Another winter day in Gallup Park

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

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