Louisiana and Texas

We spent the day birding between Lacassine and Anahuac National Wildlife Refuges. The weather has been amazing and the birds have been great as well. 28 new species for the year between the two parks. A pretty good start for the trip...
More to come soon.

On our way south

Ladybird and I loaded up and headed out yesterday to try to get ahead of some weather moving in. A little rain as we went through KY but it cleared up until just past Nashville. Between Nashville and Memphis was when the shit really hit the fan. Super strong winds and driving rain pounded us for an hour on I40. With tornado warnings all around we stopped just shy of Memphis for the night. Things have cleared overnight a bit and we will push on south into Louisiana and head for Lacassine today.
Happy to have that storm behind us.

BoWax !!!!!

Bohemian waxwings were the birds we all wanted to see the most on this trip. Folks have been seeing them near the Dafter port office for weeks now and there was a report from the day we arrived that they were seen. We tried a few times on Saturday to find them and we thought we saw a flock of about 30 flying away at one point but couldn't be sure. So early Sunday morning we decided to try again. We pulled into the post office parking lot and there wasn't a bird to be seen. We circled the area; no birds. We decided to go see Carlos, our snowy owl, down in Rudyard again to give the birds some time to wake up and move around. Carlos was chillin next to some piles in a field and gave us great looks. A flock of snow buntings drifted by and landed in a tree at a nearby house as we were leaving. Cool to see them in trees.
We decided one more look at Dafter before we had to go. There was a major storm moving into the area that would slow us down if we waited too long to get on the road.
Back at at the post office again and still no waxwings but redpolls and starlings were up and at 'em. We cicled the area and returned to the post office again to find fifteen cars jammed in the lot with people pointing and looking happy. We saw the flock again as it flew away. Dammit !!
So we thought we would wait it out but I am super impatient when it comes to sitting in a parking lot so I thug we would drive around a little. Ladybird spotter a bird in a tree near the I75 bridge. It was a pine grosbeak. Just a pine grosbeak, but what were those birds below it in the other trees? BOWAX! Tons of them! We jumped out and threw scopes up to get awesome views of the birds 75 feet away. Then a small bunch would rise up from somewhere unseen and fly out, then more, then more THEN MORE! Tons of them were in the trees and flying around. We estimAted about 150 total in the flock. I snapped a bunch of digi shots but the lighting wasn't the greatest. It really didn't matter though. We had found our biggest target bird, and every other target for this trip as a matter of fact and a bird I didn't expect to see at all, the crossbills.
It was a great weekend of birding. I added nine new birds for the year and the rest added life bird after life bird. Fantastic!
The drive back was uneventful until we got just north of Ann Arbor and it started to snow. And snow. And snow some more until the roads were invisible and the near whiteout conditions forced us off the highway. We are in a Best Western waiting for the roads to clear up. About 8 inches of fresh snow is on the ground and layers of ice are farther south of us. It may still be an interesting drive home.....

Hulbert Bog

Our last day up here was going to be our clean up day. Try again for a few misses and see if anything new was around. We went back to Hulbert Bog after we ran into a fellow birder who gave us a tip on crossbills. On our way to the bog five small reddish birds flew from the berm of the road up into the trees. We pulled to the side of the road, scanned the trees and found the Red Crossbills. We watched them feed on the side of the road and perched in trees singing. A life bird for most of us.
From there we slowly drove Basnau rd. Pine grosbeaks were also feeding in the road. In the trees they were joined by an Evening grosbeak for great looks. The bog was hopping with birds unlike the day before. It looked like a birding group had gone through the area because there were piled of seed on the road all in front of us. Crows seemed to be enjoying the free meal as well the chickadees and redpolls, but I noticed 3 intermediate sized birds a little father down the road. There they were: Gray Jays. They scattered as we approached but we parked and waited and sure enough one of them decided we needed very close looks. The bird flew from branch to branch, down to the road for food and back to the trees at eye level for about ten minutes. Good stuff.

Siskins and Redpolls Galore

There is a lot of driving around in the Soo. A lot! But there are always things to see. Someone once told me "there are no "throw-away" birds up here".

Enter the Northern Shrike we found atop a stand of trees. This guy hawked around and put on a nice little show for us right across the street from a large flock of Common Redpolls. We also found a ton of Redpolls at the Dunbar feeders accompanied by a whole lot of Pine Siskins. Great looks at both speices for all of us. We also found a great flock of Pine Grosbeaks at the Dunbar Park. We watched them feed in the pines and fly around the park for excellent looks. Back at the Dunbar feeders we found a male and a female Evening Grosbeak as well. They are such stunning birds and life birds for most of the group.

A drive up to Whitefish Point at the end of the day was a nice way to finish off a great day. A small flock of Common Redpolls were feeding on the ground with some Black Cappped Chickadee. We watched the flock for a while when all of a sudden two Hoary Redpolls joined the flock. A life bird for the whole group. Awesome!

A tale of two grouse

Today we spent time exploring Dunbar Forest and the back roads of Rudyard. Our first cool ass bird was a Sharp-tailed Grouse. It was in a berry tree feeding in front of a house about a half mile off of the main road. I spotted the shape in the tree from the road at about 60 miles per hour. We pulled down the "seasonal road" and drove right up to the bird. Kind of crazy to be 15 feet away from this amazing bird. It fed on the berries and then flew off, really far, into the distant treelike.

Later in the day we found 3 Ruffed Grouse in more trees along Hulbert Road. The birds were walking along the tree branches and picking off the buds from the trees. It was really awesome to see them picking their way along the thin branches. They too then flew off into the trees.

Killer cool birds for the day.

Snowy Owl in the SOO

We found this dude chilling in a field in Rudyard. Tomorrow we continue the trek. Near blizzard conditions. It's going to be interesting ....

Recap of the end of January and into February

So January went out with a bang and february came in with strep throat. I didn't really get out much but did get to Avon for the Red-throated loon. (photo)
The next week or so I spent on the couch watching the feeders and watching movies. Not a bad way to burn up February, but not that exciting.
I did spend a weekend of birding with Prettybird in southern Ohio. We had two great days. She managed a whopping 14 new birds for the year while I was very surprised with five newbies.

A stunning Golden Eagle at the wilds put on a nice show perching and flying low over the terrain. A state bird for me as well as a new year bird. Then it was off to Amish country to chase a Common Raven that Jen had tracked down that morning. Success as we watched it cruise around the area with a few crows watching it's every move.
En route to the raven we found a cold looking Killdeer in a small opening of grass along College Hill Rd. Black Vultures were the raptor of the day down there also. At least six were seen in the immediate area.
After chasing the "A**hole" raven around for an hour we decided to hit Mohican State Park a few miles away. Now that is a pretty little section of the state. It had been years since I was there and what I remembered most was sneaking beers in the camping areas. This day we skipped the beverages and birded from the truck mostly. A single Ruby-crowned kinglet with a slew of Golden-crowned-s was a nice pull by Prettybird. Bringing the year to date total to 127.
Tomorrow before dawn Ladybird, Prettybird, Luckybird and I head to the UP for some winter birds. C'mon Snowy!

A typical winter day

It was incredibly frosty the morning of this photo. Ladybird and I managed to each pick up some great birds on this cold morning.

Screech owls

This little guy has been hanging out in the same area for about a month. His red hot lover is not far away. Here's hoping they have some little ones!

Local Patch days and additional sightings

Ok, so it has been forever since I updated the blog. January kind of kicked my ass. I have been the lazy birder the last few weeks and have little to show for it. I guess I can go back and recap the end of the January for starters.
A couple of additional local patch trips and winter rarity chases finished out January. My total was 122. I am happy with that. Sort of. I find myself becoming a greedy birder sometimes, you know the type; wild eyed and rabid to find more more more birds. It's embarrassing, but sometimes I fall into it. Maybe we all do.
Took a quick trip to Calvary cemetery to find the Merlin. He was perched on top of a tree in the newer section of the cemetery. All in all that was an easy bird to find. From there we hightailed it over to Berea to a little pond behind the library. Among the Canada Geese and Mallards a single drake Wood duck was paddling around and calling. It was a good end to the day.
I met Prettybird at Seiberling Nature Realm in Akron the next day at lunch time and found a lone Pine Siskin at the thistle feeders. Such neat little birds. The next day she and I headed to Killdeer plains and found 7 Long Eared Owls roosting in a white pine as the sun was coming up behind them. Finding owls is always a strange kind of adrenaline rush. Maybe because they are not the easiest birds to find or maybe it is just because they are freaking awesome.
I checked off Hermit Thrush on an awesome Local Patch day in the valley. It was a great day for lots on the tour. Just cool birds all around.
A few more chases yielded some more new January birds: Black crowned night herons near the lake and the Northern Shrike at Bath. Another little trip towards Columbus was a great day. Brown Thrasher, Turkey Vulture, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Green Winged Teal and Savannah Sparrow we all new birds for the year.
One last Local Patch trip for January gave us another amazing day. I honestly didn't think I would get any new birds that day. I was wrong. A little pack of Horned Grebes at Eastlake was a total surprise. A Thayer's Gull at 72nd was a killer pull by Jen. Then Ring-necked Pheasants near Carlisle made it a three new bird day pushing my January total to 121.  I was good with that until we heard there was a Virginia Rail somehow staying alive in a ditch in Kent. So on the 31st I dragged my now pretty ill ass into the car and drove out there. Sure enough, there he was, hunkered down in the smallest little bit of open water with the look like "Seriously, I stayed here why?" . Nevertheless, bird 122 for January. A pretty awesome way to end the month. From there it was back home to bed and chicken soup for the next week.