Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years

Spent a great day birding with our friend Barb. Barb is doing a “better than last year” year. We started on the Pere Marquette Park jetty in Muskegon. A lovely day to be at the beach, on a jetty extending out into Lake Michigan. Nineteen degrees, windy, and snow.

The only people as dedicated as we were, were the fishermen. I would say they were nuts but one of them asked if the purple sandpipers were still around. Anyone that asks that can’t be too crazy.

Thanks to Barb’s sharp eyes we added purple sandpipers and a horned grebe to our list. Also added red-breasted mergansers, some very handsome long-tailed ducks, white-winged scoters, and ring-billed gull. I’m sure our faces will thaw out eventually.

Then it was off to the ever-popular wastewater treatment plant. Still 19 degrees, and some snow. Occasionally, the sun actually dared to try and peek out.

Well worth it though. Another great look at a snowy owl. Highlight for new birds was a mature golden eagle and six bald eagles. Also saw shoveler, black duck, green-wing teal, gadwall, and some just too cute ruddy ducks.

You just didn’t want to slip backwards into a pool of who knows what.  This place was huge. Very large pools and a lot of fields. It is a great birding area and but the amusing irony is that there are no bathrooms available.

After a great day of birding it was dinner at DeLucas on the west side of Lansing. Not too many places where you can get three dinners, an appetizer, and a bottle of wine for $53. With plenty of leftovers in doggy bags.

Our list is now up to 58 species. This puts us up to February 27 using the bird-a-day metric.

From Lise:
While working out at the gym on Friday, our friend, Shawn, asked what our weekend plans were. I said that Ed was taking me on a date to the Muskegon wastewater treatment plant. “What kind of wine goes with that?” he asked.

No new species to report since last weekend. We have seen most of the species that we could expect to see while going about our daily routines here in the winter. Spring will bring us a number of species we can see around here without trying too hard. Until then it is chasing things.

We are now on a couple birding listserves. Some are more for general chatter about bird sightings as well as birding and life in general as it relates to birding. “Can someone tell me the best spotlight to see owls?” Others are only for serious sightings, no chatter please, and don’t even think of asking any stupid questions. You better be posting, “Yellow-billed loon in Munising,” not,  “What’s that little brown bird that is coming to my feeder?”

The listserves are handy. We got the Ross’s goose, short-eared owls, rough-legged hawk, and northern shrike through the listserves. There is the issue of too many choices though. Do we go for the rufous hummingbird being kept alive at a feeder in Kent County or the great gray owl in Kingsville, Ontario? Two hours to the west or two hours to the east?

There is some restraint required. We could drive an hour south of here to see the Carolina wren out of its winter range. Or we could show some discipline and wait until it is nesting here in the yard a couple months from now. Tough call when you want the numbers up. Discretion is the better part of valor I guess.  Save your time and resources for the really important. So on to the Muskegon sewage treatment plant this weekend.

                   

The past few days have been pleasant temperature wise but, the local lakes are still pretty much iced over. Kind of tough to get water dependent species. Today was a really nice day to be out chasing species so we chased after a northern shrike down near Chelsea. Found the little devil too. We also added turkey vulture, American robin, tree sparrow, song sparrow, cedar waxwings, bluebird, flicker, red-bellied woodpecker, tree sparrow and song sparrow.

Molly and her sidekick Lindsay helped out by making a nice several course Japanese dinner.

One of the reasons we undertook this effort was to get out to more places in Michigan. We have been down to the Vreeland road area in Washtenaw County for a great short-eared owl display. We have also been around the Waterloo area of Jackson and Washtenaw Counties. Both areas will get repeat visits. Next weekend we may go over to Muskegon to visit the ever popular sewage treatment plant. Things should be productive where we have some nice warm open water.

Right now the list stands at 45 species which takes us up to about February 14 using the species a day metric.

We have signed on a few local bird alerts. As a result we found ourselves in the Ann Arbor area, tracking down a Ross’s goose in a subdivision pond near the gazebo (lifer for Ed) and short-eared owls, not in a subdivision pond. It had been over a decade since we’d seen a short-eared owl. They troll low over the fields in the late afternoon or evening, searching for food. The owls and the beautiful sunset were memorable.

We also added rough-legged hawk, horned lark, kestrel, turkey, mute swan and Canada goose to the list. We later met our good friend, Phyllis, in Ann Arbor for dinner.

Back to the salt mines for Lise and me so the only new species we have are local birds from the feeder or neighborhood. Dark-eyed junco, house sparrow and red-tailed hawk giving us 25 species. Using the species a day metric we are up to January 25.
   
Our next move is to plan out some local trips for this weekend to get the species present during winter in mid-Michigan. Something a little less grueling than having to drive eight hours to the Upper Peninsula. We love the UP, and Marquette in particular, but it isn’t a quick trip. We can get into western Pennsylvania or down to the Ohio River in the same amount of time.

A nasty drive back from Marquette. Snow, ice, wind, sometimes white out conditions. Before we left we got hairy woodpecker and white-breasted nuthatch. Looking past our white knuckles we saw common ravens.

Thanks to our friends Jean and Joanna for hosting us up in Marquette!

We started our biggish year in the Upper Peninsula hoping to get some northern species. We got some but missed a lot of others. On January 1in Marquette MI, we saw the following species; great horned owl, snowy owl, downy woodpecker, house finch, black-capped chickadee, red-breasted nuthatch, starling, rock dove, Iceland gull, golden-eye, mallard, American crow, bufflehead, herring gull, glaucous gull, common merganser, mourning dove, Lapland longspur, and northern cardinal. The snowy owl and Lapland longspurs were real treats.

The snowy owl flew by and looked at us with detached nonchalance. Major cool. The Lapland longspurs were too cute while they pretty much ignored us, bending down grass stems with their feet and eating the grass seeds.

Conditions for birding were less than ideal. Snowing and air temperature around 30 F. Nasty wind with a wind chill in the single digits. Apparently these are good surfing conditions in Marquette. Kowabunga, surf’s up in Marquette. These Yuppers are a tough lot.

On December 30, while scouting an area called the McCormick Tract, we had white-winged crossbills, gray jay, black-backed woodpecker, redpolls, and a pine grosbeak. Because of the storm that blew in on January 1 we couldn’t get back to that area for this phase of our biggish year.

January 1, 2012

The “day” began with family hugs and kisses, the clink of champagne glasses and away we went. Ed and I headed out into the Marquette, MI midnight. A light snow on the ground and a balmy 36 degrees for being above the 45th parallel. We walked to the Dead River and hiked to a pine stand. The snow on the ground plus reflected light on the clouds made the night bright.

Or goal was to have our first 2012 bird be something other than a starling. I went through my repertoire of lame owl calls. Surprisingly, a great horned owl answered to be #1 for 2012.

Later that night, a storm blew in. Rather than driving into some of the remote areas for boreal species, we decided to stay in the Marquette area. We got 19 species with our highlights being Lapland longspurs and a snowy owl. Temperatures have dropped into the 20s with snow and strong gusts. Several surfers on Lake Superior.

 –Lise