Northern Shrike

I went home for lunch this afternoon and was rewarded with this (photo made while standing in my living room):

#99

early morning trash run landed a calling GHOW

any guesses on what #100 will be?  my list is updated in the Google Docs spreadsheet...

Sweet nocturnal recording

Listening to the feed just now and heard duck wing whir (as I often do). This time, however, it was followed by an obviously louder, much slower wing whir, then a vocalization betraying the identity of the source. Pretty cool stuff, never gets old.

http://soundcloud.com/user9140545/tundra-swans-migrating


BTW, this is a first of fall observation of this species for me!

And are any of you dorks good enough to ID the sparrow seep at 0:04?

NAWA #98 for Year

A total salvage tick this afternoon during my lunch time checklist...

Prairie Hardwood Transition BCR

and just when you speak...

RUDU appears in the gap in Whitefish Lake, briefly (a white-cheeked basic male next to a PBGR), then disappears back toward the middle of the lake. So there it is peeps- the only time in my life I'll probably ever reach 180 in a year in my yard!

Still hoping for WIWR, HOGR, and maybe one or two final bonus birds (I'll throw out there a left-field ICGU/THGU in December and some other relative mega {how about EVGR flyby?})

on the cusp of 180, but stuck

for some reason I just cannot get a view of any of the RUDU (or the few HOGR) which have been around on Whitefish Lake recently from the yard. 4 days ago I even had 2 very late FOTE out there in the rain which refused to show themselves as well, and would have been an excellent salvage from when I missed it in April and May the same way.

But where in the hell is WIWR?!? This one perplexes me, and I have spent a lot of time in the back woods, and watching the bath, without any appearances. Really not sure what is going on with that one.

And while this won't provide me any kind of tick, it sure struck me as late:

Wow

Check out what happened behind the cold front last night in WI. Get ready AABO and SEFI.

=100-3

Totally excited to score #97 for the yard today...and that was just after I scored #96 (NOFL), which I didn't realize was still a year/yard lifer tick for me.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11766630

=100-5

Can I do it?!

more mundane than normal, but still cool

Just listening to the night sky with my microphone when this guy started singing directly above the mic:



http://soundcloud.com/user9140545/easo-oct-7-2012-sand-lake-mi

I'm calling it

Who says they aint making anymore lakeshore?   Chris and I meandered to our "property line"last night which has been disappearing steadily for the past two years -- the waters edge is now .6 miles from the "ordinary high water mark"(our backyard).  In September Lake Michigan was 1 foot above the all time low water mark of the mid 1960s.  It seems to have dropped even more since then so we are calling the bottom!  The photo tells it all.

With the low water we our property now measures 150' x 3,389' or 11.6 acres - how extreme is that??

Peregrinus to spite SIPU

Snagged a couple yardbirds this afternoon before the huge front hit.  It was fitting that I was on the phone with SIPU when I had the PEFA soar over with a RTHA.  All tied up with AABO again!

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11714889

Edit to include a shot of 3 bedraggled PUFI in one frame:

Vireo solitarius

Two yard birds in one day!  This BHVI was also a county tick...

Perspective - MI vs. WI

Life Yard Bird

BTBW!  I can't believe it...adult male too.

#92 for the year.  #104 for life.  Interestingly, my county tick was two days ago.  And within this area (Janesville-Beloit-Rockford) I only had one before when I was a kid.  Much more common as you get closer to Lake Michigan.

Another Lifer Yardbird

A WISN wized over head on the morning of 9-28. Another long overdue yard lifer. That's 193.

Thanks CUDY

for calling and providing a stimulus to go out and score this yard lifer (179/179)

and these, as part of my daily checklist

for

Yardbird

My cousin told me this weekend about this place in Florida after I told him about our yard blog.  I don't think he really knew what to make of it...and then started talking about this bar.

http://runchickenrun.com/

End of year celebratory music?

This is some strange twist of fate, but I just randomly bumped into this song on the web. Title seems like some kind of omen.

If I hold out (I am waiting for your home stretch comeback RIBR) and win, shall I use it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuQGfk9Gmgo&feature=player_embedded#!