Finches

Was happy to see my White-winged Crossbills back in the yard for the first time in a couple weeks yesterday. Also had 2 Redpolls on the feeder today, after a similar period of absence. Reports of 20-30 redpolls are popping up in and near Kent Co., however, so my hopes are high for scoring a HORE. Hell, I'd even rent a HORE from you guys up north if the price is right.

Chuckleheads

Hey Chuckleheads, I'm glad you're enjoying your House Sparrows and C. Waxwings. I, on the other hand, had Hoary Redpoll this morning and Glaucous Gull yesterday.

I'll take what I can get

A brief flurry (no, not snow, that's almost unheard of here this year) of activity in the tree line to the west this morning. 23 AMRO, 14 CEDW & 2 NOFL were helpful in making the Kitty uncomfortable. This is the first serious birding I have done in the yard in ten days. How is it possible that I'm tied for third with such little effort?! Come on slackers pick up the pace! I'm at it full tilt from here on!

I know you're all going to laugh....

But, I got a good bird at the Haas Tract today! Some might say it was the Hoary Redpoll that came in with the finch hordes today.

Shot through the window, so not the best of photos, but unmarked undertail, white rump, larger then the commons, the buffy "hoary wash", pale scaps, yadda, yadda, yadda...  Always nice to see......

 But then there is this little lady!

I might be only one of a few in the Midwest who gets more excited when a House Sparrow shows up then a Hoary Redpoll. This is not an annual bird to the yard, matter of fact I believe this might only be my 5th occurrence in the yard. Put another way I've only had 3 more House Sparrows then Solitaires.....

Oh! My Hoary came back here at the end of the day.
What a blob...

#30 - Ring-necked Duck in late January!?

We got probably 6-8 inches of snow last week, and promptly lost most of it overnight during some freak thunderstorms/rain.  The ensuing snow-melt pooled up nicely in the golf course and a pretty large number of Mallards were happily utilizing the newly created habitat when I walked out to my car this morning.  I ran back inside to grab my bins and came back to see a male Ring-necked Duck pushing its way through water that is only inches deep - dabbling in the grass right next to Mallards!?

Who knows where this guy came from - the only open water in the vicinity (that I know of) is a small amount of open water within FermiLab that is closed to the public, and portions of the Fox River to the west are open.  Either way - he is a most welcome addition to my '12 year list for The Wetlands - and he may be my last post-worthy bird from here.
Oh yeah - I almost forgot to mention this bastard-child of a ABDU and MALL that was also gracing the flooded golf course.  Seriously - could have used a pure one for the year...

I'm moving north in search of PIGR, BOCH, and BBWO.  6 miles is better than nothing I guess!?

Nailed It!

So Caleb....

Where does this rate on your "gettable" list???
Take no Haastages..........

New Taxa of Redpoll documented in Escanaba

I photographed this cute little fella at the feeder yesterday, at first I thought it was a pale redpoll from Nunavut but with further study it appears to be a new taxa of redpoll, I believe endemic to the central U.P.

With the overall frosty cool look, discreet black mask, tidy red-poll, and limited streaking on a white rump, I believe it to be most closely related to HORE.

Thoughts?

A wizard and a call finch

Two nice Janaury snags for me- yesterday a Merlin buzzed the H-tract and this morning (FINALLY!) delivered me a Hoary Redpoll hopping on the table feeder with 30-some of its more "common" conjoiners.
What took it so long?

My first left fielder

You guys are so toast this year.

So don't forget, I have 179 'gettables' and another 46 'left fielders' possible this year. Make that 45. I have just now returned from a late night party in Grand Rapids at 1:45AM to the chorus of a pair of countersinging GHOW in the calm dead of the night (it is probably 5 degrees out). So, I dutifully decided to do a 20 minute point count with playback for BDOW. Again, surprisingly, no luck. Not sure where the local BDOW are right now.

Then as a closing note I played a bunch of NSWO tapes (about the fifth time since Jan 1). This time, however, was one of about 5 times in my life I actually got a response, and I was completely shellshocked. Within a minute I had an obvious NSWO series of "bark" notes, the exact note I was broadcasting (my track from the Evans and O'Brien nocturnal flight call CD rom). Here is another recording of the note I am referring to:

http://macaulaylibrary.org/search?taxon=saw-whet&taxon_id=11991363&taxon_rank_id=67
(Click the file "Audio 49738", 21 files from the top)

I literally couldn't believe my ears as this bird responded. It was clearly flying around me trying to find the perpetrator, calling from the west and northeast (in the pines). The time it called from the closest (150 feet tops), I put my iPod touch into record mode and took a long video clip hoping to capture it, but the bird refused to vocalize while I was recording. It never sang, just gave 3 of these "bark" notes from close range, and a few notes from farther out, including at least 2 of its namesake 'saw-whet' calls, one of which was very loud.

So, to sume up: the fact that I have Red Crossbill and Northern Saw-whet Owl for 2012 as of Jan 20 is not boding well for those of you hoping to keep up with me. Time for some sleep now... And here's the eBird checklist:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9635575

Photoshopaholic

Wow, that took a while! Here are a few of the originals I manipulated to put together our classy header:

SEFI, loves the new buckteeth (you're welcome):

Mankini?

Nice header captain, the mankini is really a special touch. You outdid yourself this time...

Curious why Haas gets to be a SBGU hybrid? Though I hafta admit he looks pretty in pearl necklace wings....

I also wanted upload my entire image to show it wasn't photo-shopped like the others. That was one humongous cuckoo.

He's Back Bay-breasted-by!!!

I figured to let you all have a head start before I start laying down the yard birds on your sorry asses. Just got back from an extended stay in the southern lands and apparently brought a few strays back up with me. Yard bird # 1 for this blog's most northerly participant was of course a singing Cardinal out the window. Was I expecting my first 2012 yard (Or UP for that matter!) Woodpecker to be a Red-bellied? Nope, but I'll take it. This is not a gimme bird for my yard and hopefully just the warm-up act to a exciting year of piciformes in the Haas Tract. Supporting players of Siskins and Redpolls have already found the recently unburied feeders and I know that white lady of the night, er I mean north is just days away from showing up.
Silly Putty- Even with you now having lakeside property I am still going to destroy you....