5/19-22 - The Final Week

5/22 - The Final Day

This is the last day of my Spring 08 Hawk Watch. It's been a great season - I've learned a lot, enjoyed seeing the seasons change over the last 8 weeks and have been proud to be a part of this project. I'm sad to be done and hope to do this again sometime. For now it's time to move on to my summer job with Christian Adventures (see website link along the side).

Raptors:

Kestrel: 3 (presumably the same male seen 3x's)

Turkey Vulture: 5

Others:

Red-eyed Vireo (photo below top)

Scarlet Tanager - first year male (photo above)

Empid Flycatchers: 3+ (photo below middle)

Magnolia Warbler: one first winter female plumaged bird (photo below bottom)

5/21

Raptors:
American Kestrel: 2 - a male showed up today - hunting from the gide wires on the Meteorological tower close by. My 2 sightings are presumably the same bird. (see photo)


5/20

Turkey Vulture: 5

Others:
Bonaparte's Gull
Warblers: Magnolia, Yellow-rumped, Palm, Chestnut-sided, Common Yellowthroat (photo below), Wilson's, Redstart, Cape May, Blackpoll
Check out the mystery bird and test your warbler id skills (second photo below). Scroll down further for the answer.


Mystery bird.......











Mystery Bird Answer: Cape May Warbler

5/19

Raptors:
Accipiter Sp.: 1
Buteo Sp.: 1
Turkey Vulture: 2

Others:
Warbling Vireo
Wilson's Warbler (photo)

5/12 - 5/15

5/15 - Visitors on the Dune
This afternoon my parents, joined by my 4yr old son Caleb, joined me on the dune. They enjoyed seeing me and where I've been working for the past 6 weeks.

Raptors:
Red-tailed Hawk: 2
Cooper's Hawk: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 1
Turkey Vulture: 2

Others:
Eastern Kingbird - hung around all day (see photo below)
Dickcissel - buzzy call-note heard and then briefly seen flying over - southbound.

5/14 - Foggy Day

Today started out VERY foggy with visibility less than 100yds. It began to clear between 12 and 1pm and ended up being a decent day - however the raptor count was 0.

Turkey Vulture: 2

5/13 - Dad visits

Today my joined me for the whole day on the dune. We saw a few nice birds and a warbler flock moved through in the afternoon.

Raptors:

Peregrine Falcon: 2 (presumably the same bird seen twice)

Northern Harrier: 1

Cooper's Hawk: 1

Accipiter Sp.: 1

Others:

Baltimore Orioles - dozens were seen throughout the day in reverse migration - headed south.

Warblers: Blackpoll, Palm, Yellow-rumped, Yellow, Redstart, Black-throated Green, Magnolia (see photo below).

5/12

Raptors:

Cooper's Hawk: 1

Red-tailed Hawk: 1

Sharp-shinned Hawk: 1

Unidentified Raptor: 1

Turkey Vulture: 16

Others:

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Baltimore Oriole - without any tail feathers!

Warblers: Cape May, Redstart, Black-throated Blue, Palm, Yellow-rumped

5/5 - 5/9 - The Dam Breaks!

It's been a while since I've posted - so I added this post and the one previous (4/25-5/2). We've been in process of moving and without internet. This should make up for lost time!

Be sure to read from the bottom up on this one...

5/9 - Dam Leak & Swallow-tailed Kite!
See photo below:







Just kidding! Just thought I'd get your hearts thuming for a minute! It truly is a picture of a Barn Swallow.

After the dam broke yesterday I was trying to be ready for anything. The dam apparently got fixed, but sprung a leak for 30-40 minutes when I got nearly all the raptors for the day. Again, movements were N to S, straight overhead and HIGH - making ID difficult.

Lots of Swallows continue to swoop past my hawk watch - Bank Swallow has added itself to the Barns, Rough-wings and Trees.

Raptors:

Red-tailed Hawk: 6

Rough-legged Hawk: 1

UnIdentified Raptor: 1

UnIdentified Buteo: 3

Turkey Vulture: 35

Others:

None of note

5/8 - The day the DAM BROKE!

This day came out of the blue, but at 12:10 the raptor dam broke and all hawk broke loose! For the next 2 hours I had a steady stream of raptors of several species streaming overhead - oddly from N to S. They were all at great heights (1000' or more) and directly overhead. This made my scope virtually useless - until they flew further away, at which time I became blinded by the sun and then after that they became sillouhetted birds very difficult to ID. Needless to say I was glad to see raptors but became frustrated with ID. Check out the numbers:

Raptors:

Red-tailed Hawk: 17

Sharp-shinned Hawk: 7

Cooper's Hawk: 1

Bald Eagle: 5

Broad-winged Hawk: 10

Northern Harrier: 2

American Kestrel: 1

Osprey: 2

UnIdentified Raptor: 5

UnIdentified Accipiter: 6

UnIdentified Buteo: 11

Others:

None of note.

5/6

Raptors:

Red-tailed Hawk: 4

Sharp-shinned Hawk: 5

Northern Harrier: 3

Peregrine Falcon: 1

Turkey Vulture: 12

UnIdentified Accipiter: 2

Others:

Indigo Buntings - about 2 dozen were counted through mainly the a.m. hours flying S. high overhead - heard by their buzzy flight call.

Red-headed Woodpecker (photogenic! see below)

5/5

Raptors:

Sharp-shinned Hawk: 4

Cooper's Hawk: 1

Osprey: 1

Northern Harrier: 1

Turkey Vulture: 5

Others:

Sandhill Crane: 3

Marsh Wren - I kicked one up out of the dune grass on my way walking up to my hawk watch - I guess the dune grass was as good as it could find for habitat to take a migratory break in.

4/25-5/2 - Hawks, Warblers & More!

5/2

Bad weather forced me to stop by 1:15 with VERY few hawks, but LOTS of WARBLERS!! Strong East winds and an oncoming warm front helped load the trees with warblers for the first hour + of my morning. Check the list below (10 species).

Raptors:
Turkey Vulture: 2
Cooper's Hawk: 1
Osprey: 1

Others:
Yellow-rumped Warbler - lots
Palm Warbler - lots
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 1
Blue-winged Warbler - 1
Black-throated Green Warbler - several
Yellow Warbler - several (photo above)
Nashville Warbler - several
American Redstart - 1
Black-and-White Warbler - a few
Cape May Warbler - 1

5/1

Raptors:
Turkey Vulture: 20
Red-tailed Hawk: 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 2
Bald Eagle: 1

Others:
Clay-colored Sparrow (photo below)
Chimney Swift

4/29

Raptors:
Turkey Vulture: 5
Red-tailed Hawk: 3
Cooper's Hawk: 1
Bald Eagle: 2
Broad-winged Hawk: 1
Northern Harrier: 2
Merlin: 1
UnIdentified Raptor: 2

Others:
Lots of Swallow flocks (Rough-winged, Tree and Barn)
Lots of Palm and Yellow-rumped Warbler Flocks

4/25

Bad weather forced me to end at 1:45 today - with a big fat 0 for raptors. Only 3 Turkey Vultures, several Blue Jay flocks and a partial albino deer (see photo - deer is hard to see on the left of the photo - normal deer on the right).

4/24

A WINDY day! Sustained winds were 12-15mph with gusts up to about 25mph. It was sunny to start with clouds increasing later.

Raptors:

Unidentified Raptor - 2
Unidentified Accipiter - 2

N. Harrier - 3

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2

Red-tailed Hawk - 1

Bald Eagle - 1

Others:None of note.

4/21 & 22 - White Pelicans & White-eyed Vireo!

4/22: 60's and sunny. Nice day. Some nice birds too...including one Red-headed Woodpecker, 4 Greater Yellowlegs and 17 White Pelicans! White Pelicans are annual but rare in MI in migration.

Raptors:
Unidentified Raptor - 1
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
N. Harrier - 6 (some may have been repeats)
Turkey Vulture - 6

Others:
Sandhill Crane - 6
**American White Pelican - 17 - a rare sighting for MI!
Greater Yellowlegs - 4 (new migrant)
Red-headed Woodpecker - 1

4/21: Hazy day with some fog on the lake getting blown in the the afternoon. Temps dropped as the wind turned out of the west. Pine Warbler showed up today - singing up in the trees to my north. BW Teal also showed up, but the best bird of the day was a White Eyed Vireo! A breeder in certain locations of the southern counties in MI, this bird took me by surpise! It must have been a migratory "over-shoot" working his way back south. He did not vocalize and I only saw him for a minute or so. I turned for a couple seconds and he disappeared.

Raptors:
Unidentified Raptor - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
N. Harrier - 1
Turkey Vulture - 1

Others: Common Loon - 1
Blue-winged Teal - 11 (new migrant)
Pine Warbler - 1 - First of Spring!
**White-eyed Vireo - 1 (very rare this far N. in MI)

4/17 & 18

4/18
Started off windy, but turned out sunny and WARM! Temps soared over 70 today! The weather helped the birds move today - raptors and others. Lots of RC and GC Kinglets, Brown Creepers and Yellow-rumped Warblers continue to move through. Also Blue-gray Gnatcatcher showed up today as did Barn Swallows.

Raptors:
Red-tailed Hawk - 4
Merlin - 1
N. Harrier - 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 4
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Unidentified Accipiter - 2
Turkey Vulture - 26

Others:
Long-tailed Duck - 200+
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - first of spring
Barn Swallow - first of spring


4/17

Raptors:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
N. Harrier - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 2
Unidentified Falcon - 2

Other:
Rough-winged Swallows (first of spring!)