Elijah's write-up about our Kirtland's Warbler trip

On the 22^nd of June, I had the opportunity to go on a birding trip with my family to try to see a Kirtland’s Warbler.  We woke up at 4:00 am and drove up to Grayling, MI.  We had to be there for the Kirtland’s Warbler tour by 7:00 am.  We got to Grayling, we went to the Ramada Inn Conference Room and watched a movie about Kirtland’s Warblers.  It talked about the history and success of the conservation efforts.  After that, we caravanned along a road with many Jack Pine fields, with both short and tall trees.  We stopped at a small, unmarked parking lot and as soon as we exited our van, we could hear the call of the Kirtland’s Warbler across the road.

The Kirtland’s Warbler is a very picky nester.  They will only nest in areas of 80 acres or more and the Jack Pines within have to be between 5 and 20 feet tall.  In Michigan, they clear the forests that are too tall and plant new ones to replace the old trees.  The old trees go to companies and get sold which makes more jobs so that the Jack Pines are a benefit to the warblers and to people.

Cowbirds are a problem, but are being controlled and are less of a problem with the controls.  It used to be that 70% of the nests of Kirtland’s Warblers were parasitized and is down to only 6% of the nests being parasitized.  Cowbirds are considered parasitic because they lay their eggs in other birds’ nests.  When the young hatch, they are larger than the warbler nestlings and Cowbird chicks are often fed more to the detriment of warbler species.

Before we started walking through the Jack Pines on a two-track, Allison (who is employed by Michigan Audubon to give the tours) told us not to step off of the two-track because we didn’t want to cause early fledging of warbler nestlings.

While we were walking, we saw and heard many cool birds including: Vesper Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Eastern Kingbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Brown Thrasher, Palm Warbler, Eastern Towhee, Common Nighthawk, Upland Sandpiper (they have the most amazing call!), and Clay-colored Sparrow.  While we were there, I noticed that the Clay-colored Sparrow sounded more like a grasshopper than the Grasshopper Sparrow that I heard on an outing a couple of weeks ago.

We heard Kirtland’s Warblers all along the way, but had trouble locating them in binoculars or scope.  It was the last of all of the birds we saw.  Walking back along the two-track, we were able to see some of the warblers we had missed on the way out (photo by Elijah).

Kirtland's warbler.  Yellow streaked belly with a grey back.  There are only about 4000 of these left in the world.

When we got back to the parking lot, Allison offered to show us a cowbird trap.  We said we would, so we followed her to another place and there was a cage made of chicken wire and wood.  On the top, there was a slot that the Cowbirds could get through, but couldn’t get out.  Inside there was millet to attract them and other captured Cowbirds (with yellow tape on their legs to identify them).  The other Cowbirds are in the cage because Cowbirds are social and are attracted by a group.

This time, the trap had attracted one wild Cowbird and Allison entered through a latched door and captured the wild one with her bare hands.  These Cowbirds are being used this year by a college that is doing research on the genetics of resident Texas Cowbirds versus migrating Cowbirds.

The cowbird trap.

Allison with a Brown-headed Cowbird.

Stretching out the wing helps researchers find the age of a bird.

We finished our day at Hartwick Pines State Park.  From the Visitor Center, we were able to see Evening Grosbeaks feeding at the window feeders.  On a hike, we heard a few species of breeding warblers and later on Scenic Road which is a drive, we saw another Evening Grosbeak (photo by Nathan),  an Ovenbird, and a Black-billed Cuckoo.



Evening Grosbeak on the road.


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After the Kirtland Warbler tour, we took a hike at Hartwick Pines State Park.





I found these on our hike.  Any guesses what they are?



Click on the picture to enlarge it.  This is a wooly aphid.  Amazing huh?



The kids in front of Hartwick Pines State Park sign.

Birds at the Feeders

Oh!  I love my feeders.  We also got a bird bath (finally!) this Spring and I love that too.

Guess who showed up today?

Image from allaboutbirds.org, copyright Bryan Hix

AND...

Image from allaboutbirds.org, copyright Jim Ellis

We've been waiting for these particular customers.

A few weeks ago, we had this guy for the third year in a row:

Image from allaboutbirds.org, copyright Ed Schneider

Yesterday's guest included:

Image from allaboutbirds.org, copyright Guy Lichter

And today, he brought some of his friends and a female too.

I believe we've said good-bye until next Winter to this lovely friend:

Image from allaboutbirds.org, copyright Darin Zeigler

I'm still waiting for these two:

Image from allaboutbirds.org, copyright Ed Schneider

AND...

Image from allaboutbirds.org, copyright Michael Hogan

Brigham has decided to have a "Birding" Birthday party at the local Nature Center.  I can hardly wait!

Some recent projects

Turkey Vulture cupcakes for Elijah's birthday (delivering these to school today).  We are so into birds around here.  Vulture cupcakes for a birthday?  What's next?

Afghan for B that's been several years in the making

Afghan to match my Monet print (also several years in the making)

Sariah's Poi cupcakes from January

Sideways owl piñata (Sariah's birthday)

May's second afghan--She made this for the intern from her 2nd grade class who recently had her second baby girl!

I have also finished another afghan recently, but have the pictures on my camera, rather than the computer.  It's a beauty (because of the yarn) and my favorite that I've ever made.

What's important, really??

On Tuesday, Brigham and I went to the zoo. Our zoo is only three miles from our house, so it made for a pleasant walk on an almost perfect Spring day.

As we got to the zoo, I got such an excited feeling. It has been a while since I've been to the zoo and I was happy about experiencing it with Brigham.

We got through the gates and checked out the aquariums. Brigham peeked into each one and said, "O.k., let's go!" The next stop was Arctic Foxes. I can't remember seeing them at this zoo before. One of them was lounging inside a large hollow log and the other one was digging a hole under the log. THIS, was going to be good! I looked over at Brigham who was puzzling out the sign hanging on the fence next to the exhibit (see coordinating sidebar story).

"What does this say, Mom?"
"It says 'Do not feed the animals.' Look Brigham, what is that silly fox doing? Look! He has dirt all over his face."
"What does this sign say, again?"
"Brigham, are you here to see the animals or the signs."
"The signs."

So, that was pretty much how our visit to the zoo went. Sometimes, like if there were five piglets nursing rabidly on their mother, he'd stop and watch for 30 seconds. Most of the time, though, he would just look in the cage and then want to move on.

What was the exception? The signs of course (Do not feed the animals, various animal names, no smoking, designated smoking area, etc. etc.) Another exception, you ask? Yes. There was one more. Birds!!!! Looks like you have done your job well, Nathan!!! Brigham could not get enough of our feathered friends.

The babies have arrived!

Earlier this week, Nathan was expressing some frustration that there was no indication of the wren eggs hatching. But, then as the days went by, I noticed both parental wrens out and about. They are running to and fro with food in their beaks. Twice, I even noticed one of them carrying away something that might have been part of an egg shell (it would be interesting to research this since I don't know if birds dispose of their chick's eggs).



At any rate, I did two things today. I checked the House Sparrow nest for eggs. Sure enough, there were four speckled eggs. Since House Sparrows are invasive species, I didn't have a problem with removing the eggs. Nathan would like to keep them in a collection (drained, of course). I didn't keep or photo the nest, but it was an interesting conglomeration of grass, feathers, hair and even plastic, all in the square shape of the nesting box. That was the morbid part of my day.



The wonderful part was checking the wren's nest. The Carolina Wrens took up a home in our Purple Martin hotel--which has yet to attract Purple Martins. At my first look, I could see two beaks poking up. The chicks are very silent, at least when I was there. I'm pretty sure there are at least three chicks in there, but it's hard to tell. There were four eggs to start with. Then, because none of the kids are tall enough to check inside to see, I took the camera out and took a few photos:




The wren's nest is a lot prettier than the sparrow nest. Wrens like moss. An interesting thing that Nathan taught us about wrens this year is that the male will begin building several nests (up to six). He will then take the female on a tour of his nesting sites and she will pick the one she likes best. Then, she helps the male finish building. Our funny male wren started nests in five of the six holes of the hotel and the female picked the bottom middle. We feel really lucky!

A Bunch of Things

1. Nathan turned 13 in October. So, we have a teenager now. Nothing has changed. I'll keep you posted.



He really likes birds. The thing is he really likes birds! For his birthday he received some John James Audubon books and new binoculars with a harness to facilitate this passion of his. He dressed up as a birdwatcher/ornithologist for Halloween, but the truth is he looks like this a lot.

2. We love our Michigan bridge--The Mackinac Bridge. Brigham especially loves it and talks about it all the time, plus recreates it with our wooden railroad toys and his toy cars. We got to visit recently and I thought it was cool that I could get a picture of this old lighthouse and the bridge (and fog!) together.



3. This is a bird Brigham made out of playdough all by himself. I was impressed!



4. Since Joseph was home yesterday, I had him remove the window air conditioner, which is always a perfect opportunity to do some cleaning (DON'T begin to believe I like this). Anyway, while I was pulling out furniture to vacuum and dust, I found this little drawing on the wall and decided that it is one of my prized possessions. I couldn't clean it off! Sariah did it a couple of years ago.


5. This has to be the fattest squirrel I've ever seen. Is that a beer belly? And a belly button???

The "Girlie" Turned 6!

I can't convince Sariah that she is four and not six and so I concede. She wins! She is six. We had a fun time as a family on her birthday and she relished (you have to know Sariah to get the full effect of "relished") the day that was set apart just for her!

Here's the cake (from the book "Hello, Cupcake" by Karen Tack):


Here's the birthday t-shirt (her favorite book is "Little Pea" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal):


Here are the cupcakes that she took to school:


Oh, and this has nothing to do with Sariah, but here is the opossum that was in my backyard about a week ago. It let me come up close to take a picture and didn't even bare it's ugly spiky killer teeth at me. Isn't it cute?:



Oh and while I've got you on the subject of wildlife, here's the merlin we saw in our pine tree a while back. We were so excited!:

Bleak Winter

Winter can be bleak, but I take joy in the view of three brilliant cardinals on the fence posts!

It has caused me to review my shopping actions. I will go back and buy the large seed cake for their Christmas meal.

Giving the Hummers a Good Send-Off

This is the first year that I've been conscientious about keeping the bird feeders full and clean. I've really tried to clean and refill the hummingbird feeder once a week. I guess that moves this whole "bird thing" more into the hobby realm because I enjoyed it, more than feeling it was just another job I had to do.

Thanks to some reading in one of our bird identification books, I learned that female and young hummingbirds usually migrate south mid-September from Michigan. The males go about two weeks before this (is this because they need the extra time to look their best for when the females come around?) Normally, by this time, I would have taken the hummingbird feeder down or started to ignore it. The bird book said to leave up the feeder about two weeks past mid-September so that any birds who are about to migrate can feed. I thought we had seen the last of them after our stormy weather this past weekend and then just yesterday I was surprised by a pair of them. Still, all around are the reminders that summer is almost passed.

Holy CROW!

Ever since reading a National Geographic article maybe ten years ago, I have been fascinated by the intelligence of ravens and crows. Where hundreds of crows caw-cawing in a tree used to annoy me, now I look forward to the arrival of them. A couple of weeks ago, when we traveled to the upper peninsula, we started seeing their big brothers, the ravens. Sitting on the top of a dead pine tree, they look colossal! In our time up there, I never got a picture because we mostly saw them roadside.

The past few days I've had a little quiet time in the afternoon, so I'm finally beginning to wade through the many amazing videos over at TED.com. I just had to share today after watching a video relating to crows.

Click here to watch a ten minute TED.com video that demonstrates the amazing intelligence of crows! Enjoy!

Birding

In this previous post, you can read why I don't like birds very much.

But, all that is changing.

Nathan has many interests, including learning about birds and bird watching. At first I resisted learning very much, but he's so excited about it that he just draws me in. The whole family now enjoys looking for and observing birds. Even Brigham can identify hummingbirds and woodpeckers.

Earlier this summer, at our first trip to Meijer Gardens, we were exploring the sculpture park and came upon some crab apple trees. We saw a flutter of wings and without missing a heart beat Nathan identified three cedar waxwings, having never observed them before. That's when I began to realize just how dedicated a birder he was becoming.

I only caught the tail-end of this Cedar Waxwing as it flitted away. (Click the picture for a closer look)

Our recent trip allowed us to see some birds that we haven't seen before.

We observed these sandhill cranes (click on photo and look closely!) on a little train ride straight into the wilderness.

Piliated woodpecker

Our most exciting bird find on our recent trip was this piliated woodpecker and the unique rectangular holes drilled into the tree trunks. Piliated woodpeckers are listed as rare to uncommon as they need such a large territory.

Nathan has spent the summer dreaming up ways to attract more birds to our yard. He's got a stockpile of ideas to use in the future. He's also checked out over 20 books about birds and pored through them. He's built a little bird area of his own in the backyard (with food, water, branches etc.) and designed and built a bird feeder, inspiring Sariah to build one herself! My one peeve in all of this is the bird seed strewn around the house and yard, imagining the vermin that could be attracted!

Baltimore Oriole in the backyard

The birds in our own yard seem to have settled down. The white-breasted nuthatches and orioles that were skittish at the beginning of the summer, now just sit around and wait to be observed before flying off! We've got a juvenile cardinal that's been hanging around the last few days. I like watching him make his way in the world!

All The Sweet Hook-ups

We have a 5 star bird restaurant, but only one bird cottage (with chicks right now, by the way). Maybe we'll have to look into adding a bird hotel??

Did You Know?

Did you know there is such a thing as an oriole feeder? I didn't until this year when I was buying a new hummingbird feeder and the oriole feeder was right next to the hummingbird supplies on the shelf. We have been surprised by the number of orioles that live in the woods behind our house. At first we were disappointed because we didn't have any visitors to the feeder, but then realized that orioles arrive in Michigan later than other birds. The birds are skittish, so I don't have any photos of them feeding.

Inexperience

This morning, Nathan ran outside where I was cleaning out the van to tell me that a bird had hit the window. Hard. There were feathers stuck to the window. This happens often enough and the bird is usually o.k. Nathan ran out a few minutes later to tell me that it was a robin that hit the window and showed me where it had landed. Sadly, there it was in my hot poker plant. I picked it up and found that it was a juvenile robin that probably died on impact. Nathan gently buried the bird in his garden and then picked flowers to lay on the top of the grave. Sariah asked me if the bird was already in heaven.

Life and death. Poor little inexperienced bird that gave my kids a 'life experience' in its death.

Birds of Florida

I mentioned that the house we rented came with a kayak. We could kayak around Pine Island into a marshy area and see all kinds of birds. It was amazing. I spent a lot of time looking through a "Birds of Florida" book to identify the birds I was seeing. Sometimes I could and sometimes I couldn't. I'll give it my best shot with the following pictures (labels are below the pictures):

Great Blue Heron

Laughing Gulls

White Ibis

Osprey (he's hard to see, but the nest is on top of the sign)

Brown Pelicans (plus a duck)

Cormorant

Crane

I never figured this one out. Joseph's guess was Sandpiper, I think.

Cattle Egret

Grackle