When you see...

...Whooping Cranes (2!) flying over your yard, all things are possible.  Oh yeah!

http://ebird.org/ebird/wi/view/checklist?subID=S15590024

Nighttime plover flyby, but which?

SEPL (would-be yard lifer) or AMGP (wouldn't be, due to crazy knockdown this April)?

a good day for gulls

hit a yardbird jackpot today at the Chase Place.  A run of small fish brought quite a few gulls and terns into Portage Bay including a juvy Sabine's Gull and a basic plumage adult Little Gull, Sabine's was new for the yard.  It was pretty blissful since it seems to open the door wide open on possibility.  I've been working on rehabbing this house for two years and I'm starting to believe it's worth it!

The HUGO is still around but it's drooping a wing -- not sure how it lost the ability to fly but definately put a damper on the day.  Those birds are so cool and they were meant to fly far away.

Hugo

This beauty was pal-ing around with a LBDO -- I saw it from the Chase Place then wolfed it over for a better look.  I see a godwit every spring and fall season -- I like it that way.

Just another shorebird. ....

Had 4 Baird's on the flats this evening behind the chase place.  That's the twenty-fourth species of shorebird for the yard and 150 overall.  Never mind I only have 8 warbler species for the yard.

Also id'ed my 2nd banded great egret this year - 18L on a green wing tag - probably a youngin' from southern Lake Huron. earlier this spring-summer I had a 4-year old from The Ontario side of Lake Huron.

Planted a blue beach today - need to work on that understory veg.

Peace out

BUFF!

What more do I need to say?!

 a juvy Buff-breasted Sandpiper with an entourage of golden plover, semi-p. plover, and pectoral sand.  What I lack in warblers I certain make up in shorebirds.

Sometimes.....

Sometimes when the cuckoo's crying
When the moon is halfway down
Sometimes when the night is dying
I take me out and I wander round
I wander round

That's pretty much how it happened early this morning when I let Karma out for a potty.

This incarnate was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, which was the second for the liar.  Still waiting for the Other One.

yardbird manna

Was doing a perimeter check in the Portage Marsh on July 30th - when I spied a jaeger standing offshore on a sandbar.  I dutifully turned and walked back to my yard "proper" (about a 20 minute round trip) before hoofing it out to Portage Point to try to ID (I'd rather have a jaeger sp. for the yard than a species specific jaeger -- even given the decent probability of a state bird in LTJA).

By the time I got to the point the jaeger was gone and while scanning I heard something calling behind me which when I turned around was about 10 feet over my head; a subadult Long-tailed Jaeger.  The bird made multiple dive bombs of Lilly (jaeger bait) and I calling consistently.  I felt Native Alaskan with my dog Stickeen (a John Muir reference).  It was surreal given the behavior, time of year, and the fact I was on the north shore of Lake Michigan and not the north slope of Alaska.  The bird greeted us the next morning and provided a morning and afternoon of pure bliss as it tooled around Portage Point and Bay and harassed everything under the sun.  At some point, while watching with Chris Vogel, he spotted another jaeger  offshore -- similar in all respects to a LTJA but a touch too far to confirm ID.  I was hoping for a breeding pair.

                                         
 

Two new heard only life yarders

This AM



And yesterday

Breathing some rarified air!

Broke through #190 barrier yesterday with a chorry chorry eminating from 2 yards down.  Yep,  Mourning Warbler was a new species for me despite what seems like an abundance of habitat.  The bird was still around this morning.

Picked up a Pee-wee at the Chase house - not singing, some I'm assuming it's an Eastern.

cool NFC

Heard this live at 11:04PM just now, and recorded it.

https://soundcloud.com/user9140545/mystery-ybcu-26-may-2013

First time ever!

Number 67 for the year, this morning: