Author: turndoozie

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”;}

Busy, busy week but we got some birding in.

Tuesday we tried a spot along the Grand River. No new bird species but the cottonwood seeds made the place look like it was snowing.

Cottonwood snow on the River Trail.

Cottonwood on a pond.

Snowing cottonwood on the Grand River.

Wednesday morning we hit a local park before work. Lise got her yellow-billed cuckoo and we both got willow flycatcher and finally got a scarlet tanager.

Then we thought we would try Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge in the evening. Conveniently, a report of a black-necked stilt at the refuge came over the listserve in the afternoon. We headed up there and cruised around looking for it. The wildlife drive is a one way six mile loop on a slow single lane gravel road at the top of a berm. If you miss something it is no small feat to get back around to the spot again.  We found some guy diligently looking at what seemed to be the described spot. We started looking too but didn’t find anything. Lise was using the scope so I drifted back along the road to look for other things. After about 15 minutes the other guy packed up and left. As he was pulling away Lise yelled and waved for me. I ran back to her, waving in case the other guy looked back. His back up lights came on and he came tearing about 50 yards in reverse back to us. He hopped out saying, “I was driving forward but looking backwards and saw you running. When old guys like us start running is has to be something good.” Anyway, we all got good looks at the stilt. The other guy was quite happy since it was his Father’s Day present to be able to go chasing it. He was quite appreciative of Lise’s spotting skills.

We got a couple other good birds at the refuge too. Lise heard an American bittern and we both got wood thrush, cliff swallow, and night hawks. I’m now at 191 species and Lise is at 186.

I also saw my first eastern pondhawk dragonfly for the year. Which was surprising considering how cold and windy it was.

Cold and windy June evening at Shiawassee.

Then today a big year disaster struck. The spreadsheet I was tracking our totals in somehow got corrupted. It has us both at 129 species. Luckily I have all the species listed in the blog. I just need to backtrack and figure out where things went bad. Grunt work but it can be recovered.

Water polo is finally over. We were in Grand Rapids Friday night and Saturday for the State championships. The Okemos girls took fourth place. Water polo was great for Molly but it took a toll. Except for Memorial Day, I don’t think we have had a free weekend since mid-April.

Today was an unwind day. No tournaments, no photography, no birding. On ship we had days called Ropeyarn Sunday. It was a day with no operational commitments. Traditionally it was used for patching clothes and mending your hammock. We still used it for clothing repairs but it has expanded to getting other chores done too.

So today was a Ropeyarn Sunday for me. While we were in Grand Rapids for the tournament I bought a set of studio lights for portrait photography. So this morning I got them out of the box and all assembled. The hardest part was wading through all the packing material. There were enough silica gel packs in the box to sandbag New Orleans. But now I can do senior portraits for Molly and Lindsay.

I got the pool table felt all brushed down and then used furniture polish on the sides and legs. So the pool table looks right spiffy and nobody can say I don’t help with cleaning the furniture around the house.

Another job was finishing off some garden work. I really don’t know why I do it. My garden is essentially a wildlife food plot. Every year I start with great intentions of feeding my family but usually end up just feeding the local wildlife. We found an animal skull on some hike. I put it on a stake in the garden, hoping it serves as a warning to the resident varmints. It may keep neighborhood property values down a bit too, so we’ll save some on property taxes.

Welcome to Mr. McGregor’s garden, Peter Cottontail.

Fido has had a busy week. She finished her excavations under our patio and made herself a little hideout. She gets pretty filthy after her excavations so we throw her in the shower. She loves romping around in the warm shower. Kind of humorous to watch.

Digging away.

Fido in her hiding hole under the patio. She’s happy now.

So between a hectic work week and water polo tournaments, we haven’t gotten in much birding. We did get grasshopper sparrows and yellow-throated vireo the past week. While we were in Grand Rapids Friday night, a report came in of a snowy egret in a close by city park. We headed out to the park Saturday morning before the first game but couldn’t find the egret. Others were looking unsuccessfully too. At least Lise got a rough-winged swallow at the park. Then today I saw on the listserve that the egret was re-found this morning. Just couldn’t get up the gumption for the hour or longer drive back over there.

Looking for the snowy egret.

So right now I’m at 185 species and Lise is at 178. There’s a whole lot of summer residents we are missing so we better get cracking.

Memorial Day is the time to honor the fallen. Lise and I went over to Ft. Custer National Cemetery. I’ve wanted to do this for some time but never got around to it. Today seemed right. Here’s to Perry, Fred, Brian, and John. Friends from my Navy time that died while they were still in the service. May they always be remembered and thanked. And here’s to those that serve now. Thanks.

Ft. Custer National Cemetery.

We have a weekend off from water polo tournaments so today we went down to Point Mouillee, better known to birders as Point Moo. Point Moo is right where the Huron River flows into Lake Erie. The Michigan DNR touts Point Moo as the world’s largest freshwater wetland restoration.

When the Europeans showed up the area was a huge marsh complex, protected from Lake Erie by a barrier island. Around 1875, eight millionaires bought the area to make it a private hunting area called the Big 8 Shooting Club. Eventually the barrier island eroded away and Lake Erie started eating into the marsh. The hunting club sold the land to the State of Michigan. In the 1980s the Corps of Engineers needed a place to dispose of contaminated dredge material so they used it to recreate the island that protected the marsh. The State added a system of dikes, pipes, and water control structures, making a 4,000-acre complex.There is the adjoining nuclear plant that may cause some birds to glow at night.

Point Mouillee

The nice nuclear pant.

Pipes in a lagoon.

Point Moo is a great birding place. There are miles of dikes accessible only by walking or riding bike. We opted for the bicycle option, loading ourselves down with scope, binos, field guides, tripods, and camera gear. We were ready for anything short of hand to hand combat. And lunch. We seem to have forgotten a lunch. Others were out there too, including loaded down birders and photographers, and fishermen that modified bicycles to carry fishing gear.

One would think that birding from bicycle is safer than highway birding. I’m not so sure. Both of us had incidents where we were looking at birds while riding and almost went down a steep berm. Once you go over the edge of the berm, gravity will make sure you finish the trip.

Ready for anything. Only the dedicated need apply.

We had a good day. Temperatures started in the 40s but rose to the 60s. Did over 10 miles of biking. For new species, both of us got marsh wren, semi-palmated sandpiper, black-crowned night heron, common moorhen, ruddy turnstone, osprey, whimbrel, bobolink, savanna sparrow, and black-bellied plover. I got a ruby-throated hummingbird and Lise got purple martins. We missed a couple species known to be in the area so we will be making the two-hour drive down there at least one more time.

An eagle nest the size of a compact car and the adult eagles.

Cooperative black-crowned night heron.

Got in a little local birding this past week too. We both got black terns at some local ponds and Lise got a Swainson’s thrush at Fenner Nature Center. That brings our totals up to 182 species for me and 174 species for Lise.

Big doings this weekend. Water polo regional tournament and ……”the prom”.

They did so-so in the regional. They won enough to make it to the State championships, but they also lost to a team that they have beaten twice before. Molly did good. She’s only in her second year but she is the first substitute on the varsity team. She got in a good bit of play time and she scored two goals in the regional matches. She also had some assists and defensive steals. One of the girls Molly had to guard was a high school All-American and Molly did right good against her. I believe she only scored once while Molly was guarding her.

The regional was down in Saline (where we got chimney swifts) and the same day as the prom. On the hour drive back from the tournament Molly was primping up in the car. Ian, her prom date and also a water polo player, came to the tournament and provided logistical support in the transition from water rat to something a tad bit classier. Ian has known Molly and us since kindergarten so I didn’t need to write his name on a bullet and show it to him.

Loading up the mobile beauty parlor.

Ian holding the nail polish coming back from the tournament. Beauty parlor at 70 mph.

Before (Craig Wozena photo)

After. Don’t ya think they clean up right nice.

Moo and Ian, ready for the prom.

“The futures so bright, I gotta wear shades.” Pat McDonald, Timbuk3.

The beautiful people.

The paparazzi.

Ian making life difficult for the paparazzi.

Molly got in at 4:30 AM, after a tournament and the prom, and woke up less than an hour after we did. There was a time I was a hard charger too. Now I’m hardly charging. I don’t know what happened but I seem to like checking out my eyelids for light leaks a lot more than hearty partying.

Except for the chimney swifts we got during lunch in Saline, weekend birding was pretty much out of the picture. We got in a little Thursday and Friday morning before work. Barb told us about a nearby drying up farm pond with a bunch of shorebirds. We scurried out there and got dunlin, semipalmated plover, least sandpiper and a real treat, great views of American pipits. We also hit a couple other local spots and got eastern wood peewee, indigo bunting, magnolia warbler, Tennessee warbler, white-crowned sparrow, red-eyed vireo, white-eyed vireo, warbling vireo, American redstart, Wilson’s warbler and chestnut-sided warbler. The Wilson’s and chestnut-sided are migrant species that we missed last year. Really good to get those two. The white-eyed vireo was a real treat. This is a very rare bird up here. It popped up right in front of us and we got great looks at it. Then it flew off and we couldn’t relocate it. This is a bird we should have posted on the listserve but I was uncomfortable doing that since we couldn’t relocate it. Plus I got sidetracked at work and forgot about it until later in the day.  

So right now the Michigan count stands at 170 for me and 162 for Lise. That’s a jump of 18 species for me and 24 for Lise since last post. Getting eighty more species is going to be challenging. We are probably running out of time for the migrants passing through this area. Pretty soon we’ll have to switch focus to chasing the summer residents that we don’t have yet. That means some trips around Michigan and chasing rarities.

This past week I got to play in Barb and Ellen’s wetland a little too. The gray tree frogs were partying hearty. Frogs and toads should be finishing up their mating business pretty soon. They got to get their eggs in the water so the young have time to go through the metamorphosis cycle and mature yet this year. But now that it has finally turned warm here, the dragonflies should be coming out. Another pleasant distraction even if it takes me away from the birding goal.

Gray tree frogs trying to hook up. Giving it their best, “Hey baby.”

Not much new to report, despite the fact we are in the middle of the spring migration. Lots of stuff going on but you need to be out there to catch it. Mobility was a bit of an issue the past week. Lise was in Delaware with Stefan so Molly and I were sharing the Subaru. Which means I had to cycle to work. Between work, water polo, and limited mobility, birding was catch as catch can.

Tuesday, May 7, Barb and I chased a Eurasian widgeon at Trinkle Marsh, about an hour from here. It was seen in the company of two American widgeon, for several days and the evening before we went chasing. Apparently it was seen by many people and at one point cars were blocking the road by the marsh. Unfortunately it flew the coop during the night before we could get there. A day later a Eurasian widgeon in the company of two American widgeon was reported down at Erie Marsh, near the Ohio border. At least I did get my first of year common yellowthroat and eastern kingbird while at the marsh.

Friday I got in a little work related birding. I’ve been building a little application for hand-held computers so we can capture bird point count information electronically. No more paper field forms and spending time processing them. A co-worker and I went to Fenner to test the application. I got my Baltimore oriole and ovenbird for the year while on the job. Can’t beat getting paid to have fun.

Saturday there was an all-day water polo tournament down in Ann Arbor. The tournament was right across the street from Furstenberg Nature Area, a popular Ann Arbor birding spot on the Huron River. Had I played my cards right I could have gotten in some prime time birding. That, however, would require forethought and planning on my part, something that apparently goes away with sleep deprivation. I got in a little late afternoon time between matches and got my first of year blue-gray gnatcatcher.

Before Lise came home on Sunday I went out and about for a couple hours. Got catbird, black and white warbler, rose-breasted grosbeak, least flycatcher, purple martin, and northern rough-winged swallow.

Last night was the National Honor Society induction ceremony. For Molly, not me. I never had to worry about getting in my NHS volunteer hours. Molly went right from polo practice, dressed nicely and wearing her perfume, Eau de Chlorine. There can’t possibly be a living germ on her body. Unless she’s breeding some chlorine resistant super germ that’s about to be unleashed on humanity. The ceremony was nice but as one of her friends said, “One more candle and this would be a cult thing.”

This evening Lise and I went chasing grasshopper sparrow and Henslow’s sparrow at a Township park near here. We got the Henslow’s and also house wren. Henslow’s is a real good one to get since they are a threatened species and fairly rare in Michigan.

So right now our Michigan totals stand at 152 for me and 138 for Lise. I should point out that her count for the Delaware trip was 131 species so her total 2013 list is a bit higher than mine. I really haven’t gotten anything out of the ordinary that she hasn’t gotten so her Michigan list will close in on my pretty soon.

Percentage wise, I’m at 60.8% of the goal and Lise is at 55.2% with 45.2% of the year gone.

The next couple weeks could be critical. We are missing a whole host of warblers that migrate through this area for parts north. We only have another week, maybe two, to score on them. Otherwise we have to get them on their south bound journey when they’re a lot harder to find.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Spring is officially here. Fat Boy, the world’s largest groundhog, has crawled out from under my neighbor’s shed. He spent the winter sleeping off a gut load of my garden tomatoes. He has risen and he’s looking for more. He doesn’t walk or run. His movement is more like a continuous wave of hairy fat, rolling across the landscape. Like a furry tidal wave, heading for my garden. I don’t know what he plans to live off of until I get the garden planted. Probably small children. They go up to pet the adorable creature and he pulls them in like Brer’ Fox’s tar baby.

Signs of spring – tree swallows.

Signs of spring – turkeys doing their hey baby strut.

Signs of spring – not much gaudier than a male wood duck.

SIgns of spring – toads doing their hey baby call.

Another sign of Spring is Fido’s digging craze. She loves being outside. Usually when we let her out, she gets her bearings then starts running in some direction. We let her go a distance then bring her back. She sits for a couple minutes, trying to fathom how she got back to the starting point. Then she takes off in the same direction again. Occasionally she’ll just wander around exploring, but usually she has a heading of interest. I’m heading south by southeast and get out of my way. But come spring, all she wants to do is dig. She scratches at the back door to get out. We let her out, she finds her happy place, and starts on a new trade route to China. This goes on for a couple weeks.

Heading for China under the patio. This was several hours of work.

Along with spring comes the big bird migration and girl’s water polo. Right now, water polo is winning. Last weekend (April 27 & 28) we had a two day tournament in Rockford. This past week there were home games Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday night. The week capped off with another overnight tournament in East Grand Rapids. Needless to say, birding has suffered.

Molly on the offensive.

Molly on the defense.

Molly doing the sprint at the start of the period. She won.

We have gotten some birding in though. On the Rockford trip Lise got a broad-winged hawk while driving at 70 mph. I was doing Suduko. I did get a broad-winged at Fenner Nature Center Thursday morning. I also got palm, Nashville, and yellow warblers the same day. Today at Fenner I got Swainson’s thrush and warbling vireo. While I was at Fenner, every other birder in the county was at Harris Nature Center, looking at a Kentucky warbler. I went chasing it later in the day without any luck. I did get a blue-winged warbler though, and my first dragonfly of the year, a common green darner.

That brings my Michigan total up to 138 and Lise’s up to 131. Lise is with her brother Stefan, birding in Delaware right now. My Michigan list may be higher than hers but I have a feeling her year list will be way better than mine. There are kinds of crazy things in Michigan right now. Kentucky warbler locally, Smith’s longspurs, Eurasian widgeon, eared grebe, Franklin’s gull, yellow-headed blackbird…….. Unfortunately serious chasing probably isn’t in the picture for the next week or so.

One other important thing to mention. In my last post I stated that we saw glossy ibis down at Erie Marsh. I misspoke.  They were white-faced ibis, not glossy ibis. A birding faux pas. For this they’ll probably make me count starlings on the Christmas Bird Count.

Today Lise dragged me down to Toledo, Ohio to view a couple properties she will be working on. One place was almost as classy as the area of Detroit she took me to last year. I believe the idea was for me to jump in front of any bullets headed her way.

So inviting.

The neighbors.

The park to be.

Toledo strikes me as a sorry kind of place. One of these places that has seen better days. Around 1835 Michigan and Ohio fought the great Toledo War over an area called the Toledo Strip. Apparently there was a lot of name calling and firing of militia muskets in the air but only one real casualty.  A Michigan deputy was stabbed with a pen knife by an Ohioan named Two Stickney when the deputy tried to arrest Two’s father, Major Stickney. Two had two brothers that I’m assuming were named One and Three. The upshot of the great war was that Ohio got Toledo and Michigan got the Upper Peninsula. I’d say Michigan won.

 Where would you rather be?

Pure Ohio – Toledo

Pure Michigan – UP

Pure Michigan – UP

Pure Michigan – UP

Coming back we stopped in Michigan at an area called Erie Marsh. This area always has a lot of good Michigan rarities but it is a couple hours from Lansing. Glossy ibis was reported there yesterday and since we were going right past we stopped. We got the ibis as well as double-crested cormorant, Eastern towhee, barn swallow, spotted sandpiper, Caspian tern, Forster’s tern, great egret. The ibis was a really good Michigan bird to get.

Tuesday morning we did Fenner before I went to work. Warblers are drifting in. We got black-throated green warbler, pine warbler, and field sparrow. I had to change clothes in the front seat of the car again but this time we took the Subaru, not the van. I felt like a chained Houdini trying to get out of a box sinking in the water.

The count now stands at 131 for me and 130 for Lise. I’m at 52.4% of the goal and Lise is at 52.0% with 31.51% of the year gone. We are on the cusp of the Spring migration so numbers should be picking up pretty quick. I think we will get to ~200 and then have to really start working for the last 50.

Another busy week in terms of water polo. Regular meets on Tuesday at Grand Blanc and at home on Wednesday.  Friday and Saturday we were north of Chicago for a two-day tournament. Got back about midnight last night.  They won the regular matches and won one of four tournament matches. In the losses our girls were quite competitive too.  The tournament showing was actually quite good.  The Illinois teams, a couple of which are private schools that recruit players, essentially invite Michigan teams over to serve as punching bags. Our girls upset their plans a bit. Our goalie was called for brutality. No one had ever seen that before.

Molly and our goalie on deck.

Our motel had a new example of attempts to keep stupid people from doing stupid things.  A little sign reminding you that hanging your clothes on the sprinkler will, not may but will, cause flooding. For starters, you would need to be about seven feet tall to hang your clothes up there. Or pull the ironing board out of the closet and stand on it. I can’t help but feel this is inviting trouble. Some guy is going to say, “hey ya’ll, watch this.” Maybe that’s the idea. Get a bunch all the dumb people in the room and drown them. Except for the guy standing on the ironing board.

A little reminder, just in case you’re seven feet tall and want to hang your clothes on the sprinkler.

We did get a little birding in during the week. Took advantage of some schedule flexibility to hit a nearby flooded field before work on Tuesday. Got greater yellowlegs and Wilson’s snipe. I was real happy with the snipe. That was a problem species last year. People were seeing them around here on a regular basis but I never got them. I finally saw them in Florida, in the last couple days of the year. Later Tuesday we got a hermit thrush in our yard. A new one for the year and for our yard.

After sitting in a tournament and a long drive that finished at midnight, we were pretty wasted today. There are some really interesting birds a couple hours to the east or the west of here but we opted for a laid back day. We took a short walk at a local park and got ruby-crowned kinglet, yellow-rumped warbler, and meadowlark. We then adjourned to a local establishment for some lunch and billiards with Molly and Lindsay. After that I came home and took a three-hour nap. No chasing yellow-headed blackbirds, cattle egrets, or white-faced ibis. I was snoring loud enough to scare children.

So right now the yearly total for Michigan stand at 120 for me (48.0% of the goal) and 118 (47.2% of the goal) for Lise.                                

One of my editors pointed out a grave error in my last post. I incorrectly stated that the Ottoman Empire was in power, and two World Wars have been fought, since the Cubs last won a pennant. To downtrodden heartsick Cubbies’ fans everywhere, I sincerely apologize. I mistook pennant for the World Series. It has been over a century since the Cubs have won the World Series, not since they won a pennant.

In the first half of the last century the Cubs have in fact won pennants. They were doing OK about the time Einstein was formulating relativity. How could I have forgotten Tinkers to Evers to Chance? Anyway, the Cub’s last hurrah was around the close of WWII and involved that ugly goat incident. It’s pretty much been dashed hopes and heartache since then. But hey, there’s always next year.

We were promised clear weather and temperatures in the mid-fifties today so Lise and I went out to the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. We were lied to about the weather but at least it was above freezing and only a tiny bit of sleet fell. We got six new species; lesser yellowlegs, Eastern phoebe, tree swallow, golden-crowned kinglet, fox sparrow, and green-winged teal. We missed a few others that have been reported there but it was great to get out. The mammals were out in full force. Muskrats were spaced out about every 30 yards along the berm we were walking.

Muskrat

Ground hog, waiting for me to put in my garden. He’s only an hour drive away.

Turkey vultures waiting for something to die.

On the road up to the refuge there is a combination gas station and liquor store that also sells Lotto tickets. All they’re missing is gun sales and Cubs tickets for true one-stop shopping. They’ve recently added legal services, with a drive-up window. From the gas station clientele I’m guessing white collar crime isn’t their specialty. I’m betting they can help you beat a deer poaching rap though.

Welcome to the firm of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe. Why spend a bundle when you’re going to lose anyway?