The Great Bird Hunter

Lighhouse at Pere Maquette Park

During our trip last weekend I felt like I was a primitive being, tracking animals all over the wilderness that is the great state of Michigan.  Of course that feeling can only last so long when you warp back to reality and remember that you are using multiple birding websites to locate the “prey.”  Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun trying to track down these cool creatures.

Lis and I left the house roughly around 10 o’clock on Saturday morning.  We had packed a lunch and snacks so we didn’t plan on stopping unless absolutely necessary.  Not 45 minutes into the trip my wife informs that she is hungry.  I remind her of the bounty of food located right behind the center console.  She told me that none of it could be categorized as “breakfast food.”  I then asked her if she remembered eating breakfast before we left.  I’m thinking maybe I’m dealing with a very early case of dimensia here.  She says “I’m pregnant.”

Female Long-tailed Duck (nonbreeding)

After a not so quick stop at McDonald’s in Adrian, we were on our way again.  Perhaps 45 minutes later we see our first list bird.  As we were traveling about 75 mph we saw a large bird fly up ahead of us and nearly get smoked by a semi.  I slowed down and watched the bird safely duck down into the roadside ditch.  It was a Ring-necked Pheasant.  Totally cool.  Elissa of course takes credit for the spot because if we had not stopped at McDonald’s we would have never seen it.  I’m willing to live with that analysis.

Female White-winged Scoter

The first real stop on our trip up north was at the Muskegon Wastewater Management Facility.  This was largely a bust.  I was totally disappointed.  Outside of a few turkeys and some pretty common ducks, we really didn’t come up with much.  No worries.  On to Pere Marquette Park near downtown Muskegon.

Male Long-tailed Duck (nonbreeding)

The park proved to be a different story.  For one thing, the weather was perfect.  The water was calm, there was very little wind, and there was just enough light to show off the colorful birds.  Now in the last post I told you I was going after 4 species.  The White-winged, Surf, and Black Scoters as well as the Long-tailed Duck.  At Pere Marquette we got the White-winged Scoter and the Long-tailed Duck.  Check out the pics.  Pretty cool lookin’ birds!

The rest of Saturday saw us bouncing around the Muskegon channel and also Muskegon State Park.  No new birds, but we had a pretty good time.  After cleaning up at the hotel we went out to eat at the Lake House restaurant.  The food was alright but they put lots of sauce on everything.  I had crab stuffed shrimp with the Martha’s Vinyard salad.  The salad was great (carmalized pecans...yum!), but you could barely taste the shrimp due to the sauce factor.  We ordered creme brule for dessert.  That totally made up for the shrimp.

On Sunday we started our decent down the coast of Lake Michigan.  We had studied sightings on eBird the night before and mapped out a plan of attack.  We went after Bohemian Waxwings, Snow Geese, and Eared Grebes.  We came up empty on all accounts.  That turned out not to matter so much due to what we saw in Grand Haven.  After visiting the area in Grand Haven where the Grebes had been seen, we decided to backtrack a bit to a spot on the channel that had a lot of things in it as we had driven by.  There, hanging out with a bunch of Lesser and Greater Scaup, was a single Red-throated Loon.  New bird for the year.  New bird for the life list.  Very cool rarity.

Two days = 4 birds.  I can live with that.  I would have liked to have gotten the other two Scoters (pronounced Sc-O-ter, by the way), but I can’t complain about a trip that dealt me two new life birds.  The next planned birding event I have is on March 30th.  The Toledo Naturalist’s are leading an evening owl watch at Maumee Bay State Park.  Owls are my achilles heel.  Maybe with a little help I can nab a few more hooters for the list.  Happy Birding!

Birds in Profile: The White-winged Scoter

During the last two months I have come to the realization that I am not an expert about birds.  I always knew this I guess, but it has become crystal clear that I have a lot to learn.  When around more seasoned birders I begin to question my knowledge as a birder.  Pretty basic stuff too.  I start wondering...am I pronouncing the name of that bird correctly?  Then you find yourself doing that thing where you start to say something but kind of trail off when you get to the part you’re unsure of, and you hope they don’t notice this pathetic attempt to hide a silly insecurity.  Yeah I do this with the White-winged Scoter.  Is it pronounced Sc-o-ter or Sc-oo-ter?  I don’t know man!

The White-winged Scoter is a cold weather duck, primarily residing in western Canada during the summer breeding season.  The male is a black bird with a comma shaped white patch near the eye.  They have a black, red, and orange bill that has a strange looking hump near the base.  A white wing patch is barely visible.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the White-winged Scoter will often nest amongst colonies of breeding gulls.  The article goes on to say that “although the gulls would happily eat the eggs and chicks of the scoter, the dense vegetation where the scoter nests keeps them safe.”  This provides further proof that gulls are pretty sick birds.  Thank the lord for dense vegetation.

The coolest thing that I learned about the White-winged Scoter is that it appears to be making a resurgence in the Great Lakes.  Wintering populations decreased during the 1970’s.  Why are we seeing more Scoters in the Great Lakes now?  Zebra mussels.  Yep...the same things that cause havoc for boaters, and can slice up a water shoeless foot, are the very reason why White-winged Scoter’s are showing up in greater numbers on the Great Lakes.  Scoters feed primarily on mollusks.  The abundance of zebra mussels in the lakes means that wintering Scoters have more than enough to eat.  Pretty cool cause and effect story.

The reason I chose to highlight the White-winged Scoter this week is because Elissa and I are heading up to Muskegon, Michigan to see if we can see one along with the other two Scoter species.  I would also like to see a Long-tailed Duck as well.  We were planning on going to Port Huron for these birds, but after reviewing some information on eBird I decided we would have a better chance of getting them in Muskegon.  During our trip up north we will be visiting the Muskegon Wastewater Treatment area.  Water treatment facilities are common stops for birders.  If you can get past the odor, the Muskegon Wastewater facility is regarded as one of the best birding locations in all of Michigan.  Hopefully it will help me add to the big list!

Bird Count: 141

Recent Notables: Eastern Towhee, Horned Grebe, Snowy Owl, Common Loon, and Wild Turkey

Information in this post was gleaned from:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology. White-winged Scoter (website). Retrieved from http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-winged_Scoter/lifehistory.

How to Submit Observations to eBird

For those of you who wish to contribute to a citizen science project, here's how to submit your birding observations to eBird.  Hope you find this helpful!

Westerville, Port Huron, and Spring Migration

Red-tailed Hawk at Maumee Bay State Park

Male Red Crossbill (above)
Female Red Crossbill (below)

At the beginning of this birding adventure I had 211 species on my life list.  Today marks exactly two months since I began my big year.  I currently have 136 birds recorded.  This number includes 22 new species, bringing my life list total up to 233 birds.  

I have always loved birding, but this year it has become an obsession to be sure.  The good kind of obsession though.  I mean, I’m not a creeper who really likes feet...you know?  This infatuation has afforded me opportunities to meet some really cool people and to see some really cool birds.  This past week, for example, I was able to see the Red Crossbill’s I have pictured here.  Several people posted their sightings on Rarebird.org and I hustled over to Oak Openings to see them.  As of yesterday (3/10), they were still feeding at the Window on Wildlife near Mallard Lake.

I would like to average a bird a day.  I am ahead of that pace right now, but that is mostly due to the fact that Elissa and I took that trip down to the Everglades.  The ducks are starting to roll in now, but I got most of those down in Florida too.  In order to stay on track I will need to make trips for specific species.  To pick up a few more, Lis and I might head up to Port Huron, MI in two weeks to hopefully see Black, White-winged, and Surf Scoters.  Long-tailed Ducks will also be a target.  It will be nearly the end of migration for these cold weather waterfowl, but that is the earliest we can get up there.

This past weekend Elissa and I visited Dale, Ruth, and Adler in Westerville, Ohio.  We had a wonderful time, Dale did our taxes, and I added three birds to the list.  I got a Ring-necked Duck at Sharon Woods Metropark, a Carolina Chickadee at Hoover Meadows, and spotted a group of Red-breasted Merganzers on the Hoover Reservoir.  Had we had more time to bird I’m sure I could have added a few more.  The Columbus area has so many cool parks to explore.

In other news, I recently volunteered to be a driver for a couple of tour groups during the peak of Spring migration.  Greg Links presented me with these opportunities and I eagerly accepted the offer.  On the morning of Saturday May 4th I will be driving other birders to local hotspots like Maumee Bay State Park, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Metzger’s March, and Magee Marsh.  On Sunday May 5th I will be a driver for an all day affair in Erie County.  I am especially looking forward to this trip because I really haven’t done any birding that far east.

Next week I plan on working on my second installment in my Birds in Profile series.  Within the next month I hope to have a bird identification video up on the blog.  I have worked on the script and content.  Now I just need to do the video.  Hopefully you will find it helpful and enjoyable.  Have a good week!

Birding is a Community

I’ve stated in previous posts that many birders get a thrill out of helping others. Like anything, competition can always be found, but the vast majority of bird brains want to share their joy. In an age where information can be accessed in seconds with a Google search, sharing dirt about where to find the coolest birds has become increasingly easy.

Greater White-Fronted Geese mixed in with Canada Geese
Move Cursor over image to zoom in.

There are several people I’d like to highlight this week. The first is Sherrie Durris. Sherrie is the Vice President of the Toledo Naturalist Association and is a birding machine. Her name is all over eBird and Rarebird.org. Although I don’t know her personally outside of a few message board pleasantries, it is clear when reading her posts that she really knows her stuff. It is because of her that I was able to add Ross’s Goose and Greater White –fronted Goose this past week.

My hiking buddy.

Another individual I am very thankful to have come in contact with is Greg Links. Greg also works with TNA, but it’s not his only focus. Greg and friend/colleague Brian Zwiebel run Sabrewing Nature Tours. Although both of them reside in Northwest Ohio, Greg and Brian have led trips thousands of miles away from the Toledo area on multiple continents. Greg was nice enough to provide me with some tips on where to look for birds this past Friday when I decided to take a trip to the Lake La Su An Wilderness Area near the Indiana line. I added Golden Crowned Kinglet to the list as a result of this trip.

 Yesterday I headed down to Forest Woods Nature Preserve. It’s about 45 minutes southwest of Delta. Route 24 is the quickest way to get there. The preserve is managed by the Black Swamp Conservancy and a permit from them is required to walk the property. The two people I dealt with at the BSC were extremely enthusiastic about Forest Woods. One couldn’t help sharing a picture of a Snowy Owl she had taken several months earlier.

Rules, rules, rules...

 Forest Woods is a really cool place. There are no parking lots or established trails. It is literally you and nature. If you like woodpeckers, it’s got them. I saw Downy, Red-bellied, Red-headed, and the elusive Pileated. I heard Sandhill Cranes in the distance but never got a visual. The hike on the preserve yielded two new big year birds. I was fortunate enough to get a great view of a Rough-legged Hawk in flight, as well as “bagging” my first owl of the year: The Great Horned. I followed the big bird for several minutes before he allowed me to get a sufficient look. 

This weekend we’re heading to Westerville, Ohio to visit Uncle Dale. Westerville is a northern suburb of the state capital and is conveniently located near the Hoover Reservoir and Delaware State Park. Hopefully we can add a few new birds during our stay. Happy birding!