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

Great Lakes Piping Plover in Florida

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!

Florida trip 1/3 : Corkskrew Sanctuary

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!

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

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

Birth of a Birder

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