Pole position

Gosh, I havent been in the lead on this thing in, like, three years.

HUGEMUNGO movement of geese last evening -- outta 2-5K birds I finally pulled down a SNGO.  Other delights included Forster's Tern and Orange-crowned Warbler.  Definitely a Chase-man now.  I've only been to the swamp liar once this spring sans scope.  I am so laa-zy.

More stormfront love

Boy my roof is fun during a late April rain. 3 of these are yard lifers.

Another storm, another bevy of yard lifers

After last night's epic monsoon conditions, I finally made a point to get atop my new roof for the first time since moving in in late February. Sillydigs did not let me down. First, an by far most importantly, as I was setting up my ladder, I looked up to see a large shorebird flock about .5 miles high. I quickly realized I was looking at Pluvialis. They had no dark in the axillaries. I ran inside for my DSLR, and they were still overhead when I got out. By the time I got the manual settings ready they were behind the neighbor's sycamore and I never saw them again. DAMN! Having only ever seen AMGP at 2 locations in the county, seeing a flock of 40-45 of them FROM MY YARD was mind blowing, and dare I say it, a bit epic?

I proceeded to the roof which produced additional epicocity in my extremely suburban setting. Next up was a large flock of BOGU. Then life yardbird BARS (including several possible CLSW and PUMA candidates up real high), then NOHA, and right as another heavy cylinder of rain hit, 2 COLO pumping NE to outrun the storm right on the front edge of the rain column. Oh the agony.

Takehome message of the day for yardbirders: right about the time the weather gets so shitty that you no longer want to stay outside, is exactly the time you need to watch the sky more carefully and STAY OUTSIDE! Downpours and low-flying waterbirds and shorebirds go together like Silly and Putty.

EPIC! near-MEGA

The Portage is filling up with dabblers -- expecting a "***mega***".  Meanwhile, I had "***FOY***" Greater Yellowlegs - though I could only "***h.o.***" the bird so I whipped out my 4" iPhone and started up my iBird Pro 6.1 -- I played calls of GRYE and after a spell I saw 2 birds - one a yellowlegs - fly over my house away from the the lake.  After 2 minutes - and sparse calling indicating it was nearby - the yellowlegs and "other" bird flew back over the house and buzzed down to the pond.  I'm not sure, but I think it may have landed on my roof (the back side is a big flat roof) when it was out of view.  The yellowlegs landed and his little buddy turns out was a Wilson's Phalarope.  I put my iPhriend in camera mode and digiscoped a couple of images before they flew off.  How "***EPIC***" is that?????

ugh..... worst spring ever

well, I counted them up. I'm at 22 species for the yard. My roomie has had also had a Great Horned Owl which has so far eluded me. The only new species I've had in a month(!) was a robin that showed up a couple of days ago.

Yep.... that be all the news from lake wobbegone

duck, duck, goose

the chase place is filling up with ducks.  yesterday i had a flock of 1200 ltdu along with as smathering of all the regular dabblers.  its so much easier than the swamp liar.  50 for the year.

A flurry of migrants

Radar looked really good last night, and indeed many birds reached GR by daybreak. EAPH and FOSP were new today (as was my first confirmed HAWO sighting for my grassy, urban yard, a pair), with BRCR and GCKI being present yesterday as well.

The RSHA was surprisingly not a flyby migrant, but came out of the woodlot to my SE and fly at eye level through the yard, presumably a resting migrant looking for hunting/resting space. Finally, the TUSW was a nocturnal migrant (thanks mic!)

1	Hairy Woodpecker	1 SillyDigs	US-MI	08 Apr 2013
2	Eastern Phoebe	1SillyDigs	US-MI	08 Apr 2013
3	Fox Sparrow	1 SillyDigs	US-MI	08 Apr 2013
4	Brown Creeper	1 SillyDigs	US-MI	07 Apr 2013
5	Golden-crowned Kinglet	1 SillyDigs	US-MI	07 Apr 2013
6	Red-shouldered Hawk	1 SillyDigs	US-MI	05 Apr 2013
7	Tundra Swan	1 SillyDigs	US-MI	03 Apr 2013

Earth to UPers- where are you guys???

Pretty Boys

A couple of pretty boys have been coming to the feeding stations lately with their harem. They strut their stuff while their 22 lady friends ignore them.

Sandhill Dreams

Yesterday, after a long, fun day of birding in Ottawa Co., I came home and got some things done around the house. I then went to the south field, laid down in the grass and fell asleep out of the cold wind in the sun. I was awakened by trumpeting Sandhills flying over. A group of six, then two and then a single bird. The single I believe was thinking about landing in the field as it circled down to about 100 ft, but must have seen me and sailed off. Pretty cool.

Peent

Well, my first total surprise bird (other than RECR) has appeared at the house! Upon walking outside in the drizzle at dusk I was shocked to immediately hear the high pitched wing-twittering of a WOODCOCK directly overhead. Main reason this is shocking is not the date, but the location and habitat- nearly 2 miles from anything resembling habitat for this species.

I had figured it might take me years of waiting to score this species here. Also my mic is currently broken and not functioning, so I had no chance of hearing it short of walking outside the house. Pretty cool.

The Owl Ranch

Howdy all,

I'm in! Got a new yard, got a new year, got some great habitat- now if only the birds would find my feeders.....

I'm at a modest 22 birds for the year, nothing too crazy. A Hoary Redpoll dropped in for a couple of days, and I've had both species of Crossbills flyover. A small flock of Bohemian Waxwings were around a few weeks ago. I'm in a much more wooded place with lots of oaks, so Red-bellied Woodpecker is a near daily bird for me as opposed to being a rare treat. I'm right on the northwest edge of town with the Dead River just a few blocks over so another near daily bird for me is Common Raven (my old place would only see a few of these a year). Truthfully my feeders have been slow. I'm concerned that the much more wooded habitat of my new place may not be as attractive to migrants as my old yard was, but I am looking forward to having more breeders in the yard. I am certainly thinking there should be a Pine Warbler nesting in the yard, and daresay I am dreaming of a summer resident Blackburian Warbler. But I don't think I'm getting a Grasshopper Sparrow at this new place! I will just have to settle for that Band-tailed Pigeon that will eventually come into the feeder one day......

So the yard is .75 acres, and is surrounded by a small woodlot on two sides comprised of birch, maple, and white pine. The yard itself has several apple trees with a couple of wide areas of lawn (read my soon to be prairie garden...). I have a lot of white pines, 4 of which are huge and likely at least 150 years old. There will be a water feature sometime later this spring.

But for now enjoy a few pictures!

The Bohemians linger on

My mic has now blessed me with 3 separate BOWA flybys since I moved in, and today I was surprised to again be greeted by this noise:

https://soundcloud.com/user9140545/bowa-and-cedw-7-march-2013

This time, as you can hear, there were CEDW mixed in as well (life yardbird), and better yet: the calls seemed not to be flyovers- they seemed to be sitting still. Grabbed the camera and ran out to the back yard, and located the flock in the neighbors tree several hundred feet away, and got this shot of the 2nd half of the flock leaving:

Can't be much longer before these guys leave and head north. Our fruiting trees are virtually devoid of berries, and have been for weeks. Apparently (though I don't know where) they are still finding food somewhere.