Oooh! I can play at spring migration too....

The gap is closing Putty....

Robin, Bald Eagle, BH Cowbird, Ring-billed Gull, Song Sparrow..... ugh

I'm already boring myself...

Three new year birds for the yard today

A. Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, and Purple Finch. Yipee!

Weird day: it was 82 degrees as I was watching about 150 C. Redpolls devour my niger thistle. Not often that you get to watch redpolls from your living room with your windows open. 150 redpolls make a lotta noise.

Caleb, Jr.?

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Fitz had a little Caleb at the end of Feb.- not sure how that slipped through the cracks but didnt want the event to go unnoticed here. Congrats Fitzs, you may have the only a legitimate excuse of why you are showing so poorly against another dude named Caleb (though I expect a good showing from you for nocturnal stuff this year). All the best to you and the family Fitz and thanks for keeping this in perspective for us. Some people take this yard birding way to serious. How silly.

Happy St. Paddy's day too... i'm looking for a green tow-hee

85/112

83/111

This is possibly my best yardbird of 2012, behind NSWO I think, esp. given the 'salvage' aspect of the story. Wow:

Just to clarify, this photo was taken from down on the shoreline. I found her while scanning the RNDUs from my vantage on my property but was unable to get a good photo b/c she went behind the trees to the SE corner of Amazie. Later in the day she returned to where I could more easily see her from my vantage, with 1 LESC and the 20something RNDUs:

And after working hard on these guys as flybys during the rain, it was nice to get a couple on the water

Quick note: my life yarbird lists were 2 behind all this time since I forgot to include Mute Swan and Tree Swallow, hence this is 111 not 109

another mystery sound

Any ideas? Recorded just before 11PM, March 14.

On a sidenote: I did score one very good bird today: MERL (81/108). Not easy for my yard and for some reason not hanging out on Whitefish Lake like I thought one might. Also added EAPH (82) which sang briefly but then left.

wowsers! I got a new year bird for the yard....

I saw a Robin.

moving along

Side note: yesterday's 2 swallow sp. actually were a tick (77), though I forgot to count them until now.

Started today with EAME (78/106) singing in the field across the street. Then was surprised by this puppy on Amazie; didn't expect it on my 'small' water (79/107)

Raptor migration is also moving along nicely, and should continue to all day today.These guys didnt' completely match the weather (80)And this guy was supposed to flush the Aythya yesterday to help me get that blasted CANV!

Gratuitous name drop

Howdy boys,

Been in S. Texas for the past week, where we saw--amongst much else--Brown Jay:


http://euclid.nmu.edu/~jophilli/brown-jay1.1.jpg


But back to my yard: had my first Sharpie of the season in my yard just before I left town last Sunday (earlyish up here). And a very nice Hoary has been hanging around at the my feeders since my return from Texas. I'll try to post a photo soon.

Whitefish and Amazie are OPEN for business

As hoped, the rain and fog this morning really brought down the waterfowl. A light start to my morning including these (70/99):

and these (71/100)

and SEFI- are these 3 pics enough to ID these birds, or do you need more pics? I could add a few dozen more?!?

PS- made a run to Whitefish to get a better feel for what's actually out there: check this out:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10150347

Came back and added BUFF (72, 101) COGO (73, 102), and REDH (74, 103). Still need to get CANV, AMCO, HOGR, GRSC sometime today before the rain clears and the mega waterfowl flock leaves... More soon.

PSS- video of the madness on Whitefish lake .

Actual totals of this megaflock on Whitefish Lake were: 87 CANV (!), 44 AMWI, 70ish LESC, 370 RNDU, 40ish REDH, 5 NSHO (much-needed life yardbird) and a smattering of other species. But I cannot see the CANV, GRSC, AMCO, HOGR, or NSHO from my yard yet. Need the BAEA to flush them up while Iam looking!

PSSS- despite much effort, I never got CANV, GRSC, AMCO, or HOGR from my yard today. When I went back to the lake for a 3rd visit, all of the 600+ waterfowl were GONE (!), exc. a handful of scaup, and I could see the entire lake- they left the area as soon as the fog and rain lifted, sometime around noon or 1PM.

Happily, though, the rain, gray clouds, and wind returned around 4PM, so I made a point to stand outside in the rain and watch for flying ducks. Sure as can be, a flock of 11 dabblers appeared distantly on the south horizon headed west, and half had obvious pale upperwing patches. AMWI, I thought? They got closer and revealed their true ID: NSHO (75/104). As a parting gift, I was lullabied back into the house at dusk by these beauts:

76/105 :)

Heron sp.? strange CANG? something else?

First of all, even if we reach an ID, this is non-countable, so this is mainly of academic interest. But what the heck is this thing that just flew over my mic 5 minutes ago as I listened through the feed?

disappointing

most of the time when I visit another yardbirdblogger's yard (SEFI, JOKA, CUDY), my scanning typically results in at least a year yarbird or two for my vaunted opponent. Last spring I got SEFI his life yardbird OSPR, in fact. I scored JOKA at least a couple yearbirds 2 summers ago during my visit to the Kitty's Lair.

This weekend's visit to SEFI V2 was fairly mundane, however. BHCO and WTSP was about the best we could manage.

Back to mad action in Puttville- looking like rain as I wake up. Hoping for a waterfowl fallout so I can clean up that AMWI and NSHO before they're off for the north! Wouldn't mind nailing AMCO and PBGR soon either. Or a white goose (there are plenty around mid MI right now).

Toodles,