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)

Turkey Hunting Season

This is the start of the Wild Turkey hunting season here in Michigan, so I could not bypass the opportunity to vent a little bit on the hobby of hunting.

Hunters commonly defend their hobbies by pointing out the need to "control populations of.." (choose whatever animal you want to kill). To some extend I understand that deer population are really high in south east michigan and that hunting somehow limits their nuisance, which includes overgrazing trees and farm fields, and the occasional collision with a car (which might not be too bad for the local economy, by the way, since the auto makers are badly in need for a few more car customers)

I also understand that, somehow, Hunters and Birders have a common interest, which is to preserve land and natural habitat, so the animals that one group want to watch and the other group to exterminate ("oops sorry I meant "manage") can work together for the benefit of preservation.

But checking the DNR website, I found out the "bag limit" per animal/bird :

Crow : No limit . My grand dad told me once he killed a few then he was young. It was during WWII, though, and he did it so he could eat. Nowadays, I see no reason (other than shear sadistic pleasure?) why somebody should shoot a crow. Or even, say, a couple thousands of them. Another point I would like to make, is about the possible confusion between a Raven (I've heard they are expanding their territories to the lower peninsula of Michigan).

Quail (Bobwhite) : 5/day : I still have to see or even hear one in washtenaw county, by the way. Populations are low, since we are on the northern range of the species

Woodcock : 3/day.

Scaup : 2/day (obviously there is not distinction between the twos species? )

Pintail : 1 (I think I have seen only one in washtenaw county, and maybe 4 or 5 in Michigan)

Coots and Moorhen (15/day/species) (only one moorhen on my michigan list, none for my county list)

Virginia Rail/Sora (15/day) Not that I expect anyone to actually manage to see or even shoot 15 virginia rails or sora in one day, but what are the DNR people thinking? 15 virginia rails? I am usually lucky if I hear a couple per season (to this date I have not seen one this year)

Another issue I see here, is I don't think a lot of hunters can make an instant distinction between a Virginia and King Rail, which is a very rare species in our state.

Snow, Blue and Ross Geese : (10/day) This is not a joke. You can indeed shoot a Ross Goose in Michigan. There are probably no more than 2 or 3 that are spotted each year in the state. This is how rare this bird is around here.

White Fronted and Brant Geese : 1/day. I got my first White Fronted Goose last spring. I have not heard about a Brant Goose in the south peninsula of Michigan since I started birding, although I think there was one in Ohio 2 winters ago.

Mergansers (5, only 2 of which hooded). Note that they dont' specify if the red breasted, relatively rare in michigan, is huntable (by default, I guess they are)

By the way, anyone can shoot at squirrels, veasels, oppossums and other critters. Just because it's there, said one day Mallory as he was trying to climb the highest mountain of the world. Other people have smaller, much smaller ambitions.

All of this shows that the DNR has obviously no intention to "manage" all these species. These birds are nowhere close to overpopulate any part of the state. The truth is, these bag limits are not based on science or even common sense. They are only the result of pressure from the hunting lobby, and nothing else.

As a conclusion, and for the readers of my mediocre blog who might share my views, it is written on the michigan DNR's website that :

"Hunters in Michigan have the right to enjoy their sport free from deliberate interference. Individuals whose hunting is being obstructed should promptly report the violation to a local conservation officer, the nearest DNR Operations Service Center or by calling 800-292-7800. Complaints also can be submitted online: Reporting Hunter/Angler Harassment. "

This was just in case you had the weird idea to stand between a hunter and a bird. You are indeed risking a ticket or something.

yeah, or something.

Fantazy Birding

I noticed recently that ebird has increased the social aspect of its website, by not only allowing ebirders to report their sightings and manage their list, and check records of particular bird species for a given area. Now it also provides a ranking (per county, state, country, ABA area..) of ebirders, in term of life, or year list. In the future, I was told that ebirders will be able to check each other's lists, and even allow some kind of social link betweeen ebirders

I was bored yesterday and naturally, came up with a crazy idea. Why not creating a Fantazy Birding League? It would work just like any other fantazy game, and you would, at the start of the season (or month, or whatever unit of time or space you want), virtually "purchase" some ebirders for your team. Maybe, say, a team of 5. You would have a limited budget, of course, so if you would like to purchase an "ace" ebirder in arizona (like Mark Stevenson, currently leading the arizona erace with 390 birds for the state ), you would have to get a crappy ebirder in california (with few pelagic birds) and an even worst ebirder in midwest (a guy like me who birds 15 mn a week so you are not even certain to get a kirtland warbler or a snowy owl for your virtual count).

The winner, as expected, would be able to predict, from past years data, which combination of ebirders is the most likely to collect the biggest year list.

Hummingbirds, shooting for the rufous moon

Ruby Throated Hummingbird, taken through my kitchen window

Chances of discovering a lifer, or even a county lifer in my back yard are getting seriously low nowadays. The Connecticut warbler I had early June might very well be the last lifer I could get while sipping a glass of white wine on my deck.

I was thinking about the next potential target the other day, and suddenly I thought about one possibility. A small, remote but real possibility.

I am talking about the Rufous hummingbird. looking at the Michigan Audubon Record Commitee database, I found the following records :

State Record No. Species (Count) Date County
1 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Oct 9 1974 St. Joseph
2 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Aug 7-11 1988 Houghton
3 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Sep 25-Oct 22 1988 Ogemaw
4 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Oct 8 1997-Jan 12 1998 Mason
5 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Sep 25-Dec 15 1998 Ingham
6 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Aug 16-17 1999 Alpena
7 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Aug 19-Sep 6 1999 Genesee
8 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Oct 25-Nov 20 2000 Berrien
9 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Oct-Dec 5 2000 Ottawa
10 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Oct 4-Nov 2 2001 Van Buren
11 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Oct 26-Dec 31 2001 Oakland
12 Rufous Hummingbird (1) late Aug-Nov 29 2002 Berrien
13 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Aug 15-Dec 26 2003 Calhoun
14 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Sep 14-Nov 8 2003 Ingham
15 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Oct 20-Dec 26 2003 Berrien
16 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Nov 7-Dec 19 2004 Berrien
17 Rufous Hummingbird (1) late Sep/early Oct-Nov 24 2005 Livingston
18 Rufous Hummingbird (1) May 16 2007 Keweenaw
19 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Oct 17-Nov 22 2007 Clinton
20 Rufous Hummingbird (1) mid-Oct-Dec 5 2007 Van Buren
21 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Oct 28-Dec 22 2007 Kalamazoo
22 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Nov 5-11 2007 Berrien
23 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Nov 7-Dec 4 2008 Ottawa
24 Rufous Hummingbird (1) Nov 12-Dec 5 2008 Saginaw


that's 24 record in 34 years, for the whole state. Obviously, I will need a little bit of luck to find one of those little guys feeding at my windows. Having said so, there is a few encouraging facts that makes me think I have a decent chance.

- there is 24 records in 34 years, but 20 in the last 10 years. So that gives about 2 Rufous hummingbirds per year that are supposed to cross the 170 miles long michigan/ohio or indiana border every year. Assuming the attraction radius of my feeder equipped backyard is 100 m, the odds are about 2*100/(170*1609)=0.007%



Ok, that does not seems a lot at first sight.



But I have another point I would like to make.


How many Rufus hummingbirds are out there really? They seem to show up late in the fall, when most birdfeeders are already washed and back to the storage area. So, the 2 birds a year that are reported are actually seen by a few selected birdwatchers that are dedicated enough to keep their feeders free of ice through the fall/winter. How many of these people are they in Michigan? I would bet there is no more than a few dozen of those geeks in my state

Furthermore, 2 birds a year are only the accepted records by the Michigan record committee. I've heard these guys are pretty picky and tend to only accept very well documented records. I'm pretty sure those guys are so picky that most people would not even bother to report a Rufus Hummingbird, specially if they could not take a picture.

That leaves me with only a wild guess to make. I would bet my chances are not 0.007%, but maybe one hundred times higher than that. That's close from 1%.

Call me a fool, but I like my chances. I'll let you know in December.