Michigan Big Year Vol. 3: Dipping on Rarities

Birding is a fickle thing, and is all about timing. You might get word within minutes of a rarity showing up at someone's feeder, only to get there and miss it by 30 seconds. You might drive hundreds of miles to see a bird that's been at a location for weeks, only to be unable to locate it. Then, you'll be walking to your home office and hear one calling in the trees above your feeder. It's a bit like poker--while there is certainly skill and planning involved, a lot depends on dumb luck.

January 13

I spent yesterday planning a route that would take me to six different locations in southwest Michigan. Each location had been reporting rarities, and I hoped to pick up a couple of them. This would be my first day devoted specifically to birding, without other errands attached to it, and would involved hundreds of miles and hours of driving. My route and available time allowed for a half hour in each location, starting at Gull Lake in Kalamazoo.

The lake was remarkably unfrozen, as so many are this winter, and seemed to be opening up more in the 42° "heat." Right off I picked up Hooded Merganser and Trumpeter Swan, but these are species I'll likely see here at home this spring. I searched the lake for scoters, cackling geese, and especially the Barrow's Goldeneye and Greater White-fronted Goose that had been seen there. Nothing. There were plenty of ducks I could see, but many more out too far to identify. After over a half hour staring intently at every duck, I decided to head out but then spotted a pair of Canvasback ducks, a good find as it's not a species we would see at home, but not the rarity I'd hoped for. On the way back to my car I heard Sandhill Cranes in the field across the road.

From there I went to the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery, about a half hour away, but didn't find any rarities there either. I did see a Song Sparrow but they are nesters on our lake and certainly not what I was hoping for. I did manage to get a few digiscoped shots of Trumpeter Swan, but that was it.

A short drive south brought me to Maple Lake in PawPaw, which was filled with Canada Geese. There had to be a couple thousand of them. I walked out to the island and scanned those geese twice, looking for cackling or g. white-fronted. Nope. Nada. There were lots of Common Goldeneye and I got to watch some of the males practicing their courtship dances, but I saw nothing new and nothing certainly nothing rare.

Common Goldeneye

At this point it was 2:00 pm and I had to decid if I was going to continue with my plan and head to the coast, or change it up and go back to Gull Lake. My gut was telling me to return to Gull Lake because of the number of birds there that I couldn't identify the first time around. My head said stick to the plan, and that's what I did. It was a lovely day on Lake Michigan, and I did find a Lesser Scaup in St. Joseph, but that was it. However, back at Gull Lake, at least one of my target birds was seen by another birder that afternoon. Ah, hindsight--and listening to your gut.

January 14th

I decided to stay home, even though it's another mild day. I should have planned an outing, but after dipping on four species yesterday, my heart isn't in it. I took Bailey for a walk around the lake and managed to find a Brown Creeper for bird #60 on the year.

January 15

I was not planning on birding today as it was windy and wet, but after lunch I decided to chase a Ross's Goose that had been reported at the Hart Wastewater Facility, about 45 minutes away. Basically a smaller version of a Snow Goose, the Ross's a rarity in Michigan, and had been seen there multiple times.

The dirt road the facility is on was a quagmire, thanks to the rain and the warmer temperatures that had allowed the road to begin to thaw. I was afraid I was going to slide right into a ditch. As I neared the facility I saw an American Kestrel on a wire, and managed a few shots before he flew off.

At the gate I saw a sign directing  birders to a specific parking area, stating that all birding had to be done on foot. It also said they wanted us out by 2:00 pm--and it was already 1:40. I parked, grabbed my binoculars, and started to walk towards one of the nearby pools that I could see had some open water. As I neared I could see waterfowl, but because of the high berm I couldn't see who was there. 

I got close enough to see over the edge and stopped, probably 40 feet away, but I had also been seen by the hoards of Mallards that were perched on the edge of the ice. A few heartbeats passed as we had a stare down, then on some undetectable (by me) cue they took to the air in unison. NO!!! I frantically scanned the ducks as they flew every which way, and did manage to identify a handful of American Black Ducks as they flew overhead, but that was it. That is not a bird we get on our lake so it was a good find, but not rare.

I continued to the far side and looked out over the stubbled cornfield that lie between the facility and an orchard and saw that it was stuffed with Canada Geese. It's hard to believe these birds were nearly hunted to extinction because they are freaking everywhere. At least a thousand were scattered across acres of stubble. I felt utterly defeated. 

I hurried back to the car and exited the facility, but realized I had a good view of the fields from outside the gate, so I pulled over and set up my scope, and spent the next 30 minutes scanning the fields, looking for a little white blob amid the browner, larger blobs and the corn stubble. Tucked up under my car's open rear hatch I was mostly out of the light rain that had begun to fall. I scanned that field over and over, but did not find a Ross's Goose. 

So that's five rarities I've chased in three days and dipped on. I know it's never a given when chasing birds but this was a very disappointing streak, and makes me start to question my decision to do a Big Year. Sure, I picked up other species, but missing so many after spending so much time might make me more reluctant to chase the next rarity. I will need a few days to rebuild my enthusiasm.

Gull Lake, Jan. 13

54) Hooded Merganser

55) Trumpeter Swan

56) Canvasback

57) Sandhill Crane

Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery, Jan 13

58) Song Sparrow

Saint Joseph Pier, Jan 13

59) Lesser Scaup

Home Jan. 14

60) Brown Creeper

Hart Sewage Treatment Facility, Jan. 15

61) American Black Duck 

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch....

It has been, to borrow from George Harrison, a long, cold, lonely winter. Anyone who lives in the upper Mid-west and Great Lakes regions can attest to this. It cannot be compared to last year, when we hardly had winter at all--and saw 80 degrees (and a close call with a tornado) in March. But it was colder than it's been in a number of years, although with less snow overall (unless you live in Marquette, or Rapid City, or....). And the wind! I think that has been the worst--I can deal with the cold but even 45 degrees feels miserable when you pile on 20 or 30 mph winds. I have hardly left the house. And now, even at the end of April, winter is still hanging around--I watched yesterday as we had a very heavy downpour of sleet. It only lasted about 30 seconds but still! Yeesh. But the forecast is for 60's today, 70 degrees next week, and I can assure you Michiganders will be out in shorts and flip flops.

So while the Florida trip from the end of January took me forever to write about, there really wasn't much else going on around here. We adopted a new dog (an aged beagle we named Mr. Pickles), and that was about it. We did have a few surprises from the birds, however. In late February or early March we were visited by a golden-crowned kinglet, a bird we've seen here only once before, and one I didn't have any photos of. The little bird was very gracious and posed on the balcony for pictures. He was licking up bits of suet left over from the other birds. We saw him over the course a few weeks, almost always at the same time of day, 3:30-4:00. I think now that the grackles and black birds are back and dominating the feeders we will not see this fella again.

Golden-crowned kinglet. Oh, I just want to pinch his little cheeks!

We were also visited, for the first time since 2007, by a small flock of common redpolls. I spotted this female outside my studio window. I snuck out the back door and raced to the house to get my camera, then snuck back in and watched for her. Several days later a flock of 15 or so showed up on our balcony feeders. They stayed around for a week or so, and a few stragglers were seen for a couple of weeks.

Common redpoll, probably a female.

But that was it for the unusual birds this winter. We had several pairs of red-breasted nuthatches, which is not unusual except that we didn't see any last winter. Lots of juncos, of course, and American tree sparrows. The juncos and RBN's are still hanging around but I haven't seen a tree sparrow in several days. Now our summer residents are returning. The house wren has been singing in the back yard, brown thrashers are taking up residence in the brush pile on the top of the hill, and the robins trill from the tree tops at dawn.

A few days ago I watched a number of birds from our walk-out basement windows, ground-feeders who were cleaning up the spillage from the balcony feeders above, including this song sparrow.

We've heard song sparrows singing across the road in the marshes for several weeks now.

The white-throated sparrow, conspicuously absent last year, has returned, and I've seen several poking about in the garden.

"Poor Sam Peabody, Peabody Peabody" sings the white-throated sparrow.

There were a few that looked like this, and I though perhaps they were female white-throated sparrow. But Sibley shows no distinction between male and female, and says that this is a "tan stripe" white-throated, as apposed to the "white stripe" seen above. I had no idea.

"Tan-striped" white-throated sparrow

We heard the Eastern towhee long before we saw one, out behind the house urging us to "drink your tea!!"

I have never been able to get a decent show of this bird. This is OK but I can do better. Love his red eye.

Not many warblers hang around our place. Even during migration we see very few. Our property is dry and the warblers seem to stick mainly to water's edge. But this pine warblers, who we have seen a few times over the years, showed up on the deck last week, picking up bits of suet, much like the golden-crowned kinglet did. I have heard them singing in the trees behind our house so maybe we'll get a pair to stay and raise a family!

Pine warbler, easily confused with a female goldfinch.

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!

Paddling on Devoe

When you only have one full day at a place, you cram as much into it as you can. After our dirt road drive/observation tower/eagle watching and our nature trail walk we had lunch, then put the 'yaks in the water for a paddle around Devoe Lake. We were really hoping to find baby loons, as the pair last year had produced offspring. Unfortunately, no babies were to be found.



There were, of course, birds everywhere. Right off we were serenaded by a song sparrow.



Drifting along the shore we spotted many dragonflies, like this beautiful red skimmer. Not to say that it is a red skimmer--it may be a flame skimmer, or a four spot skimmer, or a...well, I clearly don't know what it is, but it's pretty!



As the girls moved over to one of the islands I paddled into a small lagoon, out of the wind. It was shallow but deep enough for my kayak, full of amorous dragonflies and pond lilies.



We did find the loons, feeding in the shelter of a cove.

The weather was staring to look a bit ominous, and the winds were picking up, so a bit later Karin and I ducked into another another sheltered cove. I caught sight of a kingfisher, landing in a tree at the far end of the cove.



I paddled as far as I dare and started shooting as the wind blew me backwards. First one blurry shot,


then this somewhat better shot.



It didn't take long for her to spook and fly off. I had been trying for years to get some decent kingfisher photos and I was elated to have finally gotten close enough--and had camera at the ready--to get a few good ones.



We stayed in the cove for a while, enjoying the relative calm. There were blue flag iris everywhere, and this is perhaps my favorite shot of the whole trip.



These yummy strawberries were just out of my reach. I decided they weren't worth getting wet for so I moved on.



As we were getting ready to head back across the lake in the face of some threatening clouds, I stopped for one more bird, singing in the cedars. Not sure which little sparrow this is, but he sang us a parting song to carry us over the waves.

We got back to the boat launch and got the 'yaks put up as the rain began to fall. Getting back to our campsite through the pouring rain we discovered Karin had left the rain fly off her tent, and we'd left all the chairs out. Oops. Good thing we had the RV, or we'd have been standing around for a good long time!