michigan Cassin's Finch

 It's been hard to come by birds to video locally, so I drove to northern Michigan to be greeted by a host of Pine Grosbeaks, as well as one of the rarer state birds I've chased, a Cassin's Finch!

Michigan California Gull

 Who needs going out west?  Sometimes the West comes to you!  Here's a California Gull from Warren Dunes and New Buffalo from earlier this week...

(western) grebe at the end of the rainbow

 I led a BBC outing to New Buffalo yesterday.  For whatever reason it wasn't super heavily attended.  That being said, there was a pretty sweet bird I noticed after about 30 minutes of standing there.  A black and white long necked bird with a yellow bill appeared briefly in the bins, mostly staying hidden by not insubstantial waves.  It's not that uncommon for a very distant Horned Grebe to stretch its neck and look pretty contrasty, but they don't have long yellow daggers for bills.

It took a few (anxiety provoking) minutes to re-find it, fortunately close enough to the New Buffalo breakwall that I could line up on some of the stones and wait for it to rise momentarily into view.

It worked its way a little closer and I had hopes it would stick around, but it kept mostly swimming south.  Completely eliminating Clark's Grebe is tough, though Clark's should have a brighter yellower bill and would have less of the dark on top of the bill.  This bird doesn't have a ton of black dipping below the eye though there is some, and it gets lost a little with the high contrast lighting conditions.

From black and white to gray and white, here's an adult Glaucous that went by Tiscornia earlier in the week.

and gotta pay off the rainbow reference ... though separated by time and 20 miles

Halloween Cal Gull

Well, Halloween weekend at least.  The inside of the mouth was orange-ish at any rate when it yawned.

A big rain system from the East meant there probably weren't going to be ducks flying so I figured I'd check gull flocks along the lake front.  I meant to start at Klock and work south but I drove to Tiscornia on autopilot ... where there was a darker mantled bird with a dark eye in with the Ringbilled's and Herrings.

I walked up to where I could get a decent side view.

With the side view you can see the longish bill without a big gony angle that still has some of the red proximal to the black on the bill.  This individual has more contrasting head streaking than most of the Herrings do right now.  I have trouble describing gull leg colors, but it appears to be the appropriate yellow-gray, certainly not pink.  

Here's a size comparison between Ring-billed and Herring

California doesn't have a super exciting spreadwing, but I included this pic just to show it's a full adult given it lacks dark in the wings anywhere aside from the extensively dark primaries.

We do well with California in Berrien; we see more here than the rest of the state combined.  If the MBRC page is up to date, this is the first California in Michigan since the last California Gull I found 2 years ago

Little Blue nemesis no more

 I've never chased a Little Blue Heron.  In the 8-10 years before I move here there were at least 3 in Berrien Co that I remember, and there may have been more.  In the last 16 years to my memory ... Tim had one fly by Tiscornia.  Nolan Keyes found a first year at Brown before if flew off. Tim helped me re-find it.

Note the blue lores to separate it from Snowy Egret, as well as the longer bill than Snowy.

Ann Arbor Spoonbill

Heavily birded Washtenaw County has done will with rarities, with a redshank a year or so ago and now another first state record in Roseate Spoonbill.  

I made it there on about day 3 of its week and a half long stay.  The bird was out of sight when I arrived, but after a while a Great Blue took off and flew back to the back corner of the marsh, and less than a minute later the spoonbill flew out.  It landed distantly, then flew much closer and proceeded to feed.

I'm not sure I've ever seen one feed at close range.  The base of the bill was a lot more square than I remembered and the bird would bob its head somewhat as it swung its neck back and forth while working its bill to filter the water.  

With the two hour drive ahead of me that I wanted to finish before darks I didn't wait to see how long it would stay and found myself walking away from a simply crazy bird.

Crooo-ooak!

With not a lot doing in the way of migration at Tiscornia this morning, I joined the exodus when an Eared Grebe was reported a bit inland.  I however didn't go look at the presumed Horned and went to walk Whirlpool instead.  Birds were singing, crows were cawing, sandhills were sawing (or whatever they do), and then I heard something croak softly that sounded intermediate between a crow and a sandhill.  It took a second for the sound to register, but when it did I looked up to see a big black bird approaching...

It had to be my county lifer Raven, though the silhouette in the view finder was a little thrown off by its central tail feathers not being fully grown.  If you zoom in you can see the honking big bill

A (considerably smaller) crow started to mob it as it flew away, quelling any worries about the ID.

There reportedly is a nesting pair about 11 miles to the northeast, and Raven sightings have been increasing a lot the last couple years in Berrien ... will we have it at Tiscornia soon???

Hawk errrr Finch watches

 With a decent amount of East to the wind I spent about 90 minutes on the dune today hoping for some hawks.  A number of people have had Rough-legged Hawks in the county this fall and roughies were the main hawk that was moving.

Dark morph buteos are always fun.

I have had crossbills atop the dune in November in the past and there were finches moving today.  They were mostly goldfinches, though I did have a small group of redpolls.  Evening grosbeaks were moving around (as were some robin and starling flocks).  The first finch I managed a pic of however was a singleton bird that moved through at medium distance, far enough away that hand focus was required.

It's a Red Crossbill, my first self-found in the county, and 260 for the year.

Eventually enough grosbeaks went by that I managed a few pics of them too.

Finally a sharpie that whipped past.

Grosbeaks by Lisa

 Evening Grosbeaks are apparently irrupting this fall, and Lisa has had some coming sporadically to her feeders.  I think I can count on my hands the number of times I've come across this Northern species, and the first time I've gotten even close to decent pics...

Fortunately for me the feeder they were coming in to had a nice weathered wood look to it.  

Maybe they should be called Autumn Grosbeaks...

Shiawassee Stork

Someone found a Wood Stork at Shiawassee NWR yesterday afternoon and as it happens I had today off!  As this bird rarely gets west of the Appalachians, and I don't think has every been chaseable in Michigan Mike and I went up to see it.  

As all good chase subjects should be, it was right where it had been described yesterday with a line of about a dozen cars and maybe 25 birders marking the spot.

It looks like it's just walking in this next pic, but I'd forgotten how much they use their feet to stir up the mud with motions like it was searching for a light switch in the dark.

It's fishing efforts were pretty successful.  It wouldn't really lunge for fish at all, mostly keeping its bill semi-open and mostly submerged in the water.  Now and then it would close the bill and emerge with a fish at the tip.  A couple of tosses later and the fish would disappear.

I'm certain I've never seen as many Great Egrets or White Pelicans in Michigan as were in Shiawassee today. (also never as many wood storks!)

There was one flock of probably 75 pelicans in one place.

Finally a pic of a juvie BC Night-heron.

It could stand to be 100 yards closer with a bit more light, but I was pleased with the sepia tones.

Mute Pelicans

Had a very nice walk around Floral, hearing tons of warblers, and seeing good numbers as well.  Philadelphia Vireo and Olive-sided Flycatcher were the rarest migrants I found.  After a few hours, a conference call, and a walk in the nature area I was feeling ready to go home, but the overcast had kept it cool and I knew I had to check a few more places.  I decided on North Bay Park given it's a place I've had Clay-colored Sparrow before, and who knows, maybe a Yellow-crowned Night-heron might be teed up.  I didn't find a Clay-colored, and didn't see any herons as I scanned the treelines.

After walking down the little nature trail I headed back for the car and noticed two big white birds out in the middle of the lake.  The ducks migrated away weeks ago, what were the odds they were anything other than Mute Swans.  I'm glad I put bins on them...

Pelicans!  My first self-found ones in the county.

After sending a couple texts I started typing a listserv post, leading with the word "Currently..."

My heart sank as I noticed some motion and saw the birds had taken flight.

They circled a few times, once going right past me...

And disappeared.  (Check out that bill shield!)

Fortunately they returned (though landed farther away) about 10 minutes later.

California Gray

Yesterday, the first day after a front had come through, saw 4 digits worth of ducks go by Tiscornia.  This morning ... there were less.  Probably in the order of about 10%.  Gulls were moving well yesterday and the group were watching for Franklins in addition to sorting through the ducks ... but the only Franklin's turned up in New Buff.  When it was re-seen this morning we decided to bail on Tiscornia and look for the Franklins.  I figured best to check Silver just to make sure there wasn't a Franklin's a mile away without driving to the other side of the county.

There indeed was a darker mantle present ... but only one shade darker than the ring-billeds.

 The dark eye and mantle had me jogging back to the car for the scope and camera.  Sure enough, the long red-and-black ornamented bill, yellow-green legs, and fully dark eye of a California Gull popped out.  It looked to be an adult well on its way to winter plumage with heavier nape markings than our local rat gulls typically display.

When I moved to Berrien in 2006 there were just over a dozen records for Cal Gull in Michigan.  There's triple that number now, and three quarters of those have been here in Berrien.

Unfortunately there was no Franklin's Gull in New Buff, but Mike Bourdon found a fun consolation prize in a Cattle Egret.  I've actually seen Cal Gull more often than Cattle Egret in Berrien

Red Knot in the sunrise

There's been a knot at New Buff the last couple days, I was there at sun-up this morning.  It was feeding actively aside from when killdeer or geese would fly by freezing it up from time to time.

The bird is a juvenile as evidenced by the small fresh scapulars.  This is the reddest I've seen a juvie, though it may also be the earliest I've had this species in fall and simply have fresher plumage.

There's still some algae left from whatever the last prey item was.

There were a handful of semi's around, but this Least zipped past the knot for a fun size comparison.

Honestly the water drops from the little wavelet hitting the algae distract more than they add interest to the next one.

One last pic from just before the sun rose.

Hopefully Baird's will be next!