Author: turndoozie

We did the three-hour drive over to Indiana Dunes State Park to check out the interpreter Brad’s saw-whet owl banding operation. The trip started in what has lately become typical Schools’ birding trip weather conditions. Nice enough to start followed by biblical rains. I suggest buying ark stocks.

A birding trip with Ed and Lise.

Anyway, the weather turned nicer by the time we got there. We did a nice little walk waiting for dark and got some birding in. Interestingly, we had a flock of fox sparrows. Typically we see individual fox sparrows and only occasionally at that. We saw more fox sparrows in 15 minutes than we have seen in the past 15 years. Had an early migrating Northern shrike, a Lincoln’s sparrow, swamp sparrow, golden crowned and ruby crowned kinglets (not just yellow and red crowned but golden and ruby crowned mind you), brown creeper, red-breasted nuthatches, bunches of white crowned and white throated sparrows, and all the other usual suspects.

Dunes is a nice place,

Once it turned dark we did the owl gig. Brad’s banding effort is part of the Northwest Indiana Migratory Bird Association  (http://nimbabirds.weebly.com/) program. Trapping the owls entails using mist nets, loose baggy nets strung in an X shaped pattern. A call is used to lure the owls to the nets. The call is loud and can be heard pretty far from the nets. A team of volunteers check the nets on a timed cycle. The nets are designed to entangle the birds without harming anything except their dignity. The volunteers have to disentangle the owls without harming the owl or the fairly expensive nets. I did this with neo-tropical songbirds about 15 years ago and it can be really challenging  to get the birds out without causing any harm.

Opening mist nets.

Lise opening mist nets.

Brad explaining the nets.

The mesh.

Once removed from the nets, the owls are put in a bag and transported back to the nature center for processing and banding. They are measured, weighed, sexed and banded. The band has a unique number that identifies the bird and aids in identifying the individual wherever they go. I have a coworker that banded a piping plover in Michigan, saw the same bird on the Georgia coast, then saw the same bird back in Michigan the following season.

I am soooo humiliated.

I will get you for this!

Untangling owls. That’s a crochet hook in her mouth.

Untangling owls. That’s a crochet hook in her mouth.

Free at last.

Our baby. #0924-35997.

In the bag you go.

The night we were there Brad incorporated the banding effort into a public program. He had over 150 people show up wanting to see an owl. Pretty gutsy doing any public program that depends on wild animals showing up on schedule. First of all, this isn’t Mutual of Omaha ’s Wild Kingdom. This is real time and most animals don’t have the schedule. Brad started with an informational  powerpoint program presented by a really sharp 13-year-old young lady. Not many 13-year-olds would be willing to do a public program in front of 150 people. Not many adults want to do a program in front of 150 people.

Then the volunteers would bring back the netted owls and Brad would process them in front of the crowd. He has a camera setup that projects the processing up on a screen and shares it on the web. While Brad was processing, people were logged in watching the operation along with the live audience. This was pretty cool. Eventually the birds are released and fly away, having contributed to science that may help conserve their species and to the entertainment of a host of park campers.

Processing before a crowd. The young lady in the background gave a presentation to 150+ people.

Processing.

Measuring.

Live feed.

Brad’s operation is pretty impressive, especially considering it is run on volunteers and donations. He and his volunteers are doing science that expands our knowledge while incorporating and educating the general public at the same time. 

This was as much fun as watching people at Chicago’s Bean. It’s all about the interactions people have with something. Everyone wants to touch it. So, it doesn’t hurt that he’s using adorable little owls. He probably would not have the same response if he was banding banana slugs. These things have a patent on cute. You would have to be a Nazi or a Republican to not be enamored with these little guys. OK, they’re actually little gals. Eighty percent of the owls they catch are females because the males are still up north on territories. What is important is that while he was gathering research data, everyone that got to see these adorable balls of feathers was infused with the idea that this is something worth conserving. This went way past entertaining people stuck in their campers. These are the kind of moments that help kids pick careers.

Crowd pleaser.

These are the moments that change people’s lives.

For $25 you can adopt an owl. These donations fund the banding program. Things like mist nets and game callers don’t come cheap. Brad has the pictures of  “orphan” owls that need adopting outside the program room. Just pull off the picture and write the check. The staff will take care of the rest. We are the proud adoptive parents of 0924-35997, the bird we helped pull out of the nets. OK, we helped by staying the hell out of the way of the volunteers that know what they are doing. Our little darling is a hatch year female that weighs 90 grams.

This is an effort worth supporting. If you have any questions contact Brad at bumgbj01@hotmail.com.

Kudo’s to Brad and his volunteers for making a difference! I thank you.

Looks like it is officially wintertime by the birding calendar. We had juncos show up at our feeders. Time to switch from gin and tonic to hot buttered rum.

Birding has been slow, at least for us. We have only gotten out once this past week. Even then we were chasing a lesser black-backed gull someone else had reported. Not getting out to see what we can see.

Others have been getting out and seeing some pretty neat things. The Detroit hawk watch reported 77,597 raptors coming through since fall migration started. I think the only break they have taken was to watch the Detroit Tigers send the New York Yankees into retreat. People around here are happier than Robert E. Lee watching the Yankees turn tail. If General Lee had the Tigers pitching crew at Gettysburg history may have been different. Instead of benching A-Rod maybe the Yankees should have started pumping him with steroids again. Maybe get some pointers from Lance Armstrong on undetectable doping.

One individual in the Ann Arbor area has been getting out birding and posting his results on the local listserve. He’s been doing a big year in just Superior Township with the added constraint that he doesn’t use a car. He either walks or travels by bicycle. Kind of an Amish thing. At last count he was at 186 species. A pretty good count for 36 square miles without any coastline or the use of the internal combustion engine.
                   
This weekend we are going over to Dunes State Park in Indiana. The naturalist has a saw-whet owl banding station set up. Hopefully we will see adorable little owls and maybe can catch a few late migrants too.

We didn’t get in much birding this week but we did get in a swim meet. Molly did three events. She got a third in an individual event and was on two first place relay teams. On her birthday no less. While we were gone some of her friends decorated our house for her birthday. They needed a ladder and knew the combination to the garage so they helped themselves to our ladder to finish the job. Molly came home to find a 6 foot Thor cutout in the doorway. Thor and his big hammer.

We mere mortals just don’t stack up.

This hasn’t been our weekend for birding. Either we have incredibly poor timing or we pissed off some great birding god. Maybe Roger Tory Peterson’s spirit is mad because we started using a Sibley’s guide.

Yesterday we chased a red-necked grebe at Lake Lansing. It was reported Friday afternoon so we were there at first light Saturday morning. Beautiful sunrise.  As we were scanning the lake I noticed a rainbow right behind us. Rainbows are formed by light refracting through water droplets in the atmosphere. In this case, water droplets in the atmosphere right above us. Big water droplets that decided to quit fighting gravity. No leprechaun, no pot of gold, no red-necked grebe. Just running to the van from a cold downpour that turned into a steady day long rain.

The first and the last of the sun on Saturday.

The smudges are “droplets” in the atmosphere above us.

Today we went down to Ann Arbor for a memorial. Breezy day but nice and warm. Tornado kind of warm. We decided to check out an area where I thought we could get American pipits and maybe a Wilson’s snipe. Since we were in dress clothes so we had to pull over behind some barn to change clothes in the van. So far so good. No hidden security cameras or police patrols checking us out. Honest officer, we’re looking for birds. Can I put my pants on before stepping out of the car?

Then we drove around checking out fields, but it was too windy for small birds like pipits to be flying around. So we foolishly left the safety of the van to go traipsing down a trail. My idea and not the best one I’ve ever had. We got just far enough away from the van to make things interesting when the sky opened up. We’re talking biblical. Forty days and forty nights, Noah get your ark, kind of thing. Johnstown Flood water levels. We beat a hasty retreat for home with no new species for the weekend.

A lovely day birding with Ed and Lise.

We did have some excitement for the weekend. This was the Okemos High School homecoming. Molly and some buddies went to the dance. He bought a shirt to match her dress. I stayed home, cleaning my pistols.

Homecoming.

We chased the Eurasian collared dove Saturday. Molly opted out of a grueling day birding and swam 3.5 miles at swim practice instead. She just isn’t tough enough to handle something as rigorous as birding.

We took a little drive down to the Indiana border and met up with our friend Fred who took us to another Fred’s house. A couple from the Detroit area showed up at the same time. It started with the usual, “it was here 20 minutes ago….” But, we hung around and sure enough it popped up. We also had great views of a Lincoln’s sparrow in Fred’s yard. Not a species I’ve seen too often.

How to make a collared dove fly away. Get out the camera.

After Fred’s house we stopped at the ever popular Kinderhook sewage treatment plant. I was hoping for a snipe but there wasn’t enough marshy habitat. Nice mix of ducks moving in but no snipe.

Kinderhook sewage treatment plant. Sometimes it’s hard to explain why I find birding enjoyable.

When I was in Boy Scouts we would do the old snipe hunt trick on new kids at summer camp. Take them out to some field at night with a bag and tell them the rest of us were going to walk through the field and scare the snipes toward them. Then they could catch the snipes with the bag. Naturally we would go back to the camp and leave them out there. Must have been a more innocent time. Most of us didn’t even know what a snipe was and I can’t recall anybody ever questioned why we were catching them. It’s just what you did.    

So one time we took some poor sap out there and dumped him in the dark. While we were back at camp roasting something over the fire he came running back into camp yelling, “I got one, I got one.” Since none of us actually knew what a snipe was, yet alone seen one, everyone started crowding around him. As I was running down to check it out I saw a circle of scouts all lean inward as he emptied his bag, then suddenly they all fell backward yelling. Somehow our new scout managed to catch a skunk. And we did know what a skunk was. Casualties were fairly low. One or two guys had some clothes they needed to burn and a tent got some spray. The skunk walked away unhindered and we ended the annual snipe hunt forever.

Coming back from the collared dove hunt we stopped for lunch at Schuler’s in historic Marshall, MI. Schuler’s has been an inn or restaurant for over a hundred years. Really good food and worth the trip.

I forgot to run this by the head editor. I fixed the percentages error

Finally got a screech owl this morning. Went out to get the paper and the owl was calling away from the neighbor’s yard. Lise heard it too. Now I’m at 310 species, Lise at 296 and a combined count of 311. I’m at 88.5% of the goal, Lise at 84.5% but we are up to 75.4% of the year gone. And it ain’t coming back. Tick, tick, tick, tick……..

The red line keeps getting closer.

Not likely we will get too many new species around here for a couple weeks. Migrants will be coming through but you really need to be in the right place at the right time. Warblers are still coming through but they are tough to find. Think little yellow birds flitting around in yellow leaves and not vocalizing to help track the varmints down. Also way up in the canopy right over your head so you need to bend over backwards looking through binoculars.  That loud popping sound you hear is the sound of my lower back muscles ripping loose.

Lise and I went for a walk Sunday afternoon and got great looks at black-throated greens and a black-throated blue. These names sound like something out of Monty Python. “Beautiful plumage these Norwegian Blue parrots.” We already have both species but its always nice to see them. The black-throated blue was at eye level too. For once we didn’t need to be bent backwards looking in the tree canopy.

At home we some put water out and the birds found it within minutes. We have red-breasted nuthatches at our feeders. Fun little birds but we already have them on the list. What we need to have  show up in our yard is a pygmy nuthatch. It would only be about a thousand miles out of its range. Or we need a quick trip to the Southern Rockies or the Sierra Nevada to find them. We had a white-crowned sparrow show up too. Unlikely it will stick around too long but always fun to see.

No swim tournaments this weekend so we could take a day to chase things. There’s a Eurasian collared dove at some guy’s house down in Barry County. We heard about it from Fred but it wasn’t on any listserve. Unfortunately it showed up on a listserve today so word is out. It may get a bit crowded at this poor person’s house this weekend. He wanted to be called before anyone came and had his phone number posted. That may not have been wise. That’s like asking telemarketers to call at dinner time because that’s when you’re home.

Then there is the Nelson’s sharp-tailed sparrow. Apparently some have been found in grassy wetlands around here. They are only found where there are grasses growing through water. The birds sit real tight and you almost have to step on them to have the flush. Some people drag a rope along the ground between themselves to help flush the birds. When the birds do flush they only stay up for a few seconds. Getting one to perch for a 10 second look at them is considered great. For this 10 second look you need to expect to spend “a couple hours getting wet, muddy, and tired walking through difficult terrain. Expect to fall down a number of times.” Let’s see, getting a root canal, attending a staff meeting, listening to presidential campaign coverage, chasing a Nelson’s,…. hmmmm.

After a long dry spell we finally got something we chased after. Since Saturday there have been reports of snow geese and a greater white-fronted goose in the MSU fields about a mile from us. The snow geese and white-fronted are mingled in with thousands of Canada geese flying around the area. Morning and evening we have dutifully been hitting spots where we thought the geese were. Each time we didn’t see them and figured they flew out. Then we would get back and see on the listserve that someone else saw them. A literal wild goose chase.

Then we found out that they were in a field accessible by a road posted as “MSU Research, No Trespassing”. Apparently the sign is a bluff and birders drive past it. Sure enough, this morning we got both a white phase and a blue phase snow goose within minutes of blowing past the no trespassing sign. We didn’t see the white-fronted this morning or when I did a quick check this evening.

Lise breaking the rules.

Snow goose ignoring the “Research, no trespassing” sign.

There are thousands of Canada geese around here. It seems the geese are a lot more common now than when I first started birding a few decades ago. A lot of people see them as a nuisance species, defiling golf courses and beaches with droppings. I still kind of like them, especially when I see thousands of them lifting off in the morning or evening. Long strings of geese, calling and flying in every direction with the early morning or evening light behind them. Something in that always moves me. I remember as a kid loving to see the Vs of migrating geese, heading somewhere while I was stuck in Lebanon, Pa.

(quote added by Lise)

“One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring.”
― Aldo Leopold

Wild geese are an unofficial symbol of mercenaries. It goes back to a period of time in Irish history, from the late 1500s to the middle of the 1700s. Irishmen left Ireland to serve as mercenaries in the armies of Europe. Usually armies that were fighting the British. In Ireland it was referred to as the Flight of the Wild Geese. Eventually the term “the wild geese” became synonymous with mercenaries in general.

Don’t know how much birding we will get in the next couple days. Swim meet Thursday night in Grand Ledge and a tournament in Grand Rapids this weekend. One of Molly’s events is the 500 meter. Competitively swimming twenty nonstop pool lengths. I might be able to swim 20 nonstop lengths but the contents of my stomach would be trailing behind me. Kind of like chumming for fish.

Off to the races.

So three strikes and you’re out. This was a three strikes week.

Lesser black-backed gull was reported among the 450 ring-billed gulls on Lake Lansing late Sunday evening. Monday morning we were there at first light but the gulls had already left the lake. Went back at ~4:00 with no sign of the gull. Then we found out that the gulls only start coming in about an hour from sunset. Back we went, staying until dark. Lots of ring-billed gulls but no lesser black-backed. Turns out our friend Barb was at the other end of the lake, scanning the same flock, with the same results we had.

Strike two was chasing a golden-winged warbler. Wednesday morning someone reported it at Hawk Island Park. He sent the message at about 9:15 AM and I saw the message at 9:30. Lise came to get me and we headed over to Hawk Island. We got there not more than an hour after the other person left.

These are part of the detailed instructions he gave for finding the bird. “Continue a bit more, and you’ll see two yellow signs on a stand-alone wooden gate that say “Construction Area Do Not Enter.” (Beware, these signs are everywhere, so look for the little gate.) Enter anyway, and about 20-30 steps around the corner you’ll have a view of some thickets and trees, and that’s where the bird was.” So we broke the law and entered anyway. Despite the thrill of getting away with breaking the law we didn’t see the bird. All we could hear was the big machinery building the Mount Doom sledding hill.How did that song go, “I fought the law and the law won….”

Do not enter for fear of death. Not one but two do not enter signs.

Mount Doom sledding hill. The back is a sheer drop to your death.

Coming back we took a quick pass through Fenner Nature Center. Not too much in the way of birds but we did find some honking big puff ball mushrooms. These are some of the safe and easy wild edibles to find. They can’t be mistaken for death angel mushrooms or anything nasty like that. When you slice these guys and fry them in butter they taste like fried butter. What could be better than that. An order of scrapple maybe? There is some similarity. Both of them will live in your aorta for the foreseeable future.

There’s a fungus among us.

Then for strike three there’s the bird who’s name can’t be spoken. I’ll give a hint. It’s a little owl that screeches a lot. Barb and I went to her friend’s house where the owls allegedly come into the yard. It was too windy and we didn’t see or hear any owls. Strike three. At least these were local strikes. We didn’t fly across the country just to strike out.

We got out a couple times this week but the species count hasn’t gone up much. This weekend we got blackpoll warbler and gray cheeked thrush. Lise was down in Indiana and got Carolina chickadee. She probably got Carolina chickadee in Delaware but we didn’t record it. It’s hard to believe she got the brown-headed nuthatch without getting a Carolina chickadee. So now the counts stand at 308 for me, 295 for Lise, and a combined count of 310. I’m at 88% of the goal and Lise is at 84%. Old Man Time is closing the gap though. As of today 71% of the year is history.

Percentage of our goal compared to percentage of the year gone by.

We need to be doing better than two species a week to hit the target. We’re paying for not getting more warblers in the spring. We have been getting out but it’s a lot more work for way fewer species. This is the peak of the fall warbler migration here. It’s a lot tougher than spring migration though. In the spring they’re all spiffy in their courting plumage. Males are nice and gaudy, and they vocalize. A lot. Makes it much easier to find and identify them. 

Now their plumage is a lot less distinctive and they don’t vocalize. Beaten down by parenthood I guess. To add to our woes, they have foliage to hide behind and there are first year birds with yet another plumage variation. You see a flash of motion  and have a split second to hopefully get enough details for an ID. I should have stuck with sudoku as a hobby.  Granted, fall warblers would be a lot easier if we were more familiar with the fall variations. That’s a nice way of saying we’re lousy fall season birders.

So we spent the weekend, wandering a few local haunts with our friend Barb. One of our target species was gray-cheeked thrush. They migrate through here, on their way to parts north or south, depending on the season. People have been seeing them in the area, usually right before we got there. Saw a lot of Swainson’s thrushes but try as we might, we just wouldn’t turn into a gray cheeked. They all had “buffy spectacles,” something missing on a gray-cheeked. After a frustrating and fruitless morning we threw in the towel. While fressen down lunch Barb called with the news that she was watching a gray-cheeked in her yard. A quick ten minute ride to her house, followed by about two minutes of waiting, and Boom Baby, a gray-cheeked thrush. Our day would have been a lot easier had we just done a breakfast brunch at Barb’s.

Part of our little endeavor this year is finding great new natural areas and birding places. This evening we hit one of those great natural areas, the MSU sod farm. We got a fairly rare species, buff-breasted sandpipers. A new species for the year and a lifer at that. All on the world’s largest putting green. I should be offended but it was a lifer and it counts.

Buff breasted sandpipers on the world’s largest putting green.

The sod farm is only about a mile from us. The buff-breasteds were posted on the listserve yesterday afternoon and we ran over as soon as we saw the message. A number of other people were there too and naturally no one could find them.

We left the binos and scope in car thinking we may try early this morning before work. It slipped our minds and I went on to work. Then I saw a message from someone saying the birds were present in this morning but flew off. We figured we would try a new place for birding and then swing by the sod farm on the way home, hoping the birds would return in the evening. We got to the sod farm about 7:00 PM and a couple people were already looking for them. Someone said they were there an hour ago but then disappeared. We figured, great, had we gone there first we would have seen them. As we were dejectedly scanning the area the sprinkler system came on and I saw something fly out. It was different than the dozens of killdeer that were there. Sure enough, we finally got the little devils.

We got some quick looks through the scope and then shared the scope with other birders. Then the birds flushed up and we figured, that was it, just quick views of a rare life bird. Then the birds actually flew closer to us and landed. This isn’t something that happens with shorebirds. It’s like peace in the Middle East or the second coming. Not something I expect to see in my lifetime.

Buff-breasted sandpiper – right there. Finally getting my just rewards for being such a good boy.

The weather has been nice the past couple days so we did get out to some slightly classier places than the sod farm. Lots of things gearing up for migration and moving through. Really tough birding because the birds don’t vocalize and there’s a lot of foliage for them to hide behind. No new species but a few good looks at a couple old friends. Some dragonflies are still flying and a few other interesting things are out and about.

Ruby Meadowhawk.

Grasshopper, unknown type.

Praying mantis. Sure she’s a cutie but you can’t go losing your head over every girl you see.

I saw a snake eating a toad. My first thought was, alright, great pictures. I really don’t mind the great circle of life thing. Big things eat little things, that’s the way it goes. Then the toad made one of those squeaky little toady distress calls. I couldn’t do it. Molly went through a series of frog and toad pets. I don’t like anthropomorphizing but those things had personalities. That little squeak turned me to putty. Too late to save the toad and I just had to walk away.

Slow birding week, mostly because we haven’t gotten out much. Lise allegedly heard a screech owl in the neighborhood. I’ve been going back nightly but haven’t heard anything.

This morning we went up to Maple River State Game Area and got a yellow-throated vireo. Number 305 for me and 291 for Lise with a combined count of 307. Also saw some of the usual suspects plus warbling vireo, three immature eagles, osprey, harrier, kingfisher, wood ducks, sandhill cranes, great blue herons, and a flock of several hundred various swallow species. A real treat was watching a river otter swimming around.

There was also these swarms of these strange bugs or something swimming around on the river. I’ve never seen anything like these things.  Kind of weird looking and I wasn’t about to go in the water with them. They may be some kind of mutant piranhas that see me as a side of scrapple.

Weird bugs.

We were thinking of going further afield but I’ve been down with what appears to be some nasty allergy issues. Lise had the same condition last week. At Maple River we were walking a berm that was covered with ragweed. Ragweed pollen looks like a mace, a round ball with spikes coming out of it. Something you whack your opponent with. We ended up with it all over us. Apparently this is one of the main allergens in North America. Lucky me. The real kicker is the genus name for ragweeds is Ambrosia, which in Greek legend was the food of the gods that gave them immortality. Whoever gave ragweed the name Ambrosia had to be some kind of a sicko. I wish that person immortality with an allergy induced sinus headache and an empty box of Claratin.

Molly is back in school and doing swim team. Now every Thursday, and a lot of Saturdays, we will be sitting in hot balconies breathing in chlorine fumes. She did pretty good this last Thursday. She was anchor for her lane in the 400 freestyle relay. Her lane was in about fifth place when she went in the water and she brought them up to third place. By 0.11 seconds, but enough to give her team the third place points. Today at practice she was named swimmer of the week and given a pink leopard pattern derby for being “obnoxiously athletic.”  I could be so lucky to be “obnoxiously athletic.”

Kicking butt.

Cool hat, hot girl.