckers but they really don't show just how cool these woodpeckers look.

After I got back from Woodland Hills I found a flock of Golden-crowned Kinglets in my backyard, I think they are the 70th species of bird I have seen in my yard.

The other kinds of Swallows are returning as well, yesterday I saw one Northern Rough-winged Swallow and two Barn Swallows with the Tree Swallows at the American Center Marsh. There were also two Savannah Sparrows in the field north of the marsh, but sadly it looks like they are going to build another office building there. It seems to me that they could just fix up one of the many vacant buildings around here but I guess that would cost more money.

A great day for owls

When I went out to Kensington this afternoon, owls were about the last thing on my mind. I was hoping to find some good waterfowl like a Common Loon, Red-breasted Merganser, or Horned Grebe. Waterfowl numbers were down significantly, however, and all of the ducks that were there were quite far out. I then headed over to Spring Hill hoping to find some Eastern Meadowlarks. I heard a few and saw one at the edge of the back field. While I was back there I also looked for the Great Horned Owl nest that Mike Mencotti found about two weeks ago. After a bit of searching I found the nest and saw one of the owls sitting on it. This was the first owl I had seen at Kensington but it was not to be the last.

I then headed over to the nature center to see what had been reported lately. As soon as I walked in Bob Hotaling said, "You're here to see the Barred Owl, right? Mike Mencotti found one on the Deer Run trail this morning" I was very surprised as I never had hear of a Barred Owl at Kensington before, although it was on the park checklist. After getting a few more directions from Bob I headed out down the trail. After a while I saw a group of three or four people with large cameras and sure enough, they were looking at the Barred Owl. I took me a while to see it at first because it was very well camouflaged.

After a minute or so, however, some people walking down the trail from the other direction accidentally spooked the owl. Fortunately it did not fly far and I was able to get an unobstructed picture.

It was cool to see a Barred Owl in the day although hearing them at night is really awesome as well.

The Tree Swallows are Back!

I saw my first Tree Swallows of the year yesterday at the American Center Marsh. There were about five circling over the pond and checking out the nest boxes. Swallows are some of my favorite birds and I am always excited to see them come back in the spring. A Black-capped Chickadee was also checking out the nest box in my yard, hopefully they will nest in it again like last year. I have not had much time to bird lately because I was visiting Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia with my mom last weekend. Front Royal is in the Blue Ridge mountains in northwest Virginia about an hour west of Washington. I never really spent any time specifically birding but I did see several birds that I haven't seen in Michigan like Fish Crow, Northern Mockingbird, Black Vulture, and Carolina Chickadee (lifer #302). I also found some birds that I haven't seen in Michigan yet this year like Eastern Meadowlark, Eastern Phoebe, Field Sparrow and Double-crested Cormorant. It was a great trip and I really liked the college. Believe it or not, there was still some snow in the mountains in Pennsylvania and even in a few spots in Virginia, it really took me by surprise since the snow has been gone for several weeks now in Michigan.

More Kensington Birds

I went out to Kensington again this afternoon to try to see the Greater-white Fronted Goose reported on Tuesday by Lyle Hamilton. I did not find that goose but I did find two Snow Geese (1 blue and 1 white morph) and two Cackling Geese which were lifers #300 and 301 respectively. Waterfowl variety was very good again with lots of Ring-necked Ducks, Common Goldeneyes, Canvasbacks, Redheads, and Common Mergansers, and smaller numbers of American Coots, American Wigeon, Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup, and American Black Ducks. I also had two male Green-winged Teal and two Ruddy Ducks. All of the ducks were in the area between the Possum Hollow picnic area and Maple beach. I was able to manage a bad photo that shows both the Snow and Cackling Geese. The Snow Geese are on the left and the Cacklings are the ones sitting on the ice near the left right side. They had their heads under their wings most of the time but would poke them out every now and then revealing very steep foreheads and stubby bills. They were also much smaller than the Canada Geese.

I was also able to get an okay shot of some of the American Wigeons as well.

Kensington

It looks like spring is finally here! I went out to Kensington Metropark and found some good birds this afternoon. The best were a pair of Tundra Swans which were county lifers for me. Duck variety was very good, I had American Black Duck, Gadwall, Bufflehead, Redhead, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, and Common Merganser. I missed the Sandhill Cranes that were seen yesterday but there were four Great Blue Herons on their nests on Wildwing Lake. It was a great day to be out birding. Fifty degrees in March is perfect.