Au Sable River Walk

Our last day in East Tawas dawned a fiery red.  The warmth of the sunrise belied the frigid temperatures outside.

The bright dawn didn't last long, however.  A strong southerly wind pressed the clouds northward and closed off the sun.  It also pushed to shore the ice that had been far out on the lake, and as far as we could see ice like shards of glass undulated with the waves.

With the change in weather we decided there would be even less to see out at Tawas Point, so we drove up to the Au Sable River instead to take a leisurely walk in the woods were we'd be more protected from the wind.  A few miles down River Road from Oscoda is Eagle Run, a network of trails maintained primarily for cross country skiing.  It's a nice place to hike, too, and with so little snow we didn't think we'd be in the way of any skiers.

We parked at the boat launch and walked out to a fishing dock along the southern bank of the river.  Here we heard the park's namesake eagle, calling from somewhere up river, but they never showed themselves.

Walking back up the road we picked up one of the trails and passed through a stand of red pine.  Karin's sharp eye spotted this Roughed Grouse perched high in a tree.  I had my short lens so couldn't get much of a photo, but at least it's proof!

We didn't walk far, just enough to loosen up and work up an appetite.   One more look at the river and we turned around a headed back to the car.  We stopped at Los Quatro Amigos for lunch (very good Mexican food!) and hit the road.

We never did see a Snowy Owl, but as just about everyone knows (NBC Nightly News will have a segment tonight about them) they have migrated quite far south this year, spotted in places like Oklahoma and Missouri.  Lori and I will be driving over to Saint Joseph and Lake Michigan this Friday to visit a bookstore and to watch a live art show jury (which I hope will be very educational!) so maybe we'll get lucky yet and spot one along the water there.  Still it was nice to get away for a weekend and especially nice to add two more birds to my "life list".

The Not-So-Common Common Redpoll

After seeing the Long-tailed Duck--which everyone was excited about--we were pretty satisfied, and not feeling so bad about not seeing a Snowy Owl.  As we walked back down the pier, the girls pointed out some small finch-like birds in the weeds along the shore.  Once again binoculars went up, and I hurried over with my camera.

(Remember, click on an image to see a slide show of full-sized images!  They look much better bigger.)

Well, the day got better still!  There among the milkweed was a small flock of Common Redpolls!

I had only seen this bird once before, during our second winter here in Pinckney.  We had a good sized flock--15 to 20 birds--show up at our feeders for several weeks in January.  This was so much better, seeing them in a more natural habitat.

They were quite intent on eating and didn't pay much attention to us.

The female lacks the purple-ish breast of her male counterpart.

Redpolls are a winter visitor to Michigan, breeding in the sub-arctic regions far to our north.  Food supply determines how far south they venture, and so they are often a highly desired bird of those keeping a list.  I was thrilled to get to see them again.

Redpolls are fairly nondescript it until you see them head on.  I just love their rosy foreheads and yellow bills.

This little lady paused to check me out, her sweet face hidden behind the stem.

Short Walk on a Long Pier: The Long-tailed Duck

On the drive up to the house where we stayed we passed through East Tawas.  U.S. 23 passes very near Tawas Bay here, and we noticed a number of waterfowl dotting the surface. I thought it might be a good place to come back to, so after we left the park we drove back to town and stopped at the East Tawas State Dock.  This is quite an impressive structure, able to dock over 100 boats and offering electric, gas, showers and pump-out services.

Photo courtesy Michigan DNR

There was a lot more ice around the pier than there had been the day before, but as we approached the dock we could see some waterfowl out in the bay. I guessed they were mergansers, but then I noticed a much larger bird closer to shore, diving just beyond the thin ice.  I moved to the railing and waited for it to surface.

I wasn't sure what it was, and for that I was excited, since it probably meant it was not a bird I'd seen before.  When it dove again I walked farther down the pier.  Once again it broke the surface, but dove quickly.  As it dove I caught a glimpse of its tail and I knew what we'd spotted.

A Long-tailed Duck!!

Such a pretty thing, it is not all that common here in Michigan, at least inland.  Sibley's shows its winter range to include the Great Lakes, but it tends to frequent the ocean coasts.  I remembered the conversations of some of the birders I was with at the festival in Tawas last year--one of these birds had been spotted (at great distance) at the Foote Dam Pond on the Au Sable River, and there was much excitement about it.  This is a bird that breeds in the Arctic, and to have one in Michigan in May caused quiet a stir.

We watched it dive, its tail feather last to submerge, and wondered at an animal so suited to a life in frigid waters.

 

Another "life list" bird, great payment for birding on such a chilly afternoon!

I didn't post many images of this bird because not that many came out very well.  That is entirely my fault, and I learned a good lesson here about shooting wildlife.  I rarely shoot with the camera in full auto mode, knowing the camera isn't going to think like I do.  But that means I actually have to think and pay attention to what is happening. When shooting moving objects with a long lens, shutter speed is of the utmost importance.  A fast shutter speed is needed to stop the motion of the animal you're trying to photograph, and helps stop the effects of camera movement as well.

I have always been more of a landscape photographer, where depth of field is more important than stopping movement, so I have always shot in aperture priority mode (I set the aperture, which determines depth of field, and the camera picks the corresponding shutter speed).  But what happened with the Long-tailed Duck is that the aperture setting I had chosen forced the camera to pick a shutter speed much too slow to stop any movement (usually around 1/40th of a second).  I wasn't paying any attention, too excited about the duck to pay attention to what the camera was doing.  There are other factors that contributed to the blurry photos, but this is the main one.  So from now on, the camera that has the long lens will always be in shutter priority mode, and I will try not to let my excitement ruin my pictures!!

Next:  Common Redpolls by the pier.

Snow Buntings!

We walked slowly along the beach at Tawas Point State Park, scanning the peaks and valley and stands of dune grass on this sandy peninsula for any sign of a Snowy Owl.  It is probably only because we were looking so carefully that I noticed the two small birds before I got close enough to scare them away.  I stopped dead in my tracks and got the camera on them.  When I peered through the lens I gasped.

SNOW BUNTINGS!!

I waved to the girls to get them to stop and pointed the birds out to them.  Binoculars went up, followed by oohs and ahhs.

I don't know why, but this is one of those birds that I have wanted to see for years.  They are not really all that uncommon around here in the winter, and I may have seen a whole flock of them in a field on the side of the road as we were zipping along in the Jeep a few years ago, but I didn't have a chance to actually ID them.  There was no doubt this time!  I am pretty sure these are two females.

 

The pair moved over the snow covered beach picking seeds off the dried winter weeds and grasses.

They were far enough away that I couldn't focus on them easily, not to mention the stiff breeze that was blowing under my glasses and making my contacts go wanky.  I had to rely on the autofocus, and it was picking up the grasses in front of the birds rather than the birds themselves.  Ah well, I am still thrilled that I got shots of them. 

The snow was soft enough that they often sank down into the snow, and sometimes when they ran it looked like they were scooting along on their bellies.

It was not too long before my fingers and thumb started to ache from the cold.  Fortunately the birds finished their scavenging and moved off farther down the beach.  What a wonderful experience though to finally get to see these beautiful little birds!  (Check out this link for more info on the Snow Bunting from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.)

Next:  A visit to the East Tawas pier, and another "life list" bird!

Winter Found at Tawas State Park

Remember a week or so ago I was commenting--NOT complaining--that winter had gone AWOL around here.  Very little snow, very mild temperatures.

Well, we found winter up in East Tawas.

Two to three inches of snow fell early Friday, and we arrived to a town awash in white (on some pretty crappy roads).  After the winds and snow the weather cleared, but the temps also dropped, and Saturday morning saw a frigid 7 degrees.  Well, we had come prepared, and were not about to be deterred in our quest for Snowy Owls.  So we bundled up and drove down to Tawas Point State Park.

Lisa, Lori and me at Tawas Point.  Photo by Karin.

When we got to the park it was about 15 degrees with a wind from the north between five and 10 mph.  That doesn't seem like much but it made for wind chills around zero.  Exposed or poorly covered skin got painfully cold in a hurry.

I was also concerned about my photo equipment.  I'd never had it out in temps that low and didn't know how it would perform.  Turned out it was fine, and the only problems were with the operator.

Before reaching the beach we came upon a pond criss-crossed by fox tracks.  You can see where the animal slipped and slid on the ice after coming off the bank to the right.

It was pretty brutal on the beach but luckily the wind was at our backs, making it tolerable.  The fresh snow made the search for a white bird that much more complicated.  We scoured hummocks and grasses up and down the shore.

While the lake was open here at the point, the frigid temps were evident along the shore.  Even the midday sun was not warm enough to thaw these rocks.

Despite the temperatures it was a beautiful day.

We reached the end of the point and stopped for a few minutes.  We had seen no owls, and with the exception of two birds on the beach (you'll read about them in my next post), we hadn't seen any birds at all.  I'm sure they were hunkered down, keeping warm.

We decided against walking up the other side of the point, which would have put us walking straight into the wind, and instead took the broad path that runs up the middle, a more sheltered option.

We enjoyed the scenery along the path, and did finally see some juncos.

As we neared the parking lot the trail opened up to the lighthouse grounds.  This popular and well-preserved light is reported to be haunted.  Apparently it was too cold even for the ghosts--the place was utterly deserted.

We were happy to get back to the car and out of the wind.  It was early still, so we decided to drive to the pier to see if we could spot any waterfowl.  But first, we'll take a look at who we found on the beach!

Next: The first of two "life list" birds on our Tawas trip!

Dawn on Lake Huron

We have made it an annual thing now, to spend a weekend somewhere in Michigan in the winter, just for fun. The original plan was to go up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan, but after getting a newsletter from Michigan Audubon that six Snowy Owls had been spotted at Tawas Point State Park on Lake Huron, we decided to head there instead.  Tawas is where the birding festival I attended last year was held, where I added 12? birds to my "life list".  We found a three bedroom house for rent right on the water for a great price (winter rates), called up our friend Karin from Traverse City, and we all met there Friday night.

By the time we got settled it was dark so we had to wait till morning to really see the place.  Dawn brought a glorious sunrise, spreading across a frigid Lake Huron (the air temperature was seven degrees).

I grew up on a lake (not as big as this one!) and I miss it horribly.  I could spend hours on the shore, just watching and listening to the nuances of the water.  The cold had brought ice to the surface of the great lake, and it crinkled across the small swells.

Each moment is different, every place you look a new texture, color.

The horizon is ill-defined, seemingly infinite. Waves and swells break the line between water and sky.

Winds from the west spread out across the surface, winding between the ice sheets.

Just as I was finishing up Lori spotted a dark shape moving down the coast.  "Eagle!" she cried.  Sure enough, gliding south down the shore was this magnificent Bald Eagle.  No time for adjusting the exposure, I got a couple shots before the bird moved out of sight.

It was going to be a good day!

Next:  Tawas Point