A Slow Day at the Point

On Saturday, Kirk, his dad, and I headed over to WPBO. On the way we cruised by 10-mile Rd. and found the Sharp-tailed Grouse still on the lek, and added Bobolink to the yearlist.

WPBO was pretty slow, due to the cold temps and strong west winds. I did add Evening Grosbeak, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Eastern Bluebird to the yearlist though. When 10 am. came around and only 3 species of warblers (5 individuals) had come out to eat, we figured we'd be better off heading inland. Our suspicions proved correct, and at the Tahquamenon Rivermouth campground we had quite a few warblers, including Blackburnian, Orange-crowned, Magnolia, Pine, and Canada. Blue-headed Vireos were also around, and we found 2 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a rarity in this part of the state. Then we headed off to Trout Lake to try our luck at finding Spruce Grouse (my nemesis bird, although I have seen a pair back in 1999). Of course, we didn't find any. People say there are reliable sites, I've been to them at least 10 times each and never seen a SPGR. Maybe sometime... Anyway, we found some other good birds, and added Cape May Warbler and Vesper Sparrow to the yearlist. Then it was back home via 10-mile Rd. again (found Eastern Kingbird), and the Locks (added Chestnut-sided Warbler and Clay-colored Sparrow). We finished the day with 99 species, and I added 12 year birds.

Locks this morning

Headed down to the locks for an hour before school. It was pretty active when I was there, but Ken was there just after me and said it was mostly dead. I had 42 species in the hour I was there, including 3 new species for my Locks list (Fox Sparrow, Eastern Phoebe, Osprey), and 5 year birds (Belted Kingfisher, Rusty Blackbird, White-throated Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush). The Osprey caught a fish (good sized one too) while I was there, and the sunrise was pretty nice...would have been better without all the buildings in front of it though. No pics as of yet, as the uploader is giving me error messages. Anyway, songbirds are picking up, other warblers should be here soon!

As I said in an earlier post, the Locks are probably the best place here in town for birds, and to prove it, my Locks list is up to about 165 after today. Considering that my total SSM area list is at 255, that's a pretty decent percentage from such a small place...well...relatively small anyway.

Whitefish Island - "The Locks"

The Locks are probably the best place here in town to go birding, and you can occasionally see 90+ species in a morning there. Not today however, as the only feathered creatures around were the usual Chickadees, Mallards (with a couple Black Ducks), Common Goldeneye, Common Mergansers, and assortment of gulls, which didn't include any northern species today. Just as we were leaving, the aforementioned collection of gulls was airborne, and when I looked around to see what scared them, an adult Bald Eagle turned out to be the culprit. Nice and sunny, but the northwest wind made for a wind chill of about -15ºC. I sure hope spring comes soon.