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:

nice pickup for this time of year

NOT a species I see many places after waterfowl migration in Kent County! Not too sure what he's doing here away from a nice marsh but I'll take it...

PS- JOKA, don't even think about mentioning the H word

Another expected one

https://soundcloud.com/user9140545/carw-21-may-2013-kentwood-mi

A tally of slow migration in the yard

1 Slogging along with continuing north and east winds. Here are the last 20 additions to my yard this year: Eastern Wood-Pewee 18 May 2013 2 Acadian Flycatcher 18 May 2013 3 Least Flycatcher 16 May 2013 4 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 16 May 2013 5 Magnolia Warbler 15 May 2013 6 Eastern Kingbird 15 May 2013 7 Red-eyed Vireo 15 May 2013 8 Common Yellowthroat 15 May 2013 9 Chestnut-sided Warbler 15 May 2013 10 Pine Siskin 15 May 2013 11 Nashville Warbler 14 May 2013 12 Palm Warbler 14 May 2013 13 Pine Warbler 14 May 2013 14 Scarlet Tanager 14 May 2013 15 Peregrine Falcon 12 May 2013 16 Veery 11 May 2013 17 Indigo Bunting 11 May 2013 18 American Redstart 08 May 2013 19 Warbling Vireo 05 May 2013 20 Black-throated Green Warbler 04 May 2013

Bee Bee BUzz? Bee Bee Bummer.

 I heard my first "winged-warbler" ever this morning in my neighbors cedars (swamp lair) but I just had a feeling it wasn't going to pan out as a whole number and it didn't.  Probably the only time someone is going to gripe seeing a Brewster's Warbler but it wasnt that much of a gripe...

At least I held out til mid-May before asking, but . . .

. . . I give up--where the hell is the 2013 spreadsheet?

Not the way I expected to get this one

Though my lack of listening effort explains it. Box is about 25 feet high, and was occupied within a week of its erection.

Life Yardie # 189

With a whinny I finally put Sora to bed.  It was 2010, I think, I heard a distant one in the Marsh and thought "I'll wait for a definative one that I can enjoy".  That moment never happened.  Last nights bird responded to a broadcast -- still distant in the marsh, but at least I got 2 whinnies, and two whinnies are better than one.

Life Yardbird 197

A long awaited waterbird finally flew through the yard today. A female Hooded Merg gave a brief appearance over the south field bringing my life yard list to 197!

Overall great movement of birds the last couple days. 
Yesterday:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13953019
Today:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13963474