Sunday, January 30, 2011

Green-tailed Towhee needs new GPS

Went out looking for the Green-Tailed Towhee that was reported on the Rare Bird Alert... Drove to the home in Bloomfield Hills Michigan and after almost losing a couple of toes from frost bite, it finally appeared.. It was in the back of the property and not giving anyone easy views to say the least. The owner was nice enough to let us come on her driveway to look for it, but it was still a long ways off for a decent photo... I did manage these two. They are heavily cropped, and when I say heavily, I mean about 70 percent.... At least its documented on my blog... really cool bird.... click on photo to enlarge


Friday, January 28, 2011

St. Clair River Ducks....

Rare bird alert today reported a female Harlequin Duck in Port Huron. I headed that way after work to see if I could find her... No luck.. I was running out of daylight, but I managed to snap a few photos of the Goldeneyes and Long-Tailed Ducks that were below the bridge.  Click on Caption to enlarge





Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Good day for Hawks

Weather hit 32 degrees today and every hawk in the area came out... Highlight of the day was a Merlin at 26mi and Broughton Rd in Macomb Twp... He was sitting on top of a pole munching on a starling... I was traveling to work and did not have my camera, but he was pretty brave and I got some close up looks at him... I also counted 5 American Kestrel and 4 Red Tailed Hawks while driving... When I got home, I saw a Northern  Harrier moving thru the back of my property... by the time I got in the house, it dived, grabbed a mouse and landed on my neighbors property. I grabbed my camera and tried stalking him but got no closer than 60 yards with my zoom, so the photos below are cropped and kinda crappy, but hey, I got a photo of a Harrier eating behind my house... very cool...

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Monday, January 17, 2011

Havn't posted in awhile..

I have been very busy since the new year... my poor camera is begging to get out of the bag... Today I say two huge flocks of snow buntings... One at 23mile rd and hayes in Shelby Twp MI and the other at 27mi Rd near Romeo Plank... both numbered 100+..... I was working and did not get a chance to look for lapland long spurs.. but I will tomorrow...