Bonaparte's at Pointe Mouille

I had the chance to stop for a quick lunch break yesterday at the Pointe Mouillee Headquarters. I was originally planning to walk around the Velvet unit, but I quickly realized there were too many people there working hard to "manage the natural ressources" of Michigan (I mean rednecks with shot guns). So I just spend half an hour on the observation platform of the headquarters, hoping for a late season raptors to fly over.

No raptors, but I had the good fortune to see quite a good number (150+) of Bonaparte's gulls, in winter plumage. The light was rather bad, but it was a great opportunity to take pictures of birds in flight with my fz-28, and to experiment with the different camera modes. Also seen was a rather impressive flight of Tundra Swans...

An humbling experience

I started to birdwatch only 3 years ago, and honestly, I now feel quite confident about most of my ID's. Sure enough there are some birds I m still struggling with (the gulls in particular), but I spend a disproportionnate amount of time studying in detail my trusty Sibley Guide, so my confidence level has increased exponentially over time.

Maybe too fast, if I think about it.

A few weeks ago, the Hands-On Museum of Ann Arbor organized a special event, in which some birds of prey were supposed to be shown. That enough was enough to convince me to go, but the whole event in general (a presentation of a bunch of unusual animals) was really nicely organized, and all the kids were having a blast.

We naturally started with the bird room, in which four birds of prey were shown. I immediately assumed that all the birds here were local rescued birds, because people who do this kind of volunteer work tend to be very active and show their birds on a regular basis (I actually think this is a requirement for them)

The first 2 birds were obviously a Peregrine Falcon and an American Kestrel

Close views of the birds were available, and it was a great opportunity to admire those birds.

American Kestrel

Peregrine Falcon

The next one was obviously a Great Horned Owl, which is a bird I always like to see or even hear in the woods

On the last bird, I made a stop. It seemed to be a Red Tailed Hawk, but the size was really small. To be honnest, I did not think much, as I was quite sure those birds were local. I thought maybe the bird had been sick or something, and did not grow properly.

Well, it turned out I am an ignorant idiot. The owl was actually a Eurasian Eagle Owl (the largest owl on the planet, I was told), and the red tail hawk was not a red tail hawk, but an Augur Buzzard, an african hawk species.

That made me think I don't really know all my birds, even the american ones. In the unlikely event that a Eurasian Eagle Owl would have show up in the botanical garden of Ann Arbor, I would have simply take a look at the bird, and missed a once a lifetime opportunity to discover a new Michigan (maybe even american) record.

I guess that makes all the difference between the great birders (like the one who found an ancient murrelet on the lake Michigan two days ago), and the rest. Maybe I should double check my kestrel ID, btw. Who knows, maybe it was a Eurasian Kestrel after all.

Mid-fall evening's dream

Sometimes we go out birding

Just for the taste

Of a warm evening,

at Haehnle Sanctuary

Just for the sight

Of the Sandhill Cranes

Flying back

To their roost

In the fading light

Just for the sound

of their noisy karooo

- is it infinitely ugly, or beautiful?

Not even for a tick
On our county list

No field notes,

It's the wrong side of the county line

It's almost dark now

And getting chilly

And the cranes are all landed

So we leave

Was it the last true fall night?

Stop the dream!!!!!

There is a white winged dove in the county!!!!

Hawk watching with a Babyhawk

I love the baby carrier we bought a few weeks ago. It's called a "babyhawk'. The name itself would justify the purchase, but, honnestly, it is a far superior design than the carrier we had before. The baby is warm and cozy in the carrier(nowadays, I wear my coat over it), and most important, it is really easy to strap the baby in it without any outside help. So it allows me to go for a walk without worrying about having Diane around to help me.

A couple of week ago, we went for a walk in the neighboorhood. No rare birds around, but Robins were numerous, eating berries on a tree, only a block away.....

A lot more impressive was a Cooper's Hawk, perched on a fence. I was amazed by how close I was able to approach the bird. It is only after the bird took off, finally, that I understood its lazyness. The Hawk was carrying a huge black rat (not visible on the picture), and flying with its afternoon snack was obviously a huge effort.

Birding in William P. Holliday Forest & Wildlife Preserve

Last week I was able to squeeze a lunch break in the William Holliday Forest and Wildlife Preserve, a few feet away from the super busy intersection of M14 and I-275. What an interesting green gem!!!! In the middle of wayne county, 550 acres of forest were beautifully preserved thanks to a Detroit banker who died in 1938. The woods were magnificent, with fall colors close from their prime. Amazingly, despite the magnificent weather and the few million people surrounding this green island, I only met a couple of hikers.

I did not expect to see lots of birds, as it was early afternoon and temperature was relatively warm, so I simply enjoyed the fall colors. A yellow maple leaf was magically hanging from a branch.......


Berries were everywhere, so it might be an interesting winter birding destination!

Birds were few, but interesting! Beside the usual (and grossly underrated, if you ask me) cardinals and black-capped chickadees, Hermit Thrushes were numerous, but managed to elude the lens of my camera. A female Black Throated Blue Warbler was slightly more cooperative (although slightly out of focus on my picture). It was October 21, so she was a tiny bit late for her fall migration. Hope she will make it! I was able to see the white spot on her primaries, so I assume she was not a first year bird.

Light makes photography so much easier

I tried to follow Hilke's comment about trying to brighten my pine warbler picture. I only have Microsoft Photo Editor on my computer, so maybe this is the reason why the results were not that impressive. Or maybe it's just that I need to actually read a little bit more about pictures processing.

Update : Hilke was kind enough to process the picture for me. Here is what she was able to obtain:


THANKS, Hilke!


Last week was relatively sunny and warm, and I took this picture of a song sparrow. Easy shot, as the sparrow was basically posing in the morning sun. That's SOO much easier with good sun light!!!!

Back Yard Birding

I was playing last week end with my camera, trying to get a few decent pictures of birds in low light, trying to find out the most efficient set up for bad light conditions. Most common birds were present, such as Cardinals, White Breasted Nuthatch, American Gold Finches. Lady Downy Woodpecker made a brief appearance at my window:

A Coopers Hawk appeared suddently, sending everyone to hide in the bushes......

A few minutes later, all the goldfinches were back. The finches are now almost completly in their winter plumage:

I took about a dozen pictures of the Goldfinches, and one of the finches seems a little bit odd :

Quite odd, really, since it was not indeed a Goldfinch, but a Pine Warbler!!!! That was a good find for my yard, a new bird for the year (year bird #59 for the yard)