avocets

Big shorebirds tend to show up following fronts and this morning was no different.  With clouds and west winds breaking the muggy heat we weren't terribly surprised to see an avocet land in front of the overlook.  I realized at that point I'd managed to leave the camera in the car, whoops.

I went back for it and about an hour later a flock of avocets appeared.

It was a mix of adults of both sexes (the males have straighter bills), just starting to get some wintry gray in their crowns.

 I don't know of a better visual representation of the whoof-whoof-whoof sound that a falcon's wings make when they bank close to you on a still day than the black and white secondary patterns of the avocets.

Finally a little yellow butterfly that caught my eye as the group departed. 

I looked it up, turns out it's called Little Yellow.  Go figure.

One step forward

Well, last post focused mainly on flowers, this time we'll upgrade to some common insects!  Hey, there's many different flavors of awesomeness, only so much can be photographed.

There was a Short-eared Owl that went by Tiscornia this morning

 There were almost no waterbirds, but passerines were reverse migrating, highlighted by my first Indigo Bunting, Chimney Swift, and Palm Warbler of the year.

A walk around Floral did not turn up a Kentucky Warbler, though there may have been one or two or a hundred of these...

Insects are starting to appear, this Tiger Swallowtail was super fresh.

I assume this is a Common Baskettail, Green Darners have been out for at least a week, but this was my second ode of the year.

Buffalo Rd is still sadly lacking in the longspur department, but a little over 60 Golden-plovers are always fun.

First and best grebe of 2013

Of course I reserve the right to change the title should a Clarks lose its direction.

Here's the Western Grebe that's been ringing in the New Year at Tiscornia.  It took me a few days (and Tim's direction) to locate it.

Here's a look at its other side...

Clark's is eliminated by the dull yellow-green bill with fairly extensive dark bleeding in on both mandibles (it would have much more orange tones and is supposed to have a much cleaner dark line at the upper edge of the upper mandible), as well as the black well below the eye and the crown, neck, and back being the same shade of black.

With this, the Solitaire, and the California Gull I've managed 3 birds that can't be counted on for a county year list.  Last year it was mid-May before I had 3 birds this rare.

I'm not sure how many butterfly records there are for Michigan in January, but I saw this guy fluttering on one of my lights in the kitchen earlier this week.

I'm assuming that it hatched from an unseen chrysalis in the Christmas tree or a centerpiece.

I don't need no stinkin appendix

This would be my inaugural blog from the hospital.  I only manged 2 hours at the lake watch yesterday, woke up feeling like crap but rallied with sotme tylenol and a nap and did get outfor a few hours at midday.  I don't honestly remember if we saw anything, one distant Bairds on the beach maybe.  I didn't get up for it.

Last night felt pain and pressure like I'd never felt before and bit the bullet and went into the hospital.  I don't get NFL network so was going to miss the Bears-Packers game; they do have it at the hospital.  Of course I was in surgery for the 2nd half, not that I missed much, but talk about an expensive ticket to watch a game.  Ah well.

I guess with still having the anesthesia meds and narcotics from yesterday in my system I'm not going to try to make this particularly cohesive.  And I guess I could really ID the stuff as anything and blame it on the drugs.  Tim's seen my ID skillz on no sleep; I could truly be impressive today. 

Anyway, a Philly V from Floral earlier this week

This Red-breasted Nuthatch actually tried to land on my back while I was standing still trying to photograph hummingbirds in the jewelweed with limited success.

Odes are winding down.  This would appear to be an Autumn Meadowhawk based on limited black streaking along the side, some black about the top of the end of the tail.  It was definitely smaller than the average  Ruby Meadowhawk (a few of which are still out).  It also has pale legs and different claspers (hamules?)

Finally a couple skippers, there's been loads of Fiery, European (I think), as well as some Duskies and Indigowings and Checkered-Skippers

Anyway, hopefully my white count comes down this afternoon and they let me go home, keep your fingers crossed.

 

 



And the answer is ...

Ruby Meadowhawk (I think).

Darrin O'Brien was kind enough to look at the immature meadowhawk pics and (while he suspected they were Ruby) confirmed my suspicion that the small parts are just as immature as the colors and so aren't totally reliable.

Earlier in the week I went back to Riverview and found that a few had turned red.

Their total numbers had also gone way up, I may have to return to try to get one with its whole body in focus, though the evening light was nice.

Here's a close-up of the relevant area...

It's the shape of the hamule in males that's supposed to be distinctive; this one still doesn't exactly match the drawing.

No such identification problems with this Amberwing though.

It's another example of a common ode that's not on the Berrien list for lack of a specimen.  I haven't had one close enough to even swing at yet though.

I do have a Pondhawk already,

As well as a Halloween Pennant

The book says their coloration, size, and flight style may be close enough to Monarchs' to decrease avian predation.  They always perch on the highest vertical stalk (frequently a pretty whippy one) projecting from land next to the water.

I haven't posted many butterflies this year though it's been a very good year for them, but this tiger swallowtail was in nice evening light.

The drought left a little something to be desired from the color of the milkweed though.

Finally a Hackberry Emporor (I think - I can't find my butterfly book), a lifer butterfly I saw walking the clay stream in Warren Dunes.  I was hoping that different habitat would produce some different odes, but it wasn't to be.

back to the beach

Maybe I should title it "back to birding." I've had 2 major projects that are really eating up my free time, re-doing a deck and another more bird-related one that isn't yet producing results (give it a month). In the last few days though I started getting back to Tiscornia. Nothing really to write home about, but good to be out again.

This Willet was semi-cooperative.

It's a relatively worn adult.

It seemed like it had darker underwings than I remembered.

The juvie Semi Sandpipers are starting to appear in their crisp plumage, there should be Baird's in another week. You know it's good photo light when a 3-4 inch tall bird casts a shadow that leaves the frame.

You can somewhat get a sense of the semi-palmation of the lifted left foot here.

Like the Willet, the sanderlings are also worn adults well into body moult but not really starting in on the wings yet.

Continuing to flip-flop between adults and juvies, here's a composite of a young Cliff Swallow. It doesn't have much color in the throat or face at all, and the rump is white rather than tan.

Finally a Question Mark butterfly, common enough around my house, but I don't recall seeing one at Tiscornia before.

Butterflies of Virginia

We spent the weekend visiting in-laws near Virginia Beach. The birding was so-so, limited time coupled with bad lighting when I did get out meant that I didn't come away with bloggable images. Besides, one Royal Tern post per year is probably sufficient.

The butterflies in the woodlot behind Brent's house, though, were somewhat more cooperative than the Pine Warbler or Carolina Chickadees. Some of these butterflies can also be found in Michigan, though they were all pretty new to me.

These monarchs are actually from Tiscornia.

I always hope to find hairstreak butterflies, but end up seeing a lot of tailed blues in Michigan. The only other hairstreak I've seen was in Arizona, also a Gray Hairstreak.

Common Wood-nymphs in the south have a distinctive yellow patch to the leading edge of the wing.

This Pearly-eye has me somewhat puzzled.

Per Kaufman and Brock, I was in the range of Southern Pearly-eye, and this one does have yellow antennae like Southern should have, but the wings look much better for Northern Pearly-eye: perhaps an intergrade?

This is a Gemmed Satyr, a somewhat subtle species that I thought had worn off some of the hindwing, but that's just the way they're patterned.

Now we move onto skippers, I've probably got some of these ID's wrong, but here's my guesses, there may be some addendums in the future...

I'm going to go Clouded Skipper on this one. I have a dorsal view which isn't as nice a pic that I think makes Little Glassywing less likely (but still probably possible).

This one might be a Dun Skipper, but conceivably could be a faded version of whatever the above one really is.

I'm fairly confident this last one is a Sachem skipper.

Maybe some day I'll find a Seaside Sparrow, but it certainly wasn't this last trip.

Avocets at last

I don't think I've ever gone this far into the year before tallying an Avocet for the year list and it was starting to feel like a bit of a jinx bird, but 2 appeared today (probably the same 2 seen by others yesterday by the bird club) flying down the beach.

Note that the top/lead bird has white edgings to the tips of most of the primaries making it a first year bird.

The adult, which has a little more buffiness to the neck is moulting a secondary, though I'm not sure that's visible in either of the 2 pics above.

The birds landed on the beach. The adult is presumably a male based on the straighter bill.

The sanderlings are now virtually all juvies, this one was captured mid-sprint a few days ago...

Finally a butterfly new for me at Tiscornia, I think I've seen it before but I'm not sure where, a Variegated Fritillary:

High May for butterflies

I had my first day off in a while so it was nice to spend some time with my girls. I knew it was unlikely I'd be able to get up early to go birding so we went for a family walk on the Sarett Prairie to see what butterflies were about.

This Tiger Swallowtail is actually from the in-laws' garden from last week.

This male and female Spicebush Swallowtail appeared to be doing some sort of courtship, the male would flutter his wings essentially in sync with the female. The female didn't fly away but I didn't see a copulation (assuming that's a butterfly reproductive strategy).

The SLR actually allowed flight shots of butterflies, something I never once even considered digi-scoping.

An American Copper perched up, its almond shaped eyes giving it a fair bit of personality, quite unlike the appearance of the Baltimore Checkerspot last year that honestly somewhat grossed me out.

Finally what I assume is an Eastern Tailed Blue from last week. Hazel actually managed to slap her net down on top of one in the path much to her pleasure. It fluttered for a few seconds then dropped back down in the grass and flew quickly away upon removal of the net.

Other ones present today included mulberrywing, some sort of dark skipper I couldn't get a shot of, as well as the usual sulfur and cabbage butterflies.