Fenner Nature Center

All winter long I've been receiving eBird emails listing species I have not reported seeing in Michigan. (If you are a birder and you don't participate in eBird, you should.) Fenner Nature Center in Lansing came up over and over again. One of the reasons is a Townsend's solitaire had been hanging out at the feeders there most of the winter. A bird native to the Western U.S., this bird was apparently injured, missing a leg. No idea if that contributed in some way to it's being so far from home. At any rate we had wanted to get out there to see it (a nice life list addition) but never made it.

As the weather has warmed up and spring had exploded in Southeast Michigan, Lori and I have made more of an effort to get away from our computers and drawing tables and get outside. I decided Fenner sounded like a good place to go to explore something new.

I am somewhat wary of nature centers. My experience is the facilities are often old, out-dated and filled with mildewy taxidermy that looks like it came out of great-grandpa's attic. The grounds are usually not much better, little more than overgrown city parks--the "nature" part being that they are not maintained like a park, but left to "grow wild".

Unfortunately, Fenner is exactly that. At 134 acres, it's small, but manages to cram a lot of diverse habitat in to that space. There are several ponds, second or third (or fourth?) growth forest and a meadow. But none of it is quality habitat. The woods were filled with garlic mustard, the extent of which I have never seen before, except in photographs showing severe infestations. The trees are choked by Oriental bittersweet, another nasty invasive, and in the meadow I saw only two native plants. In their defense these places are usually underfunded, and if they don't have a strong volunteer group they are limited in what maintenance and restoration work they can do.

That said, there were some interesting birds on the property, so we did our best to overlook the shortcomings of the place and focus on the wildlife. At the nature center building we checked out the dry-erase board listing recent wildlife sitings and saw a pair of wood ducks had been seen on the Woodland Pond, so we headed back that way. I have never gotten a shot of a male in breeding plumage, and I would love to do a wood duck piece.

As we walked around the pond to the far observation deck the ducks flew in and landed on the water. Bad timing, as it turned out, since they are skittish birds and the slightest movement sends them into a panic. I got a few images of the male, which I guess I can at least use for composition, but would need other images for detail.

Male wood duck. I think they are one of the prettiest birds out there.

We managed to make our way to a nearby bench without scaring them, but they had moved to the far side of the pond behind some grasses and deadfall, which made them hard to see.

Female wood duck on some dry grass. The pond held a nest box but we didn't see them go near it.

We sat on the bench for a while, then I moved over to the observation deck. I hoped I could avoid scaring them but I had hardly walked around the corner before they flew away. I sat and watched an Eastern phoebe instead, who may have been building a nest under the deck.

Eastern phoebe. Looks like it might have a bit of spider web in its beak.

We have a very small, short window to watch for migrating warblers in the tree tops before the trees leaf out, so we spent a lot of time scanning the canopy. I spotted this blackburnian warbler when I was watching a pair of Northern cardinals. I only got a few shots of this gorgeous bird, which, believe it or not, are better than the ones I had before!

Male blackburnian warbler. I had one heck of a stiff neck by the end of the day.

Lori spotted three deer who bedded down in a patch of garlic mustard under a honeysuckle, another invasive plant. With the deer around any native vegetation doesn't stand a chance.

Very un-afraid white-tailed deer.

The highlight of the day came in the meadow, where we saw lots of tree swallows. These birds get a bad rap for competing with bluebird for nest boxes, but in reality their numbers are about the same, and I suspect tree swallows, who feed on the wing, eat more of the insects that pester us than bluebirds do.

A pair had staked a claim to a nest box, but it seems the second nest box was put too close to the first (only about 20 feet away) and every time another swallow flew by one of this pair would fly over to the other box, then back again. Going to be hard to be a successful breeding pair when you're guarding two boxes.

Tree swallows. They were so intent on guarding this box that I was able to walk out there and sit very close.

I find them to be striking birds.

Keeping an eye to the sky.

Here one of the birds has gone to the other nest box.

The pair were constantly on the move, taking to the air and returning over and over again.

On the way back to the car we passed another pond, where this painted turtle was hauling itself out of the water and into the warm sun. I hear ya, buddy--we are all craving that sunshine!

Birds and Turtles at Kensington Metropark

Arrowhead with beetle.

Several weeks ago we took a weekend morning and visited Kensington Metropark, a wonderful park not 20 minutes from our house. At 4,481 acres it's a pretty big park. Kent Lake sits in the middle of it, and there's a golf course and 8 mile paved bike path. There's also a farm center, disc golf course, boat rentals and waterpark.

In addition to all of this is a nature center and accompanying nature trails. Wildwing Lake, next to the center, has a heron rookery, and there are birds galore along the nature trails as well as the park in general, an oasis in the midst of urban sprawl.

Male and female red-wing blackbirds at Wildwing Lake.

As is to be expected we generally stick to the nature trails when we visit this park. It sits right off of Interstate 96, and the traffic noise can be overwhelming, especially on the lake. The nature center and trails offer a more secluded and quieter experience.

Kingbird in flight--not bad for a hundred feet or more away! (image is cropped)

A boardwalk with railings provides easy viewing access of the rookery, which is situated on an island in Wildwing Lake. It provided me with a place to rest my camera (this is pre-Canon 60D) to get some shots, since I decided against my tripod. The rookery was empty by this time, of course, but several Eastern kingbirds were putting on a show along the island's shore, gleaning insects.

One common sight on a warm sunny day such as this are painted turtles, sunning themselves on logs and, in this case, water lily rhizomes.

Mr. Grumpy Face!

Another turtle provided a somewhat different view.

As I watched he wiggled and stretched, repeatedly grabbing his shell with his front foot.

Males can be identified by their long claws, which are much longer than the females.

I was excited to catch this cedar waxwing flying over the lake, apparently gleaning insects. I've never seen them do this before, I only know them as fruit eaters.

A female wood duck plied the waters, well hidden in the lilies.

We stopped several times and fed the chickadees. These birds, along with nuthatches, downy woodpeckers and titmice are habituated and will readily come to an outstretched hand with seeds or nuts.

As we made our way around the loop and back towards the parking lot, I caught movement in the understory, and was able to get one quick shot of this bird before it flew off. I had to wait until I got home to identify it. I believe it is a female blackburnian warbler, which apparently is not a common sight at Kensington. I sent the image to the head of the area Audubon Society to see if anyone else comes up with a different bird.

Female blackburnian warbler? We shall see....

Babies Abound at Seney NWR!

PIRO/Seney continued:

We rolled into the parking lot at the Seney National Wildlife Refuge just as the ranger was beginning to shut down the visitor's center. He patiently waited while we ran to the bathroom, then chatted a bit with us in the parking lot. He was a very friendly fellow with a shiny, clean-shaven head and handlebar mustache. He told us a moose and wolf had been spotted recently in the refuge, and we hoped we'd get lucky and see one. We didn't, but there were still plenty of other things to see.

One of the first critters we came across was this pretty raccoon. Yeah, we see them at home, but there's something cool about seeing them when they're not hanging from a bird feeder that makes it more special, more wild maybe.

I chased a lot of birds around by the edge of the road, finally catching this Song sparrow peeking at me from within the sweet gale.

For the most part thought I rode in the van. Lisa drove while I hung out the passenger's side window with my camera. Lori sat in back watching the driver's side for critters. At one point Lisa slammed on the brakes, nearly sending me into the dashboard, and squeaked, "There's a Woodcock! Right there next to the road!" I tried to peer around her but couldn't see anything. "Get OUT!" she hissed, so I jumped out the door and snuck around the back of the van. I stood there and stood there but could not find the bird! I started to creep forward and it finally flushed. The darn thing had been right in front of me, perhaps on a nest, and I never saw it. That would have been my first pics of a Woodcock (or was it a Common snipe? We'll never know). Ah well....

These ducks were so far out that we couldn't identify them. After blowing this up I think they are Lesser scaups, but I'm not positive.

Now, as the blog title suggests, there were lots of babies around. This was the second week of June and the world was just bursting with life. This family of Canada geese halted our progress as they were in no hurry to leave the road. I think I had to get out of the van and start walking towards them to get them to move to the side.

 Looking back at the geese I spotted this log-full of painted turtles sunning themselves in the afternoon warmth. I really wanted to join them and take a nap!

Next: Loons!

Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge

Leaving the ick of Bay City behind us, we drove back south to the city of Saginaw. We were a bit perplexed as we drove through town, wondering where on earth one would hide a wildlife refuge in all of this concrete. After navigating the city streets and a major detour we finally pulled into the parking lot for the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. We had opted for the Woodland trail, a four mile loop that we figured we would walk part of and then walk back. When we got there we looked at their trail maps and found several smaller loops were available and decided to take a two mile loop that went along the Tittabawasee River for a spell.

Also on the message board was an announcement warning people not to eat the following: Deer liver, any part of a wild turkey, several fish including catfish and white bass, and waterfowl. Apparently the Tittabawassee River has been contaminated with dioxin. Nice. We could have called this our Toxic Vacation! We tried our best to put the specter of contamination out of our minds and enjoy the scenery.

Shortly after striking out we came to a bridge crossing Bullhead Creek, (another fish on the "Don't Eat" list).

The day was fair even though it lacked sunshine. The turtles were quite appreciative of the heat. Here a painted turtle warms its bones.

There were piles of turtles on nearly every branch, log and rock.

Ah, the unmistakable snapping turtle, with its phallic head. According to Wikipedia a basking snapper is a rare sight--lucky me. Snappers are mean, aggressive and agile, as anyone who has tried to move one out of the road knows--the ungrateful sot--and they smell like dead things. This one has quite an impressive crop of algae growing on its back. They are best left alone--they eat baby ducks, fer cryin' out loud. 'Nuff said.

As we moved on down the trail we came across this fungus. I don't know my fungus, but this one was really interesting. Anyone want to school me here?

We couldn't go 50 feet, it seemed, without something to look at. This comma butterfly landed in the path right in front of me. My books tell me this butterfly is typically shy, so I guess another fairly rare sight.

Not a minute later this red admiral landed in front of me. Both these butterflies were only about 1 1/2 inches long. These butterflies are apparently more gregarious. I fished one out of the laundry hamper this morning, a stow-away on a shirt hung on the clothes line Sunday. I let it out the front door.

Not too far from the creek we found several crayfish burrows. Yes, they really live down there. They dig down in the mud to get to the water table, bringing up pellets of mud that make up the chimney. Snakes will some times take up residence in dried out crayfish burrows so I wouldn't stick my finger down one.

The girls had gone on ahead while I was chasing butterflies. After a bit I noticed they had stopped and were peering into a hole in a tree trunk. I came over slowly and peeked over Lisa's shoulder. I thought at first I was looking at an Eastern screech owl, but then I noticed an ear and fuzzy tail--a gray squirrel, possibly on a next of youngin's. Kind of a risky place to build a nest, next to the trail at eye level, but perhaps all the prime spots were already taken. Anyone got a peanut?

Next: chicken update