Sunday, January 20

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We bagged our planned Upper Peninsula trip because of the weather. They were supposed to get snow and high winds. The snow might have made the birding interesting but the wind would have kept everything down. It wasn’t worth driving all the way up there without a fair chance of seeing some good things. Next week I guess. I just hope the Northern hawk owl keeps hanging out at the Curleze Corner Hair Salon.

Since we didn’t bird the Upper Peninsula we tried our luck with a road trip in the Downer Peninsula. We started with a visit to Lake St. Clair Metro Park, then headed up to Port Huron, and finished trying for short-eared owls near Ann Arbor.

At Lake St. Clair we didn’t see the hoped for merlin that hangs out around the parking lot and we “just missed” the roosting great horned owl. We did get a couple passerines and some waterfowl, including some nice side by side looks at redheads and canvasbacks. At a nearby DNR boat launch site Lise got a flyover trumpeter swan which I missed.

Then it was up to Port Huron. We were hoping for a Western grebe reported there. Missed the grebe but we did get Iceland gull and white-winged scoter, both nice birds to add to the list. We also got a black-backed gull which Lise needed.  

We then made a mad, but I assure you, safe, dash down to Ann Arbor for the short-eared owls. There was just barely enough light to see by when we got there. We scanned a couple times but no owls. It may have been too windy by the time we got there. The lack of cars was probably telling. There are usually a number of people there for the owl show, especially on a Saturday night. Could be the birds just aren’t showing up at the same spot they did last year. Anyway, we finished a long birding day having dinner in Ann Arbor with our friend Phyllis and her siblings at Casey’s Tavern. A good birding day finished with good company, good sandwiches, and good beer. Don’t get much gooder than that.

Today Lise and I went out a bit locally. The highlight was finding a flock of ~50 redpolls, down by some power substation where we probably weren’t supposed to be. The gate was open so that was kind of like an invitation to go in.

Flying redpolls. OK, so I’m not going to make a living as a bird photographer. The damn things would not sit still.

I went home to report the redpolls and someone on the listserve had reported a tundra swan at a local lake. This is a rarity for an inland lake so we popped out and got the swans too.

Tundra swans. Mom, Dad, and a couple younguns. First time reported locally.

Tundra swans mooning me. I get no respect.

So right now I’m at 52 species and Lise is at 53. Twenty percent of the goal in the first couple weeks. Still going to need a couple Upper Peninsula trips though. Gee, what a bummer. Having to make a couple trips to the Upper Peninsula. Throw me in that briar patch.