Soo Area Birding

Well, school truly did keep me from birding during the week this semester and I basically only had time to go birding on the weekends, which involved going to WPBO on the weekends.  It was very disappointing not to get out birding like I used to, but in the end it was well worth it as studying hard this semester payed off.  I'm currently downstate awaiting to hear back from a few jobs.  I recently birded Crane Creek and Pointe Mouillee SGA which was great and have those highlights, along with the rest of what's happened since March, in this post.

On March 5th I went over to see a Townsend's Solitaire at the Whitefish Point State Harbor, and was treated to quite an entertaining show.  A few times it would dive with quick, jerky movements, head-first into a hole and come up with a berry. It was almost as if it was flycatching berries and that the berries might somehow get away from it!  I've posted some photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24300256@N02/sets/72157629157796116/with/6811447306/

A few weeks after that, this Bald Eagle made a nice pass over my head near the Dafter Dump.

A few weeks later I went over to De Tour to see if the Long-tailed Ducks were in any numbers.  They weren't, unfortunately, but there were many American Tree Sparrows, including this one on Drummond Island.

The next few weeks were a mixture of winter birding and new arrivals, with Eastern Meadowlarks and Sharp-tailed Grouse some of the birds around.

The next weekend at WPBO, this Northern Saw-whet Owl was found roosting in the woods.

The following weekend at WPBO produced the second, or perhaps even the most, gorgeous raptor I've ever seen; a leucistic Red-tailed Hawk.  It had an adult "red tail" and a somewhat normal, but far whiter underwing.  However, the upperwing was completely white except for a few black primary feathers and some small scattered black dots on the back.  It looked similar to the leucistic Red-tailed Hawk  in the book Hawks From Every Angle on page 6, but with far less black primaries and no black secondaries.  I did manage to get some completely overexposed and extremely poor photos that do not do this bird justice.

In the weeks that followed, Golden-crowned Kinglets started arriving in numbers and Boreal Chickadees returned to Whitefish Point.  A few hawks made some nice flyovers, including Goshawks, Rough-leggeds, and Golden Eagles.  Sandhill Cranes returned in numbers, with over 1,700 one day.  A dark Red-tailed Hawk was also nice to see.

The next weekend at WPBO was the start of the waterbird count at WPBO.  Highlights were a Sharpie on the Sharpie sticks, a Pileated Woodpecker that I was able to observe for over 45 minutes at a close range, and some more hawks.  The evening owl flight produced some owls as well.

The highlights of the next weekend at the point were Golden Eagles, good loon flights, a dark Red-tailed again, Boreal Chickadees, a Thayer's/Iceland integrade, and seeing a friend I hadn't seen in years.

April 25th was my last day of school and I spent the next several days at WPBO.  This was also the Spring Fling weekend at WPBO.  It was a great time with highlights being an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, the first adult I've seen, an adult Iceland, also the first adult I've seen, Glaucous Gull, a few additional Iceland Gulls, Common Loons close, Red-throated Loons, a dark Red-tailed again, numerous times, Boreal Chickadees, Rusty Blackbirds, an adult male Lapland Longspur, close Goshawks, and the evening owl flights, which were pretty great.

After WPBO, I stopped at Nayanquing Point to try for a Eurasian Wigeon that had been seen there recently.  No luck with it, but I added many year birds, including Common Moorhen, Marsh Wren, Ring-necked Pheasant, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds.  I spent the next week birding local parks near my home and had some pretty great migration, with 15+ warbler species.  On one of these days I got some of the local breeding warblers including Blue-winged, Hooded, and my best views ever of Cerulean Warbler. 

After this, I went to Crane Creek from early on the 9th through the night of the 12th for some great birding.  The few negatives of the trip were that is was a well below average year for numbers of warblers and other species, the number of rude birders, and that the amount of warblers low on the boardwalk was very few, when there's normally a fairly good number low.  The other challenge was that I didn't realize how difficult the lighting was; I used flash for 95% of the shots I took which was a bummer as the highest shutter speed I can use is only 1/250. 

Other than the above, it was a fantastic trip; 135 species, 2 days with over 100 species in a day, without trying, at least 20 warbler species every day, and, including the local specialty warblers the day before this trip near my house, 29 warbler species.

Other bird highlights of the trip included Least Bittern, Snowy Egret, Trumpeter Swan, Surf Scoters-the first I've seen sitting on water, 14 shorebird species, over 130 Whimbrel in a day, Marbled Godwit, Woodcocks displaying right next to my campsite every night and flying 4 feet over my head, Bonaparte's Gulls, Black-billed Cuckoos, Screech and Great Horned Owls perched twice, Whip-poor-will perched, all the regular vireos in a day twice, except White-eyed (I've never had that happen), all the Thrushes, but Bluebird in a day (I've never had that many in a day), Kirtland's Warbler on 2 days, one of which it was 100 feet away or less for over 2 hours, Mourning Warbler, and Lincoln's Sparrows.

Notable birds missed that were seen when I was there included Black Rail, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Golden-winged Warbler, Prairie Warbler, and Summer Tanager.  Additionally, I could have added 15+ "easy" species for the trip if I went for them, but I was focused on enjoying and trying to photograph the warblers, rather than a large species total.

Also, where I was camping was an amazing spot for Forster's Terns, and over 80 were around each day.  It was fun photographing them fly by and while doing so one night is when a Marbled Godwit flew over calling, heading towards Pointe Mouillee SGA in Michigan.

Last Saturday I went to Pointe Mouillee SGA, one of the best, if not the best, shorebirding areas in MI, and had another great day, but there were millions of midges!  They were all over me for up to 1/2 mile at a time!  Highlights there included over 30 Black-crowned Night-Herons, a fairly good variety of waterfowl, including Ruddy Duck, Common Moorhen, 10 shorebird species, Great Black-backed Gull, Willow Flycatcher, Marsh Wren, and 2 Yellow-headed Blackbirds.

I've uploaded some pictures of the Crane Creek and Pointe Mouillee trip here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24300256@N02/sets/72157629817421116/

Some notes about the photos-the Killdeer is on a nest, the snakes are Eastern Massassaugas-MI's only poisonous snake, the moth is a Cecropian-the first I've ever seen, and the turtles are Blanding's, apparently endangered.

I'm now up to 227 species for the year.