Huron River Birding

A word or two about the Nikon customer service

2011-03-01T12:14:00.003-05:00

Jeez it has been a while. It seems I can post even less frequently than Jochen. I just can't find many interesting things to say, when other birders / bloggers / bird photographers are way more talented than I am. I mean, I look at Jerry's digiscoping blog, and I want to throw my scope and cameras in the Huron River for good. I read every day our listserv email list, and read about people twitching to the UP to score say, a Anna's Humminbird or Pine Grosbeaks and think " so why would people be interested with my goldfinches and my ebird stuff"?

Oh yeah, Ebird. I am totally obsessed with this stuff. I can't help but check the missing data for my favorite Hotspots (Brown Park, Redbud, Gallup, Shanghai, Lefurge woods) and feel pain for every missing week of data I can see in the bar charts. Nothing much I can do about it, it is going to take years to get complete bar charts for those spots, but in the mean time, it makes me super incomfortable to see those stupid shaded area showing "missing data". The good thing is there is a few good county birders who are picking up on Ebird, so it is getting better every day. All I need is to be patient, and breath. The feeling of panic is going to go away one day. And not to feel too bad if I did not record the exact time and distance I walked last time in Gallup. Wait, was it 1.2 or 1.25 miles?

Anyway, I have a couple of interesting things to say about my Nikon Monarch 8*42. Good Bins, specially for the price, $270 I bought 3 years ago. The kind of bins I can afford to buy, more important, the kind of bins I can afford to lose or bang on a tree during a run (yeah, I run and bird at the same time).

So I had some troubles with the Eyecups. I would say lots of Monarch Owners do. Eyecups threads are made in plastic, and soon or later (rather sooner if you nervously twist them up and down while waiting for a bird to show up), they get loose, and can't stay in the "up" position.

Nothing that a brocoli rubber band can't fix, you would say. True. But is it not a pain somewhere to have these perfectly good bins that are not QUITE perfect?

So I shipped them back to Nikon Customer Service, in California. Got them back a few weeks ago, fixed, cleaned, realigned.....perfect at last. They did not charge me a dime, because of their non fault warranty. The whole thing took 2 weeks, and I was always able to follow on the website what they were doing to my babies

So, thumbs up to Nikon!!!!!!

My Flicker link

2010-04-07T08:40:00.002-04:00

A link to my bird pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16970154@N07/

Florida Trip

2010-03-29T15:09:00.017-04:00

I have not posted much lately. Not that I have not done any exciting birding, though. The whole family went last month (mm I mean february) in Florida, in Fort Myers Beach, to relax a little bit, get some warmth in the middle of the michigan winter, watch birds, and even chase a lifer or 2 (I did not expect that, considering we had a baby with us.

As usual, Esterego Lagoon had a great quantity of waders, ospreys, shorebirds, terns and gulls, as well as quite a few Palm Warblers (I will never get tired of seeing those birds hoping on the sandbeach), Ospreys, Brown Pelicans, etc. Overall, only one lifer on the beach during the 4 days of the trip (red knot), but I had a great time experimenting with my fz28+TCON17.

Osprey in Fort Myers Beach

There were also quite a few local "long lens" photographers, which is quite an interesting mammal species to study by itself.
In particular, I always find amazing that, on a beach where you can potentially find 6 species of plovers (I did not get the snowy this year, but piping, semipalmated, blackbellied, killdeer, wilsons were quite common), plus willets, turnstones, least sandpipers, the long lens photographers seems to be exclusively interested in waders and terns.

I mean, sure enough, a snowy egret in breeding plumage is nice, but why not taking advantage of having a $10,000 (maybe I am underestimating here) lens and take pictures of the cute little ones?

Another point that I find odd with those people, is their tendency to have EXTREMELY noisy shutter noise. "CLICK" "CLICK" "CLICK". dozens, hundreds of times. On my point and shot, you can very easily turn off the sound, so I would be surprised if you could not do it with those DSLR. OR maybe they did not read the manual......

But enough said about the lucky ones with their dream cameras (maybe I am just getting jaleous here). Let's go back to the birds...
Let's take care of the lifer. This was a red knot, bird that is quite rare in Michigan, let alone in Washtenaw county (we have no coast line with any of the great lakes)

Red Knot

I felt sorry for the bird as I discovered that it was missing part of its left leg....(does it still count as a full tick on my life list?) Another nice bird I found on the beach was an American Avocet, despite the relatively long distance, the picture turned out to be ok.....

Red Knot, missing part of its left leg

American Avocet

I was also lucky enough to find a reddish Egret, white morph (about 20% of the reddish Egret in Florida), which I initially misidentified to be a juvenile little blue heron (and for a moment, I was an "ashamed reddish cheeked birder")

Reddish Egret, White Morph

Weather was rather windy and cold (at least for Florida), and a semipalm plover is sheltering behind a Piping Plover. If you ask me, it's easy to see why the semipalm is a common bird, and the piping is endangered! In any case it was great to see them side to side, if only for the size comparison. I always assumed that the piping was smaller, probably because it is so cute, but I was wrong on this one. This bird was still in winter plumage, while many others were molting

Wilson's Plover

We also managed to make a side trip to Venice, where we managed to score a Florida Scrub Jay, bird we did not manage to score during our previous trip, one year ago. With the Red Knot, it was ABA lifer #321 and 322

Florida Scrub Jay

Another nice side trip we did was a visit to the Corkscrew Swamp. I suspect the main reason why Diane wanted to visit the swamp was because of the painted bunting that is fairly reliable other there. I was, too, quite excited to the idea to get a close picture of this little fellow. Just as we started the boardwalk tour, the volonteer for the refuge told me that a Shiny Cowbird had been reported in this area, so I spend a little bit of time looking for this potential lifer, while Diane went to the bird feeder, looking at the Bunting. Well, I did not see the cowbird, AND managed to miss the Bunting at the feeder (Diane, of course, saw the bunting). I still managed a long distance shot of a Bunting, but the quality is obviously not that great.

Incidentally, the french name for this bird is the "passerin non pareil", which could be translated , in jochen style, by "unlike anything else passerine". I think it is quite a nice name!

Painted Bunting

A common bird in Florida : the white Ibis.

Another side trip we did was to go at the 6 miles cypress park in the city of Fort Myers. The park is, to some extend, very similar to the corskrew swamp : a long board walk in the middle of a wooded swamps. Birds are certainly less numerous, but wintering warblers and vireo were common, and a nice challenge for the would be photographer.

Blue Headed Vireo

But the most exciting bird we saw that day was a Great Blue Heron who managed to pick a fight with a local snake (I wish I could ID the snake). The fight lasted for a good 5 minutes, and ended with a clear victory for the bird, who celebrated by eating his opponent!

A few pictures with the TCON17

2010-01-22T08:48:00.004-05:00

I got one year older last week (my age is now a prime number...is it not exciting?, the next time it will happen will be in 4 years.....any guess?), as a result my beloved wife bought me a TCON17, which allows me to multiply my fz28 zoom by 1.7. While I did not expect any miracle from this, I thought it was a great (I mean cheap) way to get better ID shots, and once a while, a cool picture or two to print.

Light was really bad last week, but I could not help trying my new toy in the local park....

A white throated sparrow was my first target, and he was quite cooperative. Despite the terrible light, I managed a couple of acceptable (not by the National Geographic, though!) picture of this cute bird.

In similar light, a surprisingly bright goldfinch

A Tree Sparrow, in much better light. I could not come as close as I wished, but the pictures came out ok.

House finch, in bright light at my work place

I will try to post a more scientific post on the TCON17 in the near future, but so far, I was quite pleased with the results.

8 reasons to spend the winter in michigan..

2010-01-12T14:55:00.010-05:00

1) You learn quite a bit about how to convert Farenheit into Celsius, because of the Arborland mall sign

2) Nobody will steal your car during the night, because it would be just too much work

Which one is mine anyway?

3) Winter keeps you in good shape :

Long Jump to get across the snow piles, in order juste to get food. The alternative is a quarter mile walk around it, on the parking lot.

A little warm up before to go to work in the morning

4) You have the beaches of lake michigan all for yourself (go figure..)

5) You can learn quite a bit of unusual sciences

Strength of material testing (on ice)

6) What's about a snowshoe hike in Waterloo Recreation Area, looking for crossbills?

Can't think about a better place to be, on a sunny day

7) All things considered, there is still a lot more sun in Michigan than in the north of Europe

Not the best place in the US, but still about 2400 hours of sun a year

I grew up in a city located between Paris and Lille....less than 1750 hours of sun a year!

8) Spring eventually replaces winter, and that feels sooo good!

It does not mean there is no snow (picture taken in mid April)!

snow buntings (lots of them)!!!

2010-01-11T11:30:00.007-05:00

Bonne Annee!!!!!

Happy new year!!!!

Back from europe, I did not do much birding lately. Mostly took care of my feeder, where I picked up a nice variety of birds on January 1st (12), always a nice way to start the year!! I finally managed to pass the 200 bird for the year in december, in the least glamourous way. I was checking my notes from 2007, and realized I forgot to report a ruffed grouse I flushed while I was orienteering during the spring 2007, in the waterloo recreation area. This forgotten bird was enough to make me reach the 200 mark for the county, which had been my goal for the year 2010.

Yesterday I managed to join the washtenaw audubon society for a field trip, with the goal to pick up a few winter birds for my year list. Redpolls and Pine Siskins have been proven to be totally absent from the south east side of the state this year, so we reported our hopes into snow buntings, lapland longspurs, and possibly a norther shrike that had been reported during the previous week. Another possibility was a freak mockingbird who decided to winter in our county , feeding on frozen berries.

Weather was quite cold as we met on the parking lot of the mall (5-6 Fahrenheit), but the wind shill made it even worst when we reached the most popular winter destination of the county, named Vreeland Road in Superior Township.

The trip started nicely with a HUGE flock of tree sparrows (200-300 of them!!) next to the conservation farm. Too far for a shot, but I took one anyway, on the road....

But everyone forgot about the cold as we reached the best spot...

SNOW BUNTINGS....dozens, hundreds of them, flying around in flock, landing for a few bites of the putrefied pumpkins. We counted at least 300 of them, spotting amoung them a few horned larks and at least 6 lapland longspurs.

The mockingbird and the shrike were nowhere to be seen, but a sharpie was a nice consolation price. That was three birds I did not list last year in the county, so that's a great start for the year!

My favorite TV show

2009-12-16T08:06:00.003-05:00

It's a bit early here (7h30 on saturday morning), but I really like this TV show. There is a preview available on stream video.....

http://www.birdingadventures.com/index.php

I even like the commercials, as a matter of fact! Mostly birdcams, Zeiss and the Florida birding trail!

Twisting the ABA rules

2009-12-01T07:47:00.010-05:00

Only a few fortunate (are they really?) birders can afford to spend extensive stretch of time on the field, seeking to break either bid day or big year records, travelling all over the world, continent or even state to add the latest rarity.

The rest of us, the vast majority, simply restrict their "competing territory" to a smaller area, such as counties, township, or even backyard. We are enjoying the discovering of a Connecticut warbler in our backyard just as much as a birder with unlimited fund and time (and carbon credits, in the future years) would enjoy to fly 3000 miles away to find a fan-tailed warbler in New Mexico

All of these birders, despite their difference, share common rules. In order to "count", an observation should follow the 5 ABA rules :

(1) The bird must have been within the prescribed area and time-period when encountered.

(2) The bird must have been a species currently accepted by the ABA Checklist Committee for lists within its
area, or by the A.O.U. Checklist for lists outside the ABA area and within the A.O.U. area, or by Clements for all other areas.

(3) The bird must have been alive, wild, and unrestrained when encountered.

(4) Diagnostic field-marks for the bird, sufficient to identify to species, must have been seen and/or heard and/or documented by the recorder at the time of the encounter.

(5) The bird must have been encountered under conditions that conform to the ABA Code of Birding Ethics.

This brings me to this crucial question, whose answer depend the well being of thousands of cubicle birders

What's about the webcams?

Nowhere in these rules I found anything that prevents me to add on my life list a species seen on a webcam . Rule 1 specify the location of the bird, not the observer, rule 2, 3 and 4 are irrelevant, and rule 5 is actually a lot in favor on this particular form of twitching, because you actually don't use any fossil-based fuel to see the bird.

One might argue that "encountered" specified in rule 1) actually imply being physically present to observe the bird.

Are you kidding?

Why could you count a bird you see through the EVF (electronic view finder) of your digital camera, and not count a bird you see through a webcam? In both cases, you only see the visual representation of a numerical signal. Only difference is the length of the cable between your eye and the bird.

Plus, nobody said that "encounter" meant "in real life", rather that "virtually". Nowadays, lots of people meet virtually "friends" who live thousand of miles away, thanks to social networking websites such as facebook. So I think a webcam based encounter is indeed a real encounter.

That opens a new world of possibilities, isn't it?

Are you missing the stellar's jay to your life list?

look at a feeding station in California, and here we are!

You are short in cash, but think you can identify every single one of the 136 species of hummingbirds that can be found in equator? For this check the buenaventura webcam in Ecuador! The quality of the streamed video is really good

While looking at that webcam, I was able to find a bird I could recognize and identify (well at least I think) : the green jay! That's one more lifer on my list!

You feel a little bit overwhelmed by the number of hummingbirds? I am too (I need to find a book about South American birds before to really work on that one). So I choose to take a short trip to Antartica , because I need a few penguins on my list

More realistically, I obviously don't think using webcams is fair game. At the very best I might think about starting a list with birds only seen on webcams. But it's a great way to learn about birds, specially if you are in your office! (I remember that Jochen was playing another time killing game, involving some sort of a geo-google earth birding bingo)

Bonaparte's at Pointe Mouille

2009-11-19T11:10:00.005-05:00

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

2009-11-16T11:51:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-13T07:40:00.009-05:00

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

2009-11-10T08:26:00.002-05:00

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

2009-10-27T09:51:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-23T08:32:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-22T07:51:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-05T09:11:00.006-04:00

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

2009-09-17T08:20:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-08T09:37:00.006-04:00

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.

Another county bird

2009-08-31T11:23:00.004-04:00

No birding last week end. I wish I could have, but honestly, a 2 days week end per week seems to be a good 4-5 day short of what I need to rest, take care of my family, staying in good shape (I try to hit the gym 3 times a week), and go birding. But the good news is next week end we will go for a short 2 days trip at pointe Pelee National Park, on the other side of the border. In addition to the bird migration, this should be a great time of the year to watch the monarch migration. I am looking forward to see high concentration of butterflies who are supposed to go all the way to Mexico.

Even without birding, I was able to add a new backyard (and county!) bird to my list. Well it is not really a county bird, since I remember I have seen one last year in the Arb, but for some reason I lost my list and did not record into ebird (my rule is, if it's not written, it does not count). That was a yellow-bellied flycatcher.

Now, I am always puzzled by one thing on the yellow-bellied flycatchers. They always (I guess the two of them I have seen, so it is hard to generalize) seem to be much brighter than my trusty field guide (the Sibley). I know they are subject to color variation, and the bird itself was perched in the late afternoon sun, so it might appear a lot more yellow than in reality (if I remember, it was a fairly similar light condition last year), but the Sibley paintings are far, far from being as bright as my two birds. In addition, he describes this species as "best identified by voice", which I found a bit surprising.

Of course, one explanation is I don't see (of ID) the drab ones, only the 5% of birds that are bright enough to bring my attention.

I don't see myself posting in the next week or so (next time should be on my way back from Pointe Pelee), but there is another great, great bird songs web site I found

http://www.xeno-canto.org/?lang=eng

Great recordings from all other the american birds. The site works like a database where everyone can add his recordings.

Ciao all

Is bird listing really geeky?

2009-08-26T07:35:00.004-04:00

Yeah, I've heard the rumor. birdwatchers are specially geeky. They have their own language, love to talk about binoculars, scopes, migration, big days, year list, etc. They are even sometimes suspected to be autistic, due to their inability to look at people's eyes during a conversation (scanning the sky for a rare golden eagle, or red-shouldered hawk).

This is until I talked recently through the net to one of my old friend, Pierre Henry. We had been in class together from high school to engineering prep school (a particular feature of the french education system, some sort of jail where the students are locked in for 2-3 years, with 40 hours of classes a week, including 20 of math and 15 of physics. Competition is high, and self estime low). My buddy was indecently gifted with maths, physics, and was spending most of his time programming his calculator or naping in class. It did not matter, because he was always, always first.

So when we talked about hobbies, he was not really impressed by the geekiness of bird listing. His answer was "Oh, sure, I do the same with Seeslugs"

hu?

yeap. His hobby is taking seeslugs pictures, while scuba diving. He is trying to see the most of all the seeslugs species of the world, although his local "seesluging" area is certainly the mediteranean see. His website here

Doing a little bit or research, it turned out this is a more popular hobby that I thought. There are forums dedicated to these slimmy creatures. One message in particular, was specially interesting, since it was concerning a "vagrant" (?) see slug. The title was "First sighting of Doris ocelligera in the UK".

So who said birdwatching is for geeks?

new picture....

2009-08-26T07:31:00.001-04:00

Should be much easier now......

Hidden Bird

2009-08-25T08:28:00.002-04:00

There is a bird hidden on the first picture below.

hint one : this is a new county bird for me

hint two : this is not a small bird

Can you find it?

Last week end was a good week end for my county list, with a Stilt Sandpiper at Avis Farm, the bird in the picture just above, and some more common birds that, for some reasons, I have been missing so far (Semipalmated plover and sandpipers). My total is now 196! 4 more to reach 200!!!

I have no idea where the last 4 are going to come from, but there is two warblers I have keep missing so far (canada and wilson), so I guess I have a decent chance to get those during the fall migration. That's 2 left to find. Pectoral sandpipers and SB dodwitchers should be relatively easy to find too. Having said so, odds are I am going to miss at least one of those 4 birds, so I need to find another target. Greater Scaup? maybe. Tundra Swan? a bit easier I think.

Below is a lucky shot I took at Avis farm last Sunday....cool isn't it?

A great bird song website

2009-08-13T08:15:00.002-04:00

I am really frustrated by the Peterson's CD (eastern birds). The songs are too short, and organized per track, so I tend to waste precious minutes on the field trying to find out if the warbler I am listening to is on "Warbler track 1", "Warbler track 2", Warbler track 3". May I also mention that, for 2 years, I really thought the chestnut sided warbler song was similar (identical?) to the hooded warbler song?

Hearing the recordings by Allen Chartier showed my otherwise (The chesnut sided has indeed a very different song!), and I decided me to take the bull by the horns and create my own MP3 library.

After seeking permission from the author, I started to download recordings by Doug Von Gausig . These are mostly (but not only) western songs, and it is a good thing because this is probably where my next lifers will come from! Take a look at his site!!!!

Trumpeter Drama in Washtenaw County

2009-08-12T15:26:00.003-04:00

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I did a quick stop and go for a Marsh Wren, my first in Washtenaw County? In my post I included a picture of a trumpeter swan, mostly because it was very close from the road and thus allowed me a decent picture without much effort?

Well, last week was very emotional among the county birders and nature lovers, as 3 of the 4 swans (2 adults, one juvenile) were found dead close from the road :

"Bad news. A woman just called Washtenaw Audubon with the news that two of the Trumpeter Swans living in the Scio Church road/ Parker Road have been killed. (Washtenaw Cty) They found the mother swan and a baby dead, the mother has a bullet hole in her head. The father and other baby are nowhere to be seen. There are white feathers strewn up and down the road in both directions. They were lured there with a pile of corn. They will notify the UD Fish and Wildlife Service and the Sherriff's Dept.Sherri Smith7:30 Saturday morning"

Bullets? lured by a pile of corn?

In the following days non less than 83 emails were posted. A $1000 dollars reward was posted by the Washtenaw Audubon Society to find the responsible of the crime. Some people suggested an "analysis of the broken bones to determine the speed of the car that might have been responsible of the accident". When people suggested that maybe, 60+ emails was more than enough for the story, they were not too subtly advised to mind their business.....

Eventually, it turned out the swans were killed by a car. At the end of the day, my favorite comment was made by Jim McDonald :

"All the speculation about this incident was disturbing. Bullet wounds, strangling, a psycho killer with a crowbar -- all just made up. Dave Sing made an effort at suggesting that people not rush to judgement. He probably also suspected that a car caused this. I'm sure this isn't the first time he's been called a voice in the wilderness. What happened was that a driver swerved and slaughtered a family of swans. If he had stopped and called the police, how would the result have been better? How will making the driver's name public improve the situation? If the police want to investigate further, fine. I don't think there is a way to determine the speed of the car by how the bones were broken -- as has been suggested -- but if there is, I would hope that technology and the manpower needed to use it would be saved for use on the bodies of human children that are killed by vehicles. Because even though the driver who hit the swans was responsible, the truth is that this was bound to happen. Trumpeter Swans shouldn't have to raise their young on the shoulder of a busy road. They shouldn't have to compete with automobiles for space".

As you might judge on the following picture, taken only 2 weeks before the crash, the Swan were really spending most of their time on the shoulder of the road. I think it is sad, but not too surprising they eventually got hit by a car.

Trumpeter Swan Nest, 2 weeks before the crash

the 15 mn/week county birding plan

2009-07-27T09:16:00.009-04:00

It seems that nobody has any time for anything these days. I mean, seriously, did you look recently at the local bookstore best sellers? Make your pick : the 5 mn abs plan, the 3 mn diet, speaking french (or german, or japanese) in only 30 secs a day, getting rich in one hour a day

There is a book I have still to find (maybe there is a money making idea here), it is the "how to build a county list in 30 mn a week".

So far, unlike my 5 mn abs plan (nobody told me that future dads are also gaining weight during a pregnancy!!!), I have been doing pretty well on the quick county list business idea (maybe it is only a motivation issue!)

So then I realized last week that a field check was highly required in west washtenaw county for my job, I jumped on the opportunity. Cross checking the ebird data base, the south michigan birding email list, and my county list, I realized than my best chance to earn a tick on my county list was a marsh wren that was heard about a mile away from my field check. With luck, I was going to be able to squiz a county bird into my 30 mn lunch. They were other nice birds seen around (henslow sparrows, for instance), but I only focused on potential county birds....

It took me 10 anxious minutes (one third of my time!!!) to hear the bird..........

Marsh Wren. Jeeez these buggers are hard to shoot!!!!

Minutes later, I noticed an obvious empidonax flycatchers perched on a dead tree. It reminded me that the willow flycatcher was missing on my list....10 more minutes of anxious waiting, and the bird reluctantly emitted the "riittzzzbeuh". That was county bird #191 and 192!!!!!

Trumpeter Swan

Silvery Checkerspot

Birding and Diaper Changing

2009-07-15T09:34:00.006-04:00

I recently pushed the challenge of birding to new heights. No kidding. If any of you thought that the big year of Ken Kaufman or Sandy Komito were la creme de la creme in term of birding challenge, you guys got it wrong. Completely wrong.

I recently pushed the limits of birding far enough to make the rediscovery of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the buggy swamps of Alabama look like a pleasant boys scout scavenger hunt. Yep

What is this new challenge I am talking about?

I am talking about "BIRDING and DIAPER CHANGING"

(admiration from the crowd)

This is not an easy task, believe me. This new extreme sport involves many challenges, including dealing with sleep deprivation, extremely limited free time and restricted finances.

To deal with all of this, I decided to use several tactics, and for the most part, I think they have been proven to be quite successfull

1) Prioritize your goals.

Ok, at my level, you can not really prioritize your goals, because one goal is plenty enough. I just don't have time for any secondary goal. In my case, I choose to focus on my county list. Note that I did not have a lot of choices here, because the country or even the state are simply too big. County is great because you can go to any point in about 30 mn or so.

For example, I had a one hour window last sunday, so I went directly to the place where a pair of Orchard Oriole was seen. I ticked the bird, took a picture and came back

Male Orchard Oriole, in terrible mid afternoon light (as Jochen told me once, any birding is better than no birding!)

2) Learn the bird songs

It is simply more efficient. You can not change a diaper and look though binoculars at the same time, but you can listen. I happen to have a long commute to my job every day, so I am trying to listen to bird songs all the time. This was happened to be handy last month then, a few days before the birth, as we were watching the final of the french open, I heard a funny sounding bird in my backyard. I did not know the song, but I knew it was something special. So I went outside and quickly spotted a connecticut warbler!!! That was a lifer for Diane and I and obviously, a great backyard bird!!!!!

3) Take advantage of opportunities

Lunch breaks in a place as sterile and unbirdy as Dowtown lansing are not supposed to be great birding times, but sometimes, opportunities occur. Yesterday I spotted 2 juvenile red tailed hawk next to the capitole, and I was able to have great views and picture opportunities. Last winter, I also had some white winged crossbills!!!!!

Father's day gift

2009-07-02T07:31:00.005-04:00

The title of this post should explain two news that are going to have a significant impact on the frequency and quality of this blog :

- First and foremost, I am now an happy Dad!!!!! Raphael was born on June 13th, and is obviously the cutest baby of the planet (admittedly, I am strongly biased).

- Second, Raphael managed to be born a week before Father's day, and I received a nice gift, which I had been waiting for, dreaming, anticipating, evaluating for many many months. A new camera!!!!!. The camera is a Panasonic fz28 and has a nice little leica superzoom lens, which will allow me to take some decent pictures of birds for this blog. This is the end of digibining!!!!

Choosing a camera for birding is a tough job, because it is all about compromising. At one end of the spectrum, I was tempted for a while by the DSLR cameras. Their quality is obviously a few steps above any kind of point and shoot camera you can buy, and are wonderfull toys to play with. One the other end of the spectrum, I could pick those nice little superzoom cameras which, in the $300-$400 range, provide a cute little zoom.

At the end, I choose the superzoom camera, for personal reasons :

- First and foremost, the price : An entry level DSLR plus an entry level 300mm zoom are probably about $1000-1500. That's $700-1200 more than a superzoom bridge camera. That's money that could be better used for many many things in a house with a cute little baby. Or maybe two plane tickets to south texas, or florida, for the next vacation (babies travel for free, I was told)

- Second, size and weight. I already carried my son for one hour in one of those cute little kanguru bags. Not too bad, but I was told babies are growing quite fast. I believe I am more likely to bring my camera for traveling and hiking if the camera is light and tiny.

Anyway, I was able to experiment a little bit with my camera during a trip at the sleeping bear national lakeshore. This was a short family trip, and I did not have the chance to do a lot of birding, but still, I enjoyed it

Sleeping Bear Dunes Landscape

Milkweed colonizing the dunes.

Piping Plover nest protection. I was tempted to get a bit closer to see if I could see a plover, but I thought it was better to leave them alone......

Indigo Bunting. The picture was taken about 5-6 meters away (15-18 feet), and I was pretty excited to take my first bird picture with my new camera!

Rose Breasted Grosbeak. My dad spotted first this "funny black and white bird". The bird was 20 m away (60 feet).

Nesting instinct

2009-05-18T08:25:00.011-04:00

Believe it or not, but I have spend more time lately reading books about growth and birth of little humans, than birds themselves. I know, this is hard to believe. After all, little humans are easy to ID. Duck size (average 7 pounds), pink skin, fat cute little bummies, and unmistakable song (which they are supposed to use loudly, night or days, unlike these neotropical migrants who only sing in May, between 7 AM to 9 AM).

Thus it was a surprise for me to discover that so much literature was available for the growth and development of a single specie. "what to expect when you are expecting" alone has more pages than David Sibley "The Sibley guide to bird life and behaviour"! And this is even BEFORE the baby is even born!!!!

So anyway, I spend the last months or so reading, studying and comparing many many different books about pregnancies, took all the classes available, etc.

So then last week Diane woke me up at 5AM (and lied telling me it was actually 6AM) and told me "let's go to Crane Creek", I became suspicious. I remembered this paragraph about the nesting instinct of soon-to-be mothers. A few hours before birth, pregnant women are supposed to get a burst of energy that lead them to do all sorts of things, including cleaning the house, the windows etc.

Diane being a birder, maybe this burst of energy translated into a desire for a birding trip?

Anyway, it was an offer I could not refuse. See the books also say "be specially nice to your wife". So of course I sacrificed myself, packed the binoculars (and the scope, you never know what could show up), snacks, drove through the local McDonald for coffee, and here we went.

The trip on the board walk started in a near comic way. Diane almost had an accident. With a prothonotary warbler. The warbler was flushed by another birdwatcher and had to make a desperate turn in order to avoid Diane's belly (remember she is full term it was no little task for the bird). Nice way for Diane to see a lifer I guess. Wonder if the ABA rules specify something that would allow me to add it to our baby's list.

The other highlight of the trip was a great lifer for both of us. There was a Least Bittern calling (it would be really too much to call this a song), and this plus birding with Diane made it a wonderfull day! Too bad she did not wake me at 4h50 instead of 5h00, because people around told me the bird was seen from this very same place, at less than 6 feet away!

Anyway, I digibinned a few mediocre pictures on this trip. Next year, I promise, I should have a much better camera.

Oh, and by the way, no baby yet....

Eastern Screech Owl

Chesnut Sided Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Black Throated Green Warbler

Gray Catbird

A few pictures from Crane Creek

2009-05-04T11:50:00.005-04:00

This is the top of the spring migration here, and of course, that should mean more posts, more pictures, more interesting stuff on all the birder's blog. But more time birding simply means less time posting. That's the sad reality.

So I will just post a few digibinned picture from last Sunday, in Crane Creek.

Yellow rumped warbler

Yellow Warbler, female

Veery

Killdeer

Green Heron

Cape May Warbler

Fallout on my backyard

2009-04-21T10:02:00.006-04:00

My backyard

I spend last week end in my backyard, as I had a small project to do. So instead of lamenting and thinking about the other birders who might be in Crane Creek already, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to seriously take care of my backyard list.

So I woke up Saturday morning and was rewarded by a beautiful spring weather. Weather was supposed to climb up to the 60's in the middle of the afternoon, and I was really excited to spend the whole day outside. And maybe bag a few good birds.....

It did not take long

I had just opened the shades as I noticed a funny looking Robin perched on my bicycle (ok, something that looks like a bicycle, as I left it carelessly outside during the whole winter, a major mistake in michigan!). That was a Hermit Thrush!!!!!!!! I rushed outside and noticed another one in the middle of the yard!!! that was a new backyard bird !!!! Turning back to the house (still in my pyjamas!), a Ruby Crowned Kinglet provided one more tick for the yard list.

Later on, Diane and I took the morning breakfast on the deck, and we heard a song I never heard before. The bird was perched on the other side of the lawn......Fox Sparrow!!! wow, that's a really cool bird, and an awesome backyard bird! One more sip of coffee, and I bagged a Tree Creeper, and a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker!!!!

So I spend the whole week end with my drill and sander on one hand, and my binocular on the other one. That was a rewarding tactic, as it allowed me to spot a Bonaparte's Gull flying over my house......wow!!!!!

I ended the week end with 32 species, very respectable for a yard that has very little interesting habitat (a basic lawn with a few shrubs on the back), and a few ornamental trees.

American Goldfinch, digibinned

Between two coats of paint, I also decided to go to the Rosebud Park, only a few feet away, for a few minutes. I was rewarded by an impressive number of Hermit Thrushes (6-7, all in the same area), 3 Eastern Phoebe, 2 Ruby Crown Kinglets, and a huge flock of Yellow-runped warblers (maybe 24 birds). Best bird was definitly a Blue-headed Vireo (County bird!).

Oh and Bruce actually went to Crane Creek at the time I was sanding. Told me the best bird he has seen was a Fox Sparrow, with no warbler. It pays to stay home sometimes.

Digibinsing in Flight

2009-04-13T10:38:00.003-04:00

Went last Saturday at Pointe Mouille, with the hope to see a few early shorebirds. Not such luck (except for the killdeers), but I still managed to have a good time, despite the strong wind. There was still an important number of waterfowl present (Scaups, Ring Neck Duck, thousands of American Coots, Pied Billed Grebes, Canada Geese), and a few Bonaparte's Gulls, as well as some Common Terns, Double Creasted Cormorans. Best bird of the day was an early marsh wren.

Having met at the start a fellow birder who had been criss-crossing the preserve with his bicycle for hours, I knew pretty much from the start that my quest for shorebirds was going to be vain, so I relaxed a little bit, and tried to bag a few decent pictures. They were hundreds of tree Swallows arround, and I took up the challenge to digibins a few swallows in flight. As expected, I turned out it was not very easy, but I managed to take a few OK pictures.

Tree Swallow, digibinsed

Common Tern, digibinsed

Common Tern, Digibinsed

Bonaparte's Gull and American Coot, Digiscoped

I was quite surprised to see that the 2 Bonaparte Gulls I've seen were not yet in complete breeding plumage.

American Goldfinches in my back yard. 2 Pine siskins are still around, and I am hoping for a nest!!!!

A cooperative bird

2009-04-06T10:04:00.004-04:00

Too often birds have no mercy for the inexperienced birder. Some of them always seems to hide their most significant features from the rookies ( I am one of them), forcing them to check too many times the dreaded "unidentified emp. flycatcher species", "unidentified shorebird species", or the even worst "unidentified bird species" (I am not going to talk today about the possibility of misidentifying a squirrel for a bird, but you should know it happened to me in the past)

But for once, this was not the case last Saturday, in the Arb. Bird activity in the afternoon was rather slow, telling me that I will soon have to wake up at 6 in the morning on week ends if I want to have a chance to see any bird at all. Luckily, I will be soon be awake anyway, since our first baby is expected in a few weeks!

Anyway, after a slow start, 12 chickadees and one bluebird, I ran into a rather small bird, flying and hoping through a rather brushy area

Mmm, small, grey, let see, probably some kind of a kinglet, maybe a golden crowned kinglet, if only he could show the top of his head......

THANKS!!!!

Other birds seen were also pretty nice, with my first warbler of the season (yellow-rumped, as usual), 3 creepers, 2 peregrine falcons, 3 creepers and an impressive 24 golden crowned kinglets (my high count so far)

A nice walk, all things considered. This morning weather was not quite as nice, if I think about it :

April 6th, picture taken from my office window in Lansing, Michigan

Zion National Park Trip Report

2009-04-03T13:51:00.005-04:00

I have been clearly very lazy and forgot about the second trip of our birding trip from last Summer. This is certainly unfair, because the two days we spend in Zion National Park were wonderful in all points.

Birdingwise, I think that this park was a great addition to the north Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Located at a much lower elevation, its climate is obviously much more arid, but has the great advantage to offer many different ecosystems. Many short trails, accessible by Bus Shuttles, made travelling in the park very easy. We choose to stay in one of the Lodges inside of the park, thinking that the campground was going to be really hot. We decided this during our stay at grand canyon, and were lucky enough to book the last available cabin (they were quite expensive, though, slightly less than $200 a night). The cabins were very confortable, (with Air Conditioned, which we really appreciated) and offered a breathtaking view on the surrounding mountains. Lesser Goldfinches and Chipping Sparrows were quite numerous around the cabins.

Here are a few highlights of the hikes we were able to do. Most of them were really short (2-3 miles max), and we usually were able to do one early morning and one late evening hike per day.

The Narrows

This hike is a wonderful and relatively flat trail that at the top of the valley that leads the visitor through a very narrow canyon. Great pictures to take at the end of the trail!

Birding wise, we probably did not visit this trail at the optimal time (mid afternoon), and it is somehow a shame, because this place is really unique. It contains one of the very few "desert marsh" in Utah, and I was expecting to see some very special birds. Instead, only yellow warblers, and song sparrows were seen on the trail next to the marsh. On the side of the trail, we were able to spot a female Black-headed Grosbeak. But the best bird of the day was a nice Cordilleran Flycatcher, hunting over the creek.

Desert Marsh

Emerald Pools Trail

Imagine. You start from a typical riparian area, and spot a Black Phoebe hunting from a rock in the middle of the river. A Black-chinned Hummingbird stays on a branch long enough for you to identify him (rather rare, hummingbirds were my big frustration of the trip), and not far, a Western Pewee makes a cute addition to your life list. Then you climb up a few hundred feets and find yourself surrounded by Junipers, in a very different environment. Blue gray Gnacatchers, Juniper Titmices are oblivious of your presence. With a little bit more effort, you find a Virginia's warbler and a couple of Black-throated Gray Warbler. You hike hard uphill under the morning sun, and, an hour or so later, find yourself in the shade of the canyon. A pool of transparent and cool water is there, and suddenly tall and green trees are surrounding you. You take a sip of water in your waterbottle, and notice a small bird, warbler like, with a red belly, with obvious white patches foraging in a tree just above your head. Painted Redstart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looking at my Sibley (the western edition of course), I knew this bird was slightly out of range, and was not found very often in Utah, so I took my time to look at the bird. But no mistake possible.

Climbing up through the Junipers Trees

Wild Turkey. They were running around at night on the cabin's lawn.

Pa'rus Trail

A concrete bike path follows the river toward the entrance of the park. This hike was our last one, and we were trying to look for the few birds we had missed so far. We found a group of Lucy's Warbler at the very start of the hike, as well as a flock of Western Scrub Jay. Diane saw a Western Tanager (I missed this one!). The House Wrens were quite vocal, and puzzled me for a while (they really have a different "accent" than back in Michigan!)

Pa'rus Trail, at Sunset

Conclusion:

A really wonderful national park, with a great variety of habitats. If I have only two regrets :

- I wish we could have visited the Narrows at an earlier time of the day

- I wish we could have try to visit the most arid parts of the park, to look for cactus wrens, bushtit, thrashers. But these parts are not so easily accessible, specially without a 4x4 car.

- I don't think I have seen a single raptor (except red tails hawks) during this trip. Too bad.

The complete list for this park :

Wild Turkey
White-throated Swift
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Western Wood-Pewee
Cordilleran Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Scrub-Jay
Violet-green Swallow
Juniper Titmouse
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Western Bluebird
Virginia's Warbler
Lucy's Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Painted Redstart
Summer Tanager
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lesser Goldfinch

twitching in washtenaw county

2009-03-24T07:44:00.003-04:00

I confess, I sinned.

And not only once

Twice.

I am quite ashamed, I have to admit.

The first time happen last week. "Surf Scooter at textile road". How could I resist? Textile Road is basically in my back yard, barely 5 minutes with my car. Oh, and the Surf Scooter is the last Scooter missing on my list, after the very good Black Scooter of last December, and the not so uncommon White Winged Scooter I have seen during my initiatic birding year.

So here we went after dinner, and added a little tick on my life list (and county list). Sure enough, I would have feel better if I could have seen this bird at a cost of a one week trek though the Borneo forest (or, say, the Ann Arbor Arboretum, although I have a hard time to visualize such an extensive expedition in a park that is probably less than 10 acres), my body covered of mosquito (and why not, Tigers?) bites.

But this time, a little drive, and the bird was mine (north american # 315). Ridiculously easy. I felt quite ashamed.

Surf Scooter at Textile Road, digiscoped

My self esteem had barely recovered from the Surf Scooter episode that Greater White-fronted Geese were spotted on the other side of the county. Pretty nice bird for michigan, and obviously still missing on my life list (it was my north american bird # 316). So here I went last Sunday. Nice outing, all things considered, with some very nice waterfowl present in some of the ponds I scanned. Lesser Scaups, Ringed Neck Duck, Snow Geese, American Wigeon, Pintail (county bird!) and Common Loon were spotted during this afternoon, and a Northern Harrier and about 50 Sandhill Cranes was a rather nice add the the day list. But the highlight of the trip was obviously the 5 geese I was able to spot from the top of a hill (a quarter mile away).

Greater White-fronted Geese (Oie Rieuse), Canada Geese and Juvenile Trumpeter Swan, digiscoped at a distance

I needed time to recover from this week, I think. So I decided to bird in my backyard, and do a little bit more experiments with my digiscoping technique. A cardinal was there and did pose for me for quite a long time. That was nice and relaxing. Why am I bothering with all these fancy birds, while I could just enjoye some very cool and colorfull ones in my backyard?

No more twitching, I promise, I swear.

At least for a month.

Unless a very very cool bird shows up, of course. Say a red throated or even pacific loon.....I wonder how long the Ross Goose that has been seen in Kensington Park last week end is going to stay there....

Northern Cardinal, digiscoped

(South) Winds of Change

2009-03-09T09:07:00.008-04:00

This is my 8th winter in Michigan, and I am still amazed by how fast the winter comes and goes in this region. Last Monday morning, 8 days ago, it took me about 5 minutes to de-ice the windshield of my trusty Ford Focus, at 5h40 in the morning. Temperature then was a rather chilly 2F (-16C).
But on Wednesday, something extraordinary happened. The wind turned to the South, ice on rivers and lakes started to melt, and new birds started to show up almost immediately. Red winged blackbirds started to invade south Michigan, along with Grackles. Hundreds of Canada Geese started to fly north, as well as other waterfowls. Temperatures reached the low 60F (15C).
Encouraged by the balmy weather, I decided to take a look at the Lake Erie Gun Club, just a few hundred yards north of the Michigan/Ohio border, on the lake Erie. But first I could not help but to stop at Belleville Lake for the 5 long tailed ducks that had been reported earlier. This duck, rather popular among the french scrabble and crosswords players (kakawi is a native american word meaning "see duck", and there is only one "K" in the french scrabble version, so you have to use a blank), is quite rare in Michigan, and it is always a joy to see them around here. On the lake, a few redheads and common mergansers, with 6 goldeneyes and the 5 long tailed ducks. The ducks came extremely close from where I was, and I enjoyed every second of it.

Goldeneye, digiscoped

Long Tailed Duck (harelde kakawi), digiscoped

Long Tailed Duck (harelde kakawi), digiscoped

Later, at the Lake Erie Gun Club (a quite remarkable conservation story, where hunters and conservationists collaborated to preserve a rather unique marsh), the 5 miles loop around the marsh provided a very pleasant birding experience. Hundreds of Grackles and RW blackbirds were present, as well as the first few song sparrows of the year. But the Highlights of the day were definitly a nice flock of Pintails (Canard Pilet), as well as Northen Shovelers. A few killdeers (First of Year) were there, already, and I spotted 4 bald eagles (3 Juveniles, 1 Adult).

Bald Eagle, digibinned

Another winter day in Gallup Park

2009-03-04T07:41:00.012-05:00

It is March and the birding world of Michigan starts to warm up a little bit, unlike the weather. The first red-winged black birds have been reported in the county, and some exciting waterfowls (long tailed ducks), and gulls (Glaucous, Iceland, Lesser Black Backed) have been seen on the wrong side of the washtenaw/wayne county line. Pretty easy then , to allow ourselves to think about future relaxing birding trips in the Arb or Crane Creek, feeling the soft temperature of the spring sun gently warming up the Michigan lakes and forests, listening to the "sweet-sweet-give me more sweet" of a yellow warbler.

One should notice, by the way, how low my standards are after a long and cold Michigan winter. I are not daydreaming here about exotic, nemesis species, such as worm eating warblers, clay colored sparrows, or bachman warblers, no! Just a cute, common, yellow warbler (ok let's say a male), is all I can dream about right now.

But last Sunday, the warm days were looking as distant from Michigan as a growing economy. Temperature, again, fell in the single digits (in Farenheit, unfortunatly), despite the bright sun.

Ice skater in Gallup Park

Icicles around tree branches

Decided to make the most of the situation, I walked quickly along the bike path, scanning for waterfowls. Nothing much new there, except an American Coot (FOY), and a growing number of Hooded and Common Mergansers. 6 Goldeneyes were diving along the ice, and a dozen Buffleheads were also seen. Interesting was the fact that 2 males Goldeneyes were already fighting , despite having 4 females available. Maybe greediness is not only a human sin after all

I flushed a winter wren (FOY, First Of year!), and discovered 2 Trumpeter Swans. These swans were quite cooperative, and I was able to take pictures of them without using my digibinsing technique. Not too surprisingly these are much sharper than usual, and I am proud to relieve my regular readers (the three of them!) from their chronic headaches caused by the usual blurriness of my digibinsed pictures.

This gives me an excellent opportunity, using my old pictures from Lake Erie Metro Park, to study the differences between the Tundra and Trumpeter Swan. Being a beginner (my first birding outing was in January 2007 with my friend and birding mentor Jochen, in...Gallup Park), I struggled so far to make the distinction between the two species, so now it is about time to solve this problem for good. A picture being worth a thousand words (5 pictures = 5000 words?), I tried to match pictures of the two species in a somehow similar position. A reader looking for quality and accuracy should probably stop at this point, and look at the excellent description made by David Sibley.

From the front (look at the V shape border for the Trumpeter, U shape for the Tundra)

Trumpeter Swan (Cygne Trompette)

Tundra Swan (Cygne Siffleur)

Trumpeter Swan, detail

From the side : (look at the broadly connected eye of the trumpeter, versus the almost separated Tundra Swan eye)

Trumpeter Swan

Tundra Swan, detail

It should be noted that the yellow lores that are usually present (I've read 90% on other blogs) on most Tundra swans are not showing on my digiscoped pictures. This is likely due to the poor quality of my pictures, but I guess this is a hint that we should not take this feature for granted.

At last, I should end this post with the last swan present in michigan, usually fairly easy to identify to the attentive birder.... The Mute Swan (for the inattentive or distracted reader, look at the color of the bill...)

Mute Swan (cygne tubercule), present on Gallup Park last Sunday

Not too hard most of the time....but what's about this one?

A Walk in Gallup Park and first lesson in Digiscoping

2009-02-24T13:18:00.006-05:00

I have recently developed an interest in the Digiscoping technique. Michigander Jerry Jourdan's Blog or Wisconsin Based Mike McDowell for instance, shows some miraculous (depending of my mood, I sometimes found them disgustingly sharp and perfect) avian pictures, just by the use of a (high end) scope, a tiny point and (good) point & shoot camera, and a generally hand made adaptor. All my tries so far had been exclusively hand held (no adaptor, no shutter release), and the results were ranging from extremely bad to barely mediocre. Facing the reality of tough economic times, and without having $5,000 to spend into a DSLR camera equipped with a disproportionate appendix (I am not not sure if I would like to carry one of these things anyway), I thought this technique was certainly worth exploring.

So armed with various handsaw and other curiously inefficient tools, I managed to create a decent adaptor from a plastic cup. The results can be certainly greatly improved by using power tools, but I guess I did it only to give me a taste of the technique.

The first results are shown below. In fact the first pictures I really took were a box of vitamins on the other side of the yard, but, I choose to show birds instead. I quickly found out that the mode "quick burst" of my tiny camera had the great advantage of taking 10 frames a second, thus increasing statistically the chances to obtain one decent shot. On the down side, though, this mode "push" automatically the camera into the high ISOs (800) which theoretically should increase the graininess of the shot. In addition, the camera reduces the size of the picture to only 2.3 mega pixels, instead of the 8 or 5. But I thought it was a good starting point.

American Goldfinch, digiscoped

Pine Siskin, digiscoped

Female Downy Woodpecker, digiscoped

Results were not too bad for a first try, but I had to try on further birds.

So I went to Gallup park last Sunday, trying to experiment on the increasing number of waterfowl present on the Huron River. A detail of importance, the temperature was 15F (-8C), and the windchill around 0F (-17C). I usually dont care too much about windchill, because a good winter coat and gloves offer good protection against the wind, so windchill does not really count

Biking Path in Gallup Park

I first spotted a group of Common Mergansers swimming at about 150 feet away. I thought it was a good starting point. Ok, here is my adaptor, I set up my scope and try to attach my camera to the adaptor. Mmm not easy with these big gloves. Ok I'll take them off. Ok, now I try to set up the camera to the proper mode, despite the velcro bands that partially cover the buttons. MMM not easy.

I take a few shots of the Mergansers. Left hand fingers on the focus knob, right hand on the camera. Boy, it is cold here

digiscoped Common Merganser defending his freedom of speech

Male Hooded Merganser, digiscoped

After 2-3 minutes, my fingers are numb, and I have to reluctantly admit my defeat. I quickly come back to my car and tried to warm up my fingers. Slowly, Painfully, sensation comes back and I am ready for another walk. This time I decided to only take my binoculars and the camera.

Despite the cold, there was a feeling that spring was not too far away. Numerous chikadees were singing, as well as several Tufted Titmice and Cardinals. Along the sidewalk I spot several bluebirds.

As I walk leisurely on the path, I can not help but thinking about the spring that will come soon. Already the first redwinged blackbirds have been spotted in the county, and a few tree swallows were found on the shore of lake Erie. In a bit more than a month, we should be able to see the first warblers, probably a yellow rumped.

And maybe, more chances to train for digiscoping in warmer weather!!!!!

Bluebird, digibinned

Great Lakes Piping Plover in Florida

2009-02-23T08:29:00.002-05:00

During our last trip in Florida, I noticed a banded Piping Plover on Bunch Beach, Florida. I somehow managed to digibins a few pictures, and, unsure of the color of some of the bands, decided to directly send the (admittedly bad) pictures to the graduate student who is part of the research of the great lakes piping plovers.

Here is his/her answer

Hi Laurent,This is definitely a Great Lakes bird. It was actually a captive-reared bird from the 2008 field season. The green band is actually a triple split band of green/orange/green that we use for the adult captive-reared birds. Thanks so much for your sighting information!Kelsi XXX (plover undergraduate student)

Wow, so this bird is from Michigan after all!!! (I was told the captive reared birds are raised in Michigan). I wish him good luck, and hope to see this little guy again in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore next summer!

Varied Thrush in Ann Arbor!!!!!

2009-02-09T11:24:00.002-05:00

The Birding Gods were merciful last Friday and choose to give some rest to my tormented soul. Thanks to my new flextime schedule, I had a free Friday afternoon and choose to invest a couple of hours to give another try at this little fellow. At 12h10 I arrived at the place, ready to stand in the cold for long hours.

A 12h13, the bird landed under of the feeders, giving great views at his brownish collar (the french name for this bird, Grive a Collier can be translated as "Collared Thrush"). 5 seconds later, the bird was gone, and did not reappear during the 15 minutes I stayed there, hoping for a second view, and maybe a picture opportunity. Not such luck.

I thought about a way to celebrate this new lifer (and county bird), so I went for a ride on Vreeland Road in Superior Township. Nothing really exciting, but the nice sun and the warmer temperatures made it particularly enjoyable. Trees Sparrows and Robins were enjoying open water in a ditch.

American Robin (Merle d'Amerique), digibinned. This picture clearly shows the limits of the digibinning technique. I was in perfect conditions : bright light, great support for my binoculars (the window of our trusty Ford Focus), still, the focusing is far from perfect, and chromatic abherations are quite obvious around the head of the bird

No Snow Buntings were seen, but I was able to observe a small flock of Horned Larks for quite a long time.

Horned Larks (Alouette hausse-col) , digibinned

Winter birding at Lake Erie Metropark

2009-01-27T09:03:00.001-05:00

As liquid water as pretty much disappeared from Washtenaw county, except a little stretch of water at the beach of the arb, Diane offered me last Saturday the opportunity to go birding at Lake Erie Metropark, as she has another cat show at Allen Park. Saturday was a magnificent - and frigid - day, one of these days where Mr Winter shines, and when you don't regret at all the cloudy and rainy winters of the north of France. Oh boy, I love winter birding, for 3 reasons :

- First, you don't have to wake up at 5 in the morning and rush out to Starbucks (or, depending on the economic situation, Mc Donald's) and rush out to Crane Creek or Pointe Pelee to be there at dawn....So winter birding means waking up at 9 AM, drinking a warm coffee in the sofa and watching the Juncos and chikadees having breakfeast with the lone Pine Siskin that we have currently in our garden. Then, only after you have watched the news and drinked your second cup of coffee, you can fix some french toasts, and eat them while having your third cup of coffee, and start to think about how many layers you will wear today

- Second, for some strange reason , you have the whole park for yourself, most of the time. I mean, 1000 acres of marshland and lakes just for you and your binoculars. Which means you will never meet anybody who will tell you " what a shame you came so late, this morning we had an Iceland gull on the beach". Of course, you will never meet anybody to brag out about the very nice bird you just saw, either

- Third, it is usually so cold that you never regret to have a bit more time to do more birding.

As I arrived, the Parc Ranger told me : " you should probably go on the south side, on the north side, there is only mute swans". There was, effectively, a few mute swans. hundreds or even thousands of them, mixed with Tundra and Trumpeter's. There were also thousands of Canevasbacks (6,000?), hundreds of common mergansers and redheads, as well as all the commoners of michigan. What a show!!!!!! On the raptor side, a Northern Harrier was spotted, and a dozen Bald Eagles (half of them being juvenile) were seen flying over the open water

Lake Erie metropark Lakeshore

Mute Swans and Tundra Swan, and Canvasback, digiscoped

Seeking a respite from the cold wind, I later went birding in the woods, close from the Hawk watching site. Here a few song birds, such as Robins, a lone Brown Creeper, White Throated Sparrows. But the stars of the day were a large flock of Redpolls (my first this winter). Among them, I noticed a much paler bird, making me think about the You-know-who.....But this tiny fellow did not want to be taken in picture, probably thinking that he deserved better than a digibinned picture. His darker friends were more cooperative...

American Robin, digibinned

Common Redpoll, digibinned

The Complete List was :

Location: Lake Erie MetroparkObservation date: 1/24/09Notes: 10F, clear skyNumber of species: 27 Canada Goose 0Mute Swan 3000Tundra Swan 2000American Black Duck 12Mallard 24Canvasback 6000Redhead 200Ring-necked Duck 12Lesser Scaup 12Bufflehead 24Common Goldeneye 1Hooded Merganser 2Common Merganser 300Ruddy Duck 12Great Blue Heron 6Bald Eagle 12Northern Harrier 2American Coot 2000Ring-billed Gull 6Herring Gull 1Mourning Dove 12Downy Woodpecker 1American Crow 2Black-capped Chickadee 12Brown Creeper 1American Robin 12White-throated Sparrow 4Common Redpoll 30This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

Work place bird #9

2009-01-26T10:23:00.001-05:00

I gave up a few months ago to the idea to bird during my lunch time. I mean, ok there is a couple of peregrine falcons on the capitol, but my work list is still well below the symbolic threshold of 10. Last Wednesday, I went out to grab a coffee at the local coffeeshop, when I noticed freshly fallen cones at the feet of a couple of white pines we have at our building entrance. These white pines apparently grow well in the atmosphere of concrete and cigarette smoke (possibly because of the high concentration of carbon dioxide?).

Who is doing this racket? I listen carefully. No call notes, but the characteristic noise of cones being open....
8 White Winged Crossbills !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cold is a relative thing

2009-01-22T09:59:00.000-05:00

Just a joke somebody send me

COLD IS A RELATIVE THING. .

65 above zero:
Floridians turn on the heat.
People in Michigan plant gardens.

60 above zero (15 Celsius)
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Michigan sunbathe.

50 above zero:
Italian & English cars won't start.
People in Michigan drive with the windows down..

40 above zero:
Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats.
People in Michigan throw on a flannel shirt.

35 above zero (2 Celsius)
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
People in Michigan have the last cookout before it gets cold.

20 above Zero
People in Miami all die.
Michiganders close the windows.

Zero (-17 Celsius)
Californians fly away to Mexico .
People in Michigan get out their winter coats.

10 below zero (-23 Celsius)
Hollywood disintegrates.
The Girl Scouts in Michigan are selling cookies door to door.

20 below zero:
Washington DC runs out of hot air.
People in Michigan let the dogs sleep indoors.

30 below zero:
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Michiganders get upset because they can't start the Snow-mobile.

40 below zero ):
ALL atomic motion stops .
People in Michigan start saying...'Cold enough fer ya?'

50 below zero:
Hell freezes over.
Michigan public schools will open 2 hours late

Florida trip 3/3

2009-01-13T08:37:00.000-05:00

I am writting the last part of this trip report, as the temperature is currently frigid here in Michigan! (temperature in Celsius)

Ding Darling Wildlife Trail, Sanibel Island

Ding Darling Wildlife Trail is a a wonderfull 5 mile road (cars, walkers and bike users are sharing this road at very low speed) crossing the Ding Darling Refuge, a rare conservation gem (and birding hotspot) of south Florida. Birds are just impressive (shear number of birds, as well as species variety). Most of the waders were found (including reddish egret, spoonbills, Yellow Crowned Night Herons) as well as lesser and yellowlegs (surprisingly enough, we did not find these birds in Fort Myers or Bunch Beach). The big stars of the day were obviously the white pelicans, hard to find outside of this area. Another very interesting sighting was 2 Ospreys harrassing a Bald Eagle, close from the visitor center. 2 White Winged Doves were also seen on a Sanibel Island Road.

White Pelicans (Pelican d'Amerique), digiscoped

Brown Pelican (Pelican Brun), digibinned

Lover's Key State Park

Ok, this park is a wonderfull beach, and was only a mile or two from the hotel. Beside a few hundred sanderlins, a little blue heron and a nest of Osprey, there was not much to be seen the day we went (maybe because we spend most of our time relaxing and reading on the sand). We had a great view of an Osprey nest, though, so I did a little bit of digiscoping experiments

Osprey nest, digiscoped

Obviously, there is room for improvement! In particular, I absolutly need an adaptor between camera and scope (I am working on it right now)

Estero Pass Preserve

This park is located on the Fort Meyers Key itself, and is basically the last remaining stand of Mangroves of the key. We found this preserve extremely interesting, as we were able to find some good passerines, specially on the south east part of the park. Prairie (lifer!) and Yellowthroated warblers (1 each), Mockinbird, Eastern Phoebe and Blue Headed Vireo, as well as dozen of Blue Grey Gnacatchers were seen, a nice change from the gulls and shorebirds of the week. A flyover of Magnificent Frigatbird and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was a nice add to the list

Mockingbird, digibinned

Eastern Phoebe (Moucherolle Phebi), digibinned

6 mile cypress in Fort Myers

This was the last birding site we visited, just before taking the plane back to the frozen tundra of michigan. Great park with about 2 mile of boardwalks, but birds were not very active in the middle of the day. We had great views of several anhingas, though, and also found a few passerines (Great Crested Flycatcher, Palm Warblers). A wonderfull experience was to see a male Anhinga swimming underwater. Is it cool or what?

White Ibis (Ibis Blanc), p&S camera

On the way to the airport, we spotted (at last!) our final birds for the trip, Loggerhead Shrikes (many of them on electric wires) and Cattle Egrets

TRIP LIST

Mottled Duck Canard brun
Red-breasted Merganser Harle huppé
Pied-billed Grebe Grèbe à bec bigarré
American White Pelican Pélican d'Amérique
Brown Pelican Pélican brun
Double-crested Cormorant Cormoran à aigrettes
Anhinga Anhinga d'Amérique
Magnificent Frigatebird Frégate superbe
Great Blue Heron Grand Héron
Great Egret Grande Aigrette
Snowy Egret Aigrette neigeuse
Little Blue Heron Aigrette bleue
Tricolored Heron Aigrette tricolore
Reddish Egret Aigrette roussâtre
Cattle Egret Héron garde-boeufs
Green Heron Héron vert
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Bihoreau violacé
White Ibis Ibis blanc
Roseate Spoonbill Spatule rosée
Wood Stork Tantale d'Amérique
Black Vulture Urubu noir
Turkey Vulture Urubu à tête rouge
Osprey Balbuzard pêcheur
Bald Eagle Pygargue à tête blanche
Cooper's Hawk Épervier de Cooper
Red-shouldered Hawk Buse à épaulettes
American Kestrel Crécerelle d'Amérique
Black-bellied Plover Pluvier argenté
Snowy Plover Pluvier à collier interrompu
Wilson's Plover Pluvier de Wilson
Semipalmated Plover Pluvier semipalmé
Piping Plover Pluvier siffleur
Killdeer Pluvier kildir
American Oystercatcher Huîtrier d'Amérique
Spotted Sandpiper Chevalier grivelé
Greater Yellowlegs Grand Chevalier
Willet Chevalier semipalmé
Lesser Yellowlegs Petit Chevalier
Long-billed Curlew Courlis à long bec
Ruddy Turnstone Tournepierre à collier
Sanderling Bécasseau sanderling
Western Sandpiper Bécasseau d'Alaska
Least Sandpiper Bécasseau minuscule
Dunlin Bécasseau variable
Laughing Gull Mouette atricille
Ring-billed Gull Goéland à bec cerclé
Royal Tern Sterne royale
Black Skimmer Bec-en-ciseaux noir
Eurasian Collared-Dove Tourterelle turque
White-winged Dove Tourterelle à ailes blanches
Mourning Dove Tourterelle triste
Burrowing Owl Chevêche des terriers
Belted Kingfisher Martin-pêcheur d'Amérique
Red-bellied Woodpecker Pic à ventre roux
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Pic maculé
Downy Woodpecker Pic mineur
Northern Flicker Pic flamboyant
Pileated Woodpecker Grand Pic
Eastern Phoebe Moucherolle phébi
Great Crested Flycatcher Tyran huppé
Loggerhead Shrike Pie-grièche migratrice
White-eyed Vireo Viréo aux yeux blancs
Blue-headed Vireo Viréo à tête bleue
Fish Crow Corneille de rivage
Tree Swallow Hirondelle bicolore
Carolina Wren Troglodyte de Caroline
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Gobemoucheron gris-bleu
Gray Catbird Moqueur chat
Northern Mockingbird Moqueur polyglotte
Yellow-throated Warbler Paruline à gorge jaune
Pine Warbler Paruline des pins
Prairie Warbler Paruline des prés
Palm Warbler Paruline à couronne rousse
Black-and-white Warbler Paruline noir et blanc
Common Yellowthroat Paruline masquée
Northern Cardinal Cardinal rouge
Painted Bunting Passerin nonpareil
Boat-tailed Grackle Quiscale des marais

Florida trip 2/3 Estero Preserve : the six plovers beach

2009-01-09T11:13:00.001-05:00

Fort Myers beach is a great place to spend some vacation. I mean what else can you hope for? Imagine. From the beach bar of the hotel, a mojito in hand, you can see on the right side of the beach a one mile strech of white sandy beach. On the left side, one of the best hotspot of Florida. A lagoon where shorebirds and waders feed at low tide, and roost at high tide. This beach is well known to be a reliable place for snowy and piping plovers, and sometimes marbled godwits, long-billed curlews and willets. Birds were also particularly tame, offering good opportunities for easy pictures.

In fact, I was able to find most of the waders, shorebirds and sea birds of our trip (one exception being the white pelican and the 2 species of yellowlegs, only seen during this trip at the Ding Darling Refuge) on this one mile strech of beach. I spotted in average one American Frigatebird every day, and one evening, had the good surprise to find a LONG-BILLED CURLEW (Courlis a long bec) (Why did I forget my camera on this day?), 50 feet from us!!!! I took a long time to check that this was not a Wimbrel (which would have been a lifer for us too!). But no mistake here, HUGE bill, Buffy underparts (almost orange), we had a curlew here. Altogether, we were able to found 6 species of plover (Snowy, Piping, Wilson, Semipalmated, Blackbellied and Killdeer). Western Sandpipers were also numerous, and a few Least Sandpipers were seen

All the common waders were also found (Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, Reddish Egret, Little Blue Heron, Spoonbills, White Ibis, etc). A few songbirds were also seen (Cardinals, Palm Warblers, Tree Swallows).

Thousands of Laughing Gulls were there of course, as well as hundreds of Royal and Sandwich Terns, and dozens of Brown Pelicans, Double Crested Cormorants and a few flyover of Anhingas. At one point I saw a bird that might have been a Gull Billed Tern (all white head, black bill), but I still have a doubt about my ID (not sure about the shape of the bill, so it might have been...something else).

Piping Plover (Pluvier Siffleur), digiscoped

American Oystercatchers (huitriers americains) and Willets (Chevaliers Semipalme) , digibinned

Sanderling (Becasseau Sanderling), Digibinned

Wilson's Plover (Pluvier de Wilson), digibinned

Snowy Plover (Pluvier a Collier Interrompu), digibinned

Semi palmated plover (Pluvier Semipalme), digibinned

Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregate Superbe), Digibinned

Roseate Spoonbill, digibinned

Florida trip 1/3 : Corkskrew Sanctuary

2009-01-08T10:27:00.001-05:00

Florida is (still) a wonder for a Michigan birder, very specially in winter. Corkscrew Refuge was the first birding outing we did during our Florida trip. We basically spend our whole vacation on a very simple and efficient schedule :

Morning : Birding
Afternoon : relaxing on the beach, looking at the gulls, terns and pelicans, secretly hoping for a magnificent frigatebird to show up.

Corkskrew is a little gem in southwest Florida, an Audubon Sanctuary. 2.5 mile of boardwalk lead the visitor through divers habitat (but mostly a marsh). During the nesting season, it offers nesting ground to a record number of Wood storks. For us michiganders, it was simply a marvel to see some green leaves and warblers again! Other birds of interest were a huge number of Red-shoudered hawks (I think I saw more than 20!), several typical florida waders (White ibis, Little Blue Heron, woodstorks, snowy egrets), warblers (black and white, palm and common yellowthroat), as well as an always impressive pilaeted woodpecker. What a nice day.

Corskrew Marsh

But one of the main attraction of the parc is not the marsh itself, but rather 3 bird feeders supposed to often attract a dream bird...the painted bunting! After a few minutes of anxious wait (this was basically our only chance to view this bird during this trip), here he was, a beautiful male (even better!) painted bunting!. What a bird! Instantly, Diane gained another 500 HSE (House sparrow equivalent) in her life list!

Painted Bunting, Digibinned

Little Blue Heron at close range, taken with our P&S camera

Anhinga, digibinned

Oh, and yes, during the afternoon on the beach, I did spotted a nice male Magnificent frigatebird, high in the sky!

BIRD ABA #300 !!!

2009-01-02T13:31:00.001-05:00

Back from Florida (a trip report will be posted a little bit later) where I was lucky enough to pass the 300 mark (for the ABA area), with a bird that is very special to me!!!!

A few months ago (my birding career is not that long) I remember coming back from a successfull Owl trip with Jochen (I think it was for a Barred Owl), and told him that I really would like to see a Burrowing Owl (did I add "in michigan" at that time, in the euphoria of the moment?).

Anyway, here it is, bird #300, and possibly the cutest bird in America. The cuteness factor is specially important for my lovely wife, who seems to have a perticular way of evaluating the importance of a bird in a life list, possibly because she uses a complicated weighting system for each bird, this one being probably worth about 500 HSCE (house sparrow cuteness equivalent).

I wonder which bird will be my #400. What's about a spotted owl?

A Week End of Winter Birding

2008-12-15T12:17:00.000-05:00

The Varied Thrush is still there. Somewhere. It has been seen many times during the week at a different bird feeder, but my 4+ visits were unsuccessful. I am not giving up, at least not yet.

Last Saturday was for me an opportunity to forget the Thrush, and to focus in expanding a little bit my County list. The Washtenaw Audubon Society was organizing the annual trip to Salem Landfill (only a few feet away from the edge of the county!). So a dozen birders went to this trip, with, maybe, the potential to relocate one of Franklin's gulls seen last month in the county. We could even dream about an Iceland or Glauceous Gull......

Birding on the frozen landfill

It turned out there was not too many gulls at the landfill, where few dozens Ring-billed and Herring Gulls were competing with hundreds of thousands of starlings. At the end, we located a lesser black back gull, which was a nice addition to my county list. Most surprisingly, we did not loose a single finger due to frostbite....

With plenty of time to spare, we choose to drive back through Superior township, where somebody located a very cooperative Merlin, as well as a rough-legged Hawk ( a new lifer for me!)

Merlin (Faucon Emerillon)

On the way back, I could not quite resist to the tempation to give another try to the Varied Thrush....so here I went, checking a couple of feeding station where the bird had been seen....nothing, as usual. Well, it has been a fun morning. Let's go home

As I was wasking toward my car, Will, the owner of the second feeding station (something like 15 birdfeeders!!!!) came with an annoncement . "Black Scoter at portage lake"!!!!!!!!.

So 2 hours later, Jacco, who never miss a good county bird (the man is getting closer to 240 county birds now), picked me up to get a view at the bird, on the other side of the county. Not surprisingly, we met there most of the county chasers. Talked with one of them, who said it was his first new county bird this year (he had a good laugh then I told him he did not do that great, since I added about 40 birds to my county list this year). Another funny thing is, I was the only one to have a birding book with me.........

I did not take my scope, but I sneaked a couple of pictures through different scopes that were installed there. Light was quite terrible, but I guess it is good enough to positively ID the bird.

Female Black Scoter (Macreuse noire, femelle)

It turned out the Black Scoter was only the second one in the whole Washtenaw County birding History!!!!!!!

primary grunt of the frustrated birder

2008-11-26T09:05:00.001-05:00

There is a rather humorous guy in France (although not exactly the most elegant) who did a short monologue a few years ago. His point was, if a situation is very frustrating, then use the "primary grunt technique". In other word, yell, grunt, very loud, in a very basic way. If it does not help, well, at least, you will feel better about it.

As I checked Bruce's email list Monday morning, after an OK day of birding in gallup park sunday, here is the message that went on Bruce's email list (note the time)

"Date: Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 8:28 AM
Sunday morning, 9:00 AM A woman in Ann Arbor has just called into Washtenaw Audubon. She has seen a Varied Thrush in her yard yesterday and today. She's prepared to be descended upon.Laura Wooley1165 Wendy CourtAnn Arbor, Mi663-4383Wendy Court is near Mack School, north of Miller Ave.Sherri Smith"

Followed by :

Date: Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 5:57 PM
Nothing but negative results here. 1) The Varied Thrush was not seen after 10:45am today despite the efforts of numerous birders in the late morning and all afternoon. The homeowners welcome birders who would like to try again tomorrow.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

A varied thrush? What is this little guy? Honestly, I don't even have a clue what a varied thrush looks like. Even worst, this address was about a mile were I was Sunday at the same time.

I talked yesterday with my cubicle neighbour (an author of the book "birding in wasthenaw county"), and looking for comfort, suggested that maybe, 10 or 15 years down the road, I would be able to find another Varied Thrush in washtenaw county. His answer was "not very likely, even in your entire lifetime"

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Trip Report 1/2, Grand Canyon June-July 2008

2008-11-18T15:08:00.000-05:00

This is a report from a birding trip we did last summer at the north rim of the grand canyon and zion national park. This trip happened to be also our honeymoon!

Travel

We flew from Detroit to Las Vegas. This indeed was a very reasonably priced flight (in the $400'), even at the height of the summer season. In addition, the rental cars were dirt cheap ($20 a day, for an economical rental, but they did not seem to have ANY small car, so we got a free upgrade for a larger SUV)

The reason why we choose the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is that we were looking for a reasonably cool area (no way we were going to spend one week in a 110F temperature), beautiful landscape and nice birds to look for. At 8,000/10,000 feet alt, the north rim of the Grand Canyon was a logical choice. We indeed had a perfect weather, always nice, with temperatures in the 70'. The cool air also allowed us to see bird at any time of the day, unlike the Nevada Desert we crossed on the way (at noon and 110 degrees temperature, bird activity is close to zero)

Gas : we went at the grand canyon during the peak of gas price crisis. The only gas station inside the national park was so old that they could not charge more than 3.99$ a gallon. That was about 50 cents cheaper than anything we had seen on the way from Las Vegas. Obviously not a great advantage right now, though, as the gas price is now about half of that

On the way back, we had a few extra hours to waste, so we tried a beach on Lake Powell. Big mistake. The beach we choose (on the east side of the lake) was nice, but was missing a rather essential element : water. The lake Powell has lost so much water that some of the resorts have been closed. I guess this is the price to pay if you want to have green golf course and lawn in Las Vegas. The heat was so unbearable anyway that I don't think we could have stand on the beach for very long anyway

Resources

Although Arizona is clearly the mecca of birding in the US, I found out most of the material available on the internet is focused on the south east of the state. Nevertheless, these two links provided very useful information. Note that it is necessary to travel through Washington County, Utah between Las Vegas and the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

An excellent article written by Charles Babbit on birding the Kaibab Plateau

Popular Birding Places in Washington County (Utah)

Accommodation

Demotte Campground : a tip to my fellow birders : if you take your bride to a honeymoon trip, don't buy a tent for 2 bucks at the recycling center....

Accommodation is certainly a problem on the north Rim of the Grand Canyon. There is basically only one campground in the park, and it was impossible to book a spot, even for 2 months in advance. Another option was, of course, the fairly expensive lodges (about $200 a day). The easier solution we found was at the Demotte campground, just before the entrance of the park. For $15 a day (and, most important, no reservation, there is a first come, first serve policy), this campground offered basic confort (no shower, though, we found easier the best to take showers at the north rim campground, for a few quarters), plus a basic, but friendly restaurant next to the campground (they were renting some cabins too). If you are travelling on a budget, you can also camp anywhere in the national forest. Many area at the edge of the meadow were superb (and free!) potential camp sites, and fairly close from the road.

The campground was located in the middle of a large grassy meadow. Overall, I would highly recommend this campground. It is a beautiful, quiet and clean place, very relaxing. There were many forest roads to hike (or bird watch) on, and there were many birds we found around this campground we did not found in the park (Cassin's Finch, Evening grosbeak, Williamson Sapsucker). I was also told it is a great place to find a black backed Woodpecker, but we were unsuccessful in finding it.

Birding

We could not find a park ranger who was really a bird specialist. But there was a note book with pictures and comments at the visitor center where you could get some fairly valuable information.

Birding around the campground itself was great. Cassin's finches, Pine Siskins and Evening Grosbeak were everywhere, but sadly, were best seen at the restaurant garbage dump. Violet-Green Swallows, Mountain and Western Bluebirds were very common on the meadow, and some Brewer's Blackbirds were nesting in a tree close from the restaurant. We also found a nice Williamson Sapsucker, a Painted Redstart, and many audubon's Yellow-Rumped Warblers (Not a new species? You have to be kidding me!) on a short hike around the campground. A Prairie Falcon was also seen on the road toward the camp. Raptors were rather scarce, and we could not find the Swainsson Hawk we were hoping for.

Birding in the park itself was also great, but unequal. We first tried the Ken Patrick Trail and only found a few new birds there (1 Plumbeous Vireo, many Blackthoated swift and 2 Townsend's Solitaire). This trail is particularly popular for mule riding.

Trying to get a California Condor while Relaxing...

On the second day, though, we tried the Widforss Trail (only a fraction of it, as the whole trail round trip is about 10 miles), and the birds were fantastic. This part of the park has burned a few years ago, and the diversity of trees and plants makes great habitat for different birds. Pygmy Nuthatch, Stellar's Jay, Western Tanager, Clark Nutcraker, Mountain Chickadee and Blackchinned sparrow were found. But the best birds were certainly a Female Dusky Grouse (also called Blue Grouse) on the side of the trail, as well as a California Condor who flew overhead (and yes, I did count it as a life bird, despite it's ABA non-countable status). I got a quick view of a woodpecker which might have been a black-backed (this trail is supposed to be the best in the park for this woodpecker), but I could not be sure. The views over the canyon were maybe the best we had in the park.

Widforss Trail

On the stargazing side, it should be noticed that the north rim of the Grand Canyon is probably the best place in the lower 48th. We were lucky enough to be there during a special event, and many stargazers were gracious enough to let us look through their scope. The sky was truly magnificent, and we had spectacular views of some planet (I could not believe the views of Saturn we got). Nevertheless, I tend to think that there is more charm and excitement to find and observe a bird than say, a double or even triple star (OK, I can see two yellow dots instead of one, so what?). Plus optics are less expensive!

Night Sky at the north rim lodge

Trip List

Dusky Grouse * Tétras sombre
Turkey Vulture Urubu à tête rouge
California Condor * Condor de Californie
Red-tailed Hawk Buse à queue rousse
Prairie Falcon Faucon des prairies
White-throated Swift * Martinet à gorge blanche
Williamson's Sapsucker * Pic de Williamson
Northern Flicker Pic flamboyant
Western Kingbird * Tyran de l'Ouest
Gray Vireo Viréo gris
Plumbeous Vireo Viréo plombé
Steller's Jay * Geai de Steller
Clark's Nutcracker Cassenoix d'Amérique
Common Raven Grand Corbeau
Violet-green Swallow * Hirondelle à face blanche
Mountain Chickadee Mésange de Gambel
White-breasted Nuthatch Sittelle à poitrine blanche
Pygmy Nuthatch * Sittelle pygmée
Western Bluebird * Merlebleu de l'Ouest
Townsend's Solitaire Solitaire de Townsend
Hermit Thrush Grive solitaire
American Robin Merle d'Amérique
Yellow Warbler Paruline jaune
Yellow-rumped Warbler Paruline à croupion jaune
Painted Redstart * Paruline à ailes blanches
Western Tanager Tangara à tête rouge
Black-chinned Sparrow * Bruant à menton noir
Dark-eyed Junco Junco ardoisé
Brewer's Blackbird * Quiscale de Brewer
Cassin's Finch * Roselin de Cassin
Pine Siskin Tarin des pins
Evening Grosbeak Gros-bec errant

* life bird for me

Breaking News : Birding Trip in Florida

2008-11-13T08:23:00.000-05:00

As winter is making itself a home in Michigan, Diane and I decided to go for a short vacation for Christmast in Florida, in Fort Myers Beach! The Estero Laggon, where our hotel is, has the wonderfull quality to combine a world class beach with a world class birding spot.

In addition to the potential of many, many new birds (It seems that I will pass, at last, the 300 mark for north America during this trip, unless an improbable mixed flock of Harlequin ducks,multiple species of Eiders and Scooters, Crossbills, winter Gulls, Great Grey and boreal Owls shows up in Gallup Park in December), this location seems to have the highest concentration (according to the 2007 Chrismast Count) of what I think is by far the coolest bird in the US, if not in the world : the Burrowing Owl.

I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsIMYBDpQmA

Drama in the Arb (or how to miss the National Geographic Picture of the Year)

2008-11-10T08:23:00.001-05:00

Is is snowing today, so I just realized that Mr Winter is now back in Michigan for 5 long months, or more. 5 months of cold, snow, with only waterfowls and finches to warm the heart of the courageous birder.

As the whole world was focusing last Tuesday on the presidential election, the state of Michigan generously gave me a holiday, so I could have all the time in the world to vote. Not being a US citizen and being denied the right to vote, unfortunatly, this was an excellent opportunity to :

Fix a plugged sink at home
Go birding for a while in the Arb

Wait a minute, something is not right......with the light being so bright and beautifull, and quickly reprioritized my "to do" list:

Go birding for a while in the Arb
Fix a plugged sing

Being efficient is all about prioritizing, I was told once...

Entering the Arb through the prairie, as usuall, I quickly met a group of friendly Dark Eye Juncos. Two of these Juncos were particuliarly obvious and fairly cooperative. Using my binoculars and my camera, as usually I started to digibin the one on the right. Let's call it Nestor.

Mmm not good. For some reason, the autofocus is actually focusing on the grasses behind. Plus its head is in the shade......So I turned my attention to the one one the left (let's call it Robert)

Ahhh not bad at all. I mean considering my primitiv way of taking pictures, that's about the best I can do. Suddenly, I feel, I see a shade on my back, on my shoulder. A fraction of second later, I see a Cooper's Hawk flying 2 feet over my head. Another fraction of second later, Nestor was gone, caught by the raptor. Wow.

Well obviously I just missed the National Geographic Picture of the year.

Other birds for the day were all usuall, but the light was making birding particularly enjoyable.

White Throated Sparrow

Cardinal

Edge of the prairie

White Throated Sparrow

Eastern Bluebird

Cackling at Cavanaugh Lake

2008-10-29T07:47:00.000-04:00

As I was unseccesfully chasing a surf scooter that was reported on Cavanaugh Lake last Sunday, I came accross this groupe of geese. The smallest one is certainly a Cackling, but what's about the the intermediate ?

One more perfect day

2008-10-13T14:26:00.000-04:00

Last week end was another 2 perfect days of fall. Bright sun, crispy temperature in the morning, beautiful foliage colors....I was basically as good as it can get in Michigan, and I know many people from europe who come (or wish to come) in the northern states of the USA, only to experience these wonderful indian summer days....

The beach

The beach (2)

Of course, the main problem is that these days are too few, and that it is certainly difficult to forget that winter is coming soon. Somehow, though, thinking about all the winter birds I have not seen for a while (would it not be cool to see some redpolls again?), and of all the other chances I will get to miss my nemesis bird (the rough legged hawk), this does not actually seems too bad. Winter also means being able to oversleep during the week end AND being able to be out birding at sunrise

But let's live in the present.....

The arb was full of birds both saturday and sunday. Sparrows (song, white-throated and white crowned) were numerous. A kernel of 24 turkey vultures (urubu a tete rouge) was seen soaring on the east side of the prairie. Ruby crown kinglets (and some golden crown too) were also present about everywhere in the arb.

Amoung the best sighting of these two outing were a late tennessee warbler, 2 coopers hawk, and a brown thrasher (good eye, Diane!), and a couple of yellow bellied sapsuckers. Also seen was a Rosebreasted Grosbeak.

Tennesse Warbler (paruline obscure), digibinned

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (pic macule), digibinned

White Throated Sparrow

Brown Thrasher (Moqueur Roux), digibinned

Orienteering and Birding don't mix

2008-10-07T09:54:00.000-04:00

Orienteering race last week end, at Peach Mountain. Orienteering is another of my hobbies. The goal is to find controls in a forest, helped only with a Map and a Compass. Despite my very modest skills and physical strength, I always try to be as good as possible during these races. I can even admit that I always secretly hope to beat a few of my fellow orienteers.

Last Sunday was at Peach Mountain, one of my favorite "map" for orienteering (although my results from last years were proven to be rather mediocre). Peach Mountain is a very cool place by itself. It is own by the university of Michigan, and is mostly used for astronomical research (there is several radiotelescopes). But Peach Mountain is also a very great place for birding, with a wide variety of habitats. Grassy openings, pine groves, sandy pits. I secretly hope that one day, I will find a crossbill somewhere in the pine groves

As I was leaving control 3 of this race, and I was rather satisfied of this first third of the race. I went almost straight from control to control, with basically no mistake. I was going toward control 4, rather slowly, but expecting great difficulties. A 1 km strech through the woods, with no trail whatsoever. Obviously a great segment to loose or win a lot of time. As I was jogging though the magnificent forest (almost at its fall prime!!!) I heard trouble ahead.

No, reader, this was not the owling of a migratring wolf, a hungry bear or even worst, a cranky skunk.

That was the distinctive call of a pileated woodpecker. Rats.

Now, let me tell you. The Pileated woodpecker is a VERY cool bird. It is the biggest woodpecker in the US (let's not start here to debate on the possible existence of the Ivory-billed woodpecker). Although not particularly rare in Michigan, it is almost non existent on the east side of Wasthenaw County, where I usually birdwatch. So hearing this great bird gave me some shiverings......

A few more steps toward the West direction....I can hear the bird going approximatly the same direction. But I can not see it. Unless I go a little bit south. Not a big difference for my race...all I have to do is to be very carefull and keep an eye on the shape of this spur other there..... So here I go, a bit south, then a little bit more south, then west, chasing both my control 4 and my woodpecker.......

The results of the race? Let's say the forest was magnificent and that I enjoyed every minute I spend there.

Fall is coming!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-29T09:49:00.000-04:00

Diane and I just like to walk in the Arboretum, as many other people from Ann Arbor do....It offers many trails along the river, in the woods, along the prairie. Many Joggers and Runners take advantage of one of the steepest hill in the county to perform their weekly hill trainning. The dog owners walk their dogs, most of them responsively.

Last Saturday in the Arb was absolutly pleasant. The day was a perfect autumn day, blue sky, a bit cool in the morning. Despite the Michigan-Wisconsin game in the afternoon, promising a 100,000 visitors influx of in the city, walkers were sparse, and runners few.

The Beach - La Plage

Birdingwise, we had a great time. Blue Jays were flying around everywhere, a Carolina Wren (troglodyte de Caroline) hopped over a fallen tree, a red breasted nuthatch (Sitelle a poitrine rousse) (our first this fall) was feeding amoung the pine trees. A flock of mixed warbler (blackthroated green, chesnut sided and pine warblers, plus others I could not identify, high in the trees) (paruline a gorge noire, paruline a flanc marron, paruline des pins) put a show next to the peony garden. The first white crowned sparrow were seen along the prairie. Rubycrowned and Golden crowned Kinglet (Roitelet a Couronne Rubis, Roitelet a Couronne Doree) were also seen.

White Crowned Sparrow (Bruant a couronne blanche)

On the way back to our car on the edge of the prairie, we took an infrequently used trail, both to get a little exercise and to get a chance to see a Thrush or a Wren in the brushy slope. Annoyed, I discovered a Dog Owner......with a dog unleashed.

Now, there is nothing that infurriated me more that wandering dogs in the Arb. Not only they scare ground birds, squarrels and deers, and disturb habitat, but they have sometimes highly variable social behaviour. Friendly, TOO friendly, agressive (I was bitten once by a dog in a city park 2 years ago). This is why I always try to remind them (the owners) to keep their dog on leash. Rarely it works. Most of the time they disagree, more or less politely, with my recommendation. This time, though, the dog owner tried a different strategy.

Me : "M'am, I think you should keep your dog on leash"

No answer. Ok, that's a classic. She hopes I will just give up.

Me : (louder) "M'am, I think you should keep your dog on leash!"

Her : (in French, but with a strong American Accent) "Je ne parle pas Anglais" (I don't speak English)

Now, maybe some readers of this blog have not noticed yet, but I happened to be born and raised in Amiens, in the north of France.

Me : "Bien essaye, mais il se trouve que je suis Francais, et vous devez garder votre chien en laisse. Et votre accent est pourri, vous n'est pas Francaise" (good try, but I happened to be French, and you should keep your dog on leash. And your accents stinks, you are obvioulsy not French)

Stupor from the Dog Owner

Followed a rather animated conversation, in French of course. Of course it did not change the fact that she kept her dog unleashed, but I gave her a hard time, and that was my main goal. Maybe next time she will go somewhere else, or bring a leash with her.

Following this rather nice walk, we ended up at the Farmer's Market, buying some heirloom tomatoes. The farmers thought the first frost are coming in a week or two. l

Birth of a Birder

2008-09-23T08:36:00.000-04:00

Went birding last Saturday on Lake Erie MetroPark, hoping to improve my skills in Raptors Identification. Dropped Diane at a cat show in Allen Park (the location of the show reminded me an infamous Snowy Owl Adventure with Jochen), and went on the beach hoping to improve my skills in Hawk Identification, and specially for the Broadwinged Hawks. Reports from previous days were specially promising, with more than 30,000 Broadwings on Thursday alone.

Alas, the birding Gods (or, to be more specific, Aeolus, the God of the winds) were obviously upset, and declined to give me the number of raptor I statistically deserved on this day. A few dozen Sharp Shinned Hawks, a juvenile Bald Eagle, one Harrier and an Osprey were the only raptors seen between 11h00 and 1h00 this day. On the butterfly side, though, a few monarchs were observed crossing the water toward their sunny destination.

Walking on the boards to go back to my car, I enjoyed the sight of several yellow-rumped warbler (I tried to digibin a few of them), cedar waxwings, as well as a couple dozen pie billed grebe who were feeding close from shore. A group of 300+ double crested cormorants was seen at a distance.

First try at digibinning on a yellow rumped warbler

Premier Essai de digibinning sur une paruline a croupion jaune

A cedar waxwing, the rock star of american birds, is clearly not impressed by a little yellow on a rump

Un Jaseur d'Amerique (Diane et moi les appelons les rock star) n'est evidemment pas impressionne par un peu de couleur

I also tried digibinning on a flying Egret

J'ai ensuite essaye d'ameliorer ma technique sur une Grande Aigrette en vol...

Enjoying the beautiful day, I sit on a bench and reflected on the day when, two years ago and stuck in bed by a terrible back pain, I discovered the world of birding by reading "Kingbird Highway", by Kenn Kaufman. The next day (it took me just one night to finish the book), still dreaming about this transcontinental pursuit of birds (and probably something more than birds), I purchased a field guide, tried to look through my window with a 20$ pair of binocular (I guess I should have called it monocular, as one side was constantly fogged), and discovered a different world......3 pairs of binocular and 2 field books later, here I am, rich of new friends, new experiences, new knowledge, and a new obsession....

Back at home with Diane, we got a good surprise at our feeder. A female Rubythroated hummingbird was resting and pruning at our window. We enjoyed her for 30 mn.

Female Rubythoated Hummingbird, resting during migration

Colibri a gorge rubis, se reposant pendant sa migration