Stoney Creek... First Goldeneyes of the year..

Took a run around the lake today... First Goldeneyes of the year.... about 2 dozen of them on the lake... also a large flock of Hooded Mergansers near the north damn.... There was a large movement of Robins today... I would estimate at least 200 of them moving thru the park.... Noticeably absent were the Canada Geese...Not one to be seen in the park... There was also half a dozen bufflehead near the North Damn....

Feeders up and running at full capacity... Suprise!!! Hawks are coming around...

Immature Red-tailed Hawk has been sitting behind my feeders for about a week... I am not sure why since they dont normally chase after birds and I have no squirrels... I do have a ton of mice in the field and they are attracted to the fallen seed in my feeder station... who knows...

Sandhill Crane - Stoney Creek

Two Sandhill Crane have been hanging at Stoney Creek for the last couple of days... I saw them on Wed night and they got spooked by a guy walking his dog and took off toward the golf course... Early morning today they were at Mt. Vernon Picnic Area near the canoe rental.... Very vocal.....

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane

its getting Windy... if you dont believe me, ask this guy!!

Red-tailed Hawk near my subdivision today... he had his wings out and was facing into the wind... I stopped and shot a photo of him out my passenger side window....

Stoney Creek - Bald Eagle

Quick run to stoney creek. Bald Eagle across from Baypoint beach.. Watching over a flock of coots... 2 Common Loons on the lake. Canvasbacks and a couple of Ring-necked Ducks near south dam. 8 green winged teals at eastpointe beach. Snow Buntings +20 near road by Winter Cove.

Imm Bald Eagle

Merlin - Almost drove right by you!!

Took a run this morning to Metrobeach Metropark in Harrison Twp.. I was hoping to find the Northern Shrike that was seen a day earlier... I saw Tom Heatly at the North Marsh and he informed me that I had just missed the Shrike... Arrhgghh!!  I grabbed the camera and went looking for it with no luck... I decided to head over to the Day Sail and see what was on the water... As I drove along the road in front of the Nature Center, near the Restrooms, I glanced up into the tree and saw a bird sitting there... I slammed on my brakes as I nearly passed it and grabbed my binoculars... I thought it was a kestrel at first until I put my glass on it.... Low and behold it was a Merlin.... It sat on the branch and was preening itself... I took a couple of pics from the middle of the road until I figured out I was going to get a ticket... I slowly drove past it and parked... I managed to sneak around in front of the hawk and snapped a couple of pics before it headed toward the golf course.... Sweet!!  it made up for missing the Shrike... I worked in Port Huron today and headed over to the river to see what was  floating... Besides the many Bonaparte Gulls, I found a couple decent size flocks of Long-tailed Ducks North of the bridge...

Merlin

Merlin (we were in a stare down contest)

I won

Shot from my car window in center of road

Bonaparte Gull

Long-tailed Duck (severely out of range for my lens)

Pied-billed Grebe.... what was that?

Kinda of an uneventful day birding.... Took a run over to Stoney Creek Metropark... Didn't see much on the lake... A bunch of coots and a big flock of Canada Geese at Eastwood beach.... Some smaller geese, but I didn't feel comfortable calling any of them Cackling Goose.... While scoping the Geese, a pair of Pied-billed Grebes came close to shore and each one started flapping there wings rapidly... one at a time... then they swam away... Not sure what that was about but it was interesting to watch..... Feeders in my yard were going crazy today... Mostly Goldfinches, House Finches and Juncos.... Saw a few Tree Sparrows, but none ventured into the feeders...

Pied-billed Grebes