Scarcities

These are not species I see many individuals of this time of year. Neither is a year tick, but the latter is only my 2nd. The former bred here but has been absent for months:

Laughably Overdue Lifer #192

Considering that I live a mile from Lake MI and less than that from the Kalamazoo River and it's backwaters where it breeds - this bird is long overdue. I tried not to get excited about it, but it is 192 for the yard so I did at least celebrate the irony of it with a brief laugh. I heard the powerful whine of this large bird's wings long before it came into view. Any guesses? No more clues as I'll easily give it away.

Yard Rarity

A Tufted Titmouse miraculously appeared at The Cheddarlands just 15 minutes ago.  It's amazing what you can find if you just go out every now and then and look.  It's just a titmouse kinda neighborhood.

TUTI = year #91 (if I can hit 100 for the year, I'll die a happy man); #103 life

Last night's catch

Let's get right to the important stuff first. I had a possible Le Conte's Sparrow around midnight which is here:

Still working out the ID, but the very long duration was obvious but may not be quite the norm (it apparently averages 0.2 seconds, mine was around .15-.18 depending on how you interpret the end of the note. More soon...

Here is a sampling of the mega flight which occurred:

Zeep, possibly BLBW

COYE (lots last night):

?:

CSWA I presume:

 No clue! (there aren't supposed to be any upslurred buzzy warblers, and it's too high for thrushes)

LISP/SWSP:

mystery zeep

Sparrow sp.

NOPA?

 WTSP (one of many)

?

zeep, possibly BLBW

Fun stuff, more soon once I decide if I am getting any ticks out of talll this!

Wowzas!

Heading to bed after a couple hours on the roof. It was really hopping- the Grand rapids radar is weird tonight. There was no reflectivity as the sun went down, then this horizontal push of birds showed up, apparently behind a cold front at upper levels?? Anyway, I just listened to well over a hundred seeps, thrushes, and sparrow calls including some very interesting ones which I cannot WAIT to investigate on the sonograms tomorrow (have to wait for recording to finish before trying, otherwise I have to pause the recording). One of which was a *very* long downslurred note suggesting LCSP (possibly FISP?), the other sure as heck sounded like the long cascading downslurred note of HESP (like a LCSP with a slight BOWA jingle quality to it). 

More in the AM. Get out there!

Totals?

So the google doc shows our totals as:


Kat 112
RIBR 142
SEFI 84
CAPU 178
Skyler 45
AABO 70
ANJO 18
JD 11

ANJO and WWJD- surely these are way wrong, right? Let's get this puppy updated!

getting closer to #100 for the year

GCKI in my "conifer grove" - #89 for the year

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11633331

Dateline Escanaba: Hudsonian Godwit - Chase Place

Need I say more?  This LIFE yardbird extends my godwit streak to 4 migration seasons.  I'm a happy boy, wallowing in my warbler-less swamp.

Septembre 19th

What would we do without NFCs?

177/178

And here is me calling out what I correctly suspected it to be:



and here is 178/178 (sonogram isn't obvious by sight, but you can hear it)


For you doubters, here is another, better HETH:


And a GCTH, included just for how well the sonogram turned out:

Please keep calling me guys

Since most of my yearbirds occur when someone calls which spurs me to go outside. This time's benefactor was JOKA, who called while looking at a Hudwit, 2 dowitchers, and who knows what else rares at Chase Place, donated this monster salvage to me (176/177):

Expecting that last night's listening session will net me SAVS and HETH, but time will tell.

SEFI Getting a Thrashing

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11624218

Just for the record, BRTH (#102 life) is an uber good bird around here.  There's basically no scrubby type habitat anywhere in the neighborhood.  This bird was hopping between my "conifer grove" and the neighbor's crab apple tree.

Interesting Comparison - God's Country Wins

Edit by SEFI:
AABO's old yard: 

AABO's new yard: