Brown Thrasher at Metrobeach

Took a run to Metrobeach before heading home ... Didn't have much time, but a quick jaunt down the trail and I discovered my first Brown Thrasher (123) of the year on the middle trail... On the Service Rd there were a good number of Swamp Sparrows in the marsh... I thought I heard a Marsh Wren, but it would not repeat its song and it was windy, so it will have to wait until another day.... Hermit Thrush were still present on most of the trails in good numbers... Tree, Northern Rough-winged and Barn Swallows were all seen.... One pair of Common Loons flew overhead and there were a dozen Green-winged Teal on the shore near the Day Sail area....... click to enlarge

Swamp Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow

Hermit Thrush scratching thru the leaves

Brown thrasher

Hermit Thrush - Everywhere!!

My stop today was at Metrobeach Metropark (yes, I know they changed there name, I just cant let go).
Hermit Thrush were all over the Park.... I had at least 8 of them.... I also had two Barn Swallows(122) flying over the Meadow Loop Trail... A Ruby Crowned Kinglet and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on the trail behind the Nature Ctr... A few Yellow-rumped Warbers were around.... In the Marsh, I found some Blue-winged Teals in with a Male Green-Winged Teal.... I was hoping to find or hear a Virginia Rail... no such luck today..... It was a short visit, but a nice one.... Things are slowly picking up.....

Couple of new birds for the year

I was up at dawn and on the trails at Metrobeach today. Woods were quiet for the most part... I did manage to see a Ruby-crowned Kinglet(119) on the middle trail and the usual Wood Ducks... even found a pair of Wood Ducks in the trees above my head as I was looking for "small" birds.. took off from there and went to Wolcott Mills Metropark.. I met up with Kevin there and we hiked a couple of miles on the trails... Eastern Meadowlark, Field Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, Eastern Towhee, Pine Sisken and Hermit Thrush (120) were the highlights of our walk....

Eastern Meadowlark

Fox Sparrow

Wood Duck

Greater Yellowlegs - Wetzel State Park

On a tip today (Thanks Tom!)  I headed out to Wetzel on the way home from work... my target was to find the Greater Yellowlegs (117) that was seen earlier on the pond north of 27 mi rd.... I found the bird quickly.... it was sitting on a clump of mud in the middle of the pond.... Initially it was standing next to a Killdeer and it made me chuckle to see how small the Killdeer looked compared to this big Sandpiper... It took off, calling its Tew Tew Tew call as it flew... an added bonus was the Northern Rough-winged Swallow (118) flying over the same pond....  Waterfowl numbers have lessened but Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup and one female Common Merganser could still be found... 1 Great Egret flew over as an American Kestrel hunted in the fields near me... I saw a Savannah Sparrow in the same location as the one I had recently photographed... Rusty Blackbirds are still around in the area north of the parking lot off of 27 mi Rd....

Also made a stop at stoney creek... not much to report on the lake, but I did manage to see 4 Horned Grebes and several Yellow-rumped Warblers moving thru the tree tops near Eastwood beach...

Greater Yellowlegs

Greater Yellowlegs



Horned Grebe

Horned Grebe

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Osprey's return....

Osprey's returned to Stoney Creek Metropark this week... I have been so swamped at work recently, that by the time I get home and eat, its practically dark out... so birding has been non existent... I heard from Kevin Rysiewski that the Ospreys had returned to the park, so I headed out after work today to look for them... The Osprey (116) pair were shoring up thier nest and they were fun to watch.... Pretty impressive on top of the Cell Phone tower....

I also checked out the entrance to the Inwood trails today. There were reports of a Brown Thrasher calling in that area.... It was quiet for me... However, the area was full of smoke as the Habitat Trail behind the nature center was having a controlled burn taking place.... I am not sure of the details, but there is a grant in the Metroparks to burn certain areas to control invasive plant species... It was actually kind of cool looking with the smoke hovering over the fields....

Controlled Burn at Stoney Creek Metropark

Osprey landing on nest

Saturday Morning Birding

     Got myself out of bed at 0600, ate breakfast and headed to Metrobeach... Met Tom Heatley, Kevin Rysiewski near the day sail area where we listened for rails... We heard none, but while we were there, a Wilson's Snipe landed right in front of us.... We watched it for a couple of minutes until it took flight and then we headed over to the beach area.... No Sandpipers, just some Bonaparte Gulls and assorted birds on the beach.... we headed over to the Nature Center trails and were met by Wayne Hoch... The 4 of us birded the trails together, highlighted by my first Sora (113) of the year... The Sora was calling loudy and came within 10 feet of our group... a couple of us spotted it moving slowly thru the Cattails...  We also managed to flush out a pair of Blue-winged Teals and a few Wood Ducks... We found a Yellow-rumped Warbler (114) foraging thru the willow near the first bridge. On the service rd we found Swamp Sparrows and a Hairy Woodpecker... not much else.. on the way back to our cars we found an Eastern Phoebe sitting on a dead branch near the canal.... Tom and I headed over to the North Marsh. As soon as we got out of our cars, we noticed that a very large Tern take flight from the water and head right at us.... Caspian Tern!!(115)  very cool... we watched it for a minute and called Kevin and Wayne to come and see it... by the time they got there, it was gone.... Hopefully they relocated it...
     Tom and I headed to Wetzel State Park for a quick loop around the South pond... yeah right, as if I could only stop there.... we ended up birding for about an hour... Rusty Blackbirds are still near the 27 mile rd parking lot... Ring-necked Ducks and Ruddy Ducks could be found in the ponds... we flushed a pair of Green-winged Teals.... We found an American Kestrel and watched it hunt and hover over the field... No luck finding Savannah Sparrows for Tom, but its still good to see that the Rusty Blackbirds are around....
     Tom's Pedometer recorded 11288 steps for the morning.... No wonder I was hungry when I headed for home....

White-winged Crossbills... it is almost April, correct?

A huge gigantic shout out and Thank You to Kevin Rysiewski for calling me today when he looked out into his back yard and saw that there was a flock of White-winged Crossbills in the pines behind his home... I happened to be in Washington Twp at the time and headed that way.... as luck would have it, the rain/hail/sleet mix began as I moved toward Shelby Township (25mi and Shelby area).... I have never been in Kevin's sub before, but I figured that I would be able to locate the birds.... Kevin had last seen them heading north.... As I got to the sub, I realized that they should have named it Pine Valley.... it was gonna be like finding a needle in a Haystack.... it took me about 20 minutes of driving in the pouring rain, looking at the top of pines, before I found them.... a flock of birds descended from the sky and landed in the pines in front of my car.... by the time I got my binoculars out, they were feeding on the ground underneath the pines.... I scrambled for my camera, and wondered to myself, how am I going to photograph White-winged Crossbills (112) in the pouring rain with dark skies?... ISO 1600 and exposure compensation... that's how... I wanted to document my first time Macomb County sighting....  I called Tom Heatley and he met me in the sub and we found them again next door to where I first found them.... the rain had stopped, and I got a couple more pics before they took off....   Nice start to the weekend.... click to enlarge