and then there were two

I've walked Floral at dawn a lot more this year than I ever have before, giving up shots at Tiscornia megas in favor of trying to get the hard spring passerines.  I appear to have missed Olive-sided, though it's probably the least difficult of this group to reclaim in the fall.  Connecticuts have been hard to come by this year, I'm aware of only one in the county so far this year.  After listening to a lot of Northern Waterthrushes making Connecticut like songs (with a few Yellowthroat impersonators as well), it was nice to have the real thing pop out at Floral this morning.  It sang off and on through the morning, but we never even got a glimpse of the bird moving in the brush.

This Mourning along the nature trail was much more obliging, by far the best shot I've obtained of this fellow skulker.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher was the other passerine I was hoping for.  As one of the latest migrants we're entering its peak window.

The primary extension on these birds is as impressive as the belly is.

I tried to turn this Acadian into a Yellow-belly as well (and actually called it out as one).  I was wrong though.

That leaves me with Worm-eating and Chat as the last 2 warblers I need.  The wormer is really the last woodland bird left, unless there's a late Olive-sided lurking somewhere.

Hatin' Time

The post-Birdathon wrap-up is always entertaining.  Some years the theme is Scarlet Tanagers.  This year a lot of the focus was on the camaraderie of birding.  Birding with others is certainly more fun than birding alone.  That being said, sometimes 15 hours into a Big Day, nerves are a little frayed, caffeine crashes occur, the afternoon lull sets in, someone stuffs wrappers and chewed gum in someone else's (still half-full) pizza box which is then emptied onto another party's hat and a good old-fashioned Hatin' Time ensues.  There are two ways that Hatin' Time can be defeated, one is a good bird.

Our best bird of the day came early in the morning, a Yellow-headed Blackbird that jumped out to Tim's eyes at Three Oaks, only the 2nd I've ever seen in the county.  Check out the length of the hindclaws.

Of course it came during the adrenaline rush of the dawn (and the first dawn in a few years that lacked rain), so it didn't really affect the Hatin' Time.

Summer Tanager would have been a perfect bird for the afternoon lull; we didn't get one on Birdathon though.

The other cure, aside from some good birds, is for Hatin' Time to morph into Killin' Time.  That one's self explanatory.

Joking aside, we had a fun time.  Most of the birds were pretty common, and we were actually fairly even with our record pace until we got to Floral.  There was a really nice hawk movement, but the passerines just didn't happen there; most of ours came elsewhere.

Hooded Warblers were hard to miss though.

 We managed to filter out all of the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at our first several passerine spots, it was actually new at Floral.

I missed the first Magnolia of the day (maybe the first two), so one in a little bush was also new for me.

Finally a Chestnut-sided that was near the grosbeak while scouting (unsuccessfully) for Worm-eating Warbler.

 

Parula in a Redbud

The weather this year has been ideal for the flowering trees, no hard frosts and cool for the last week keeping the flowers fresh, and I've been studying them fairly closely looking for subjects teed up in a sea of pink.  Until today my best had been robins and house sparrows.

A Parula however was defining its territory at Kesling, this was the closest I've ever been to a male.

The sun was pretty high so the flowers are blown out a little bit, but I really can't complain.

It dropped pretty low, presumably after insects.

We didn't have tons of warblers, but I did get my first Golden-winged, Baybreast, and Blackburnian of the year.

Veeries were the theme at Floral in the morning.  Some of them were very confiding.

Finally a Clay-colored Sparrow we heard at Chikaming that popped up right next to the car.

Mr. Kentucky needs some friends

I'd heard the Kentucky last week, but it took a couple trips to Floral to finally see the little guy, despite foliage that's way behind where it is some years.

The bright morning sun really blew out the foreground with the bird in the shade, though the side-light definitely made it better to shoot with the bird in the shade.

Aside from the Kentucky, I've found warblers to be few and far between on the mornings I've been out, Black-and-White is probably the migrant I've encountered the most.

This Black-throated Blue Warbler was seen by about a third of the people who were on the Costa Rica trip, who showed up by happenstance.

Finally an Ovenbird that may or may not set up a territory along the strip of trail at Floral he's been hanging out in.

Red-headed Woodpecker this afternoon made 200 for the year in Berrien, hopefully tomorrow will bring a nice push of birds.

the Annual Chase

though I can't remember if I went after anything last year outside the county.

A Eurasian Wigeon turned up a little outside of Ann Arbor, a bird that I went to Pt Mouillee about annually when I lived in Ann Arbor.  I never found one, a fortuitous day off and cleared out schedule allowed me to chase this bird with Tim.

It was hanging out with a few Americans.

It was about 200 yards out and I probably would have been better off digi-scoping; these pics are cropped a lot more than would be ideal.  It was also fun seeing some birders from Washtenaw I haven't run into in a while, highlighted by one 92 y.o. Tex Wells.

While Tim and I were driving back Mike Mahler found an Eared Grebe at 3 Oaks.  The pic is equally way too cropped in difficult light.  I may be forgetting one, but I think I've only had this twice before in the county.

I walked Floral with Mike and Rhoda trying to re-find a Kentucky (they'd already had one), but it wasn't to be, a White-eyed Vireo was a consolation tally.

Continuing the trend of the more common the bird the better the pic, finally a White-throat that perched up at my feet.

The south winds giveth ...

and the south winds taketh away.

I've tried April big days most years for the last several years and if there's one thing that's become clear it's that it's utterly pointless to attempt it if there's been North winds.  We've had South winds for the last 36 hours or so which had me more optimistic than some years.  They were a bit strong though, it was hard to hear much at night in the open areas and the strong wind during the day brought in 80 degree temps that just shut down activity by midday.

That being said, they blew in a heck of a bird to start the day off.  Rhoda and I were scanning at New Buffalo as the sun was trying to fight through the haze and I picked up a bird flying low over the water well out.  It wasn't a shape I've encountered in Michigan, initially I tried to pigeon-hold the long-narrow wings into some kind of large shorebird.  As it got closer, still flying straight at us, the head appeared much paler than the body and I started wondering if it was a Hudwit even though it really seemed that even with the odd angle that I should be getting a wingflash.  Eventually it crossed a threshold where it became clear it was a Plegadis ibis; what had seemed like a pale head was the white face head-on.  It got close enough that I was able to get ID-able photos; these are cropped though not lightened or sharpened or contrasted.

I adjusted the F-stop on the camera before the next series.

I think this is the 3rd record of White-faced Ibis for Berrien, I did see the last one, a bird that Tim found at 3 Oaks so this bird was a nice year list addition and one for the Self-found list.

There was some very dramatic lighting early in the morning, there was frequent heat lightning to the north for most of the nocturnal period.  In the morning at New Buffalo there was a large thunderhead to the north and west with the Sun trying to burn through some haze behind us.  Some TV's lifted off into the lighting, I'm going to have to work on my sunrise/sunset settings as this shot doesn't do justice to the yellow-orange backdrop.

We had a lot of the local breeders back and easier to find than most years.  Warbling Vireo, RB Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, Catbird, Kingbird, and several others were in multiple places.  We didn't quite get enough migrants however.  Some of the more interesting ones included Gray-cheeked Thrush (we didn't get Swainson's):

... Pine Warbler...

... and an Orange-crowned that wouldn't come out in the open, but did show his orange crown:

With the vegetation not very leafed out at all, hopefully I'll be able to get out when the first big push of migrant warblers comes through before everything is obscured again.

 

the easier Baird's bird

There've been a couple Sanderlings hanging around Tiscornia of late.  Today a 2nd shorebird joined one of the Sanderlings, a very similarly sized, somewhat slimmer bird with more narrow wings, as they flew in off the lake.  They circled a few times, it kind of seemed like the Sanderling was harassing the peep in the air somewhat, but they landed and tolerated each other well enough along the shoreline.  I walked down to take pics of the Baird's Sandpiper.

I don't think adult Baird's Sandpiper occurs at a different rate from adult Baird's Sandpiper in fall, but the juvenile Baird's are a lot more prone to either coming farther east or else stopping a lot more since as a species they're certainly easier in the fall.  The adults are less scaled than the juveniles, but they're still a buffier bird than the other peeps.  The scapulars extend past the tail which helps rule out the more common Semi-palmated.

The bird's slightly in front of the Sanderling, but you can tell they're similarly sized.  The size is the other thing that makes it a lot easier to eliminate Semi-palmated.

I've made a couple circuits of Floral in the last few days.  Ruby-crowned's are always fun when they show their ruby.

 

 

I feel like gnatcatchers have been a little more common than some years (though maybe it's just that a lot of stuff is delayed).

 

Finally a Broad-winged from earlier today.  I have some thoughts about hawk migration in Berrien and occurrence of some of the Western birds that I'm going to hold for another post.