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.

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!:

Vicious snake under influence of resident charmer!

Hummingbird Moth

When I was pregnant with Nathan, Joseph and I took many, many walks. Our favorite route was through the neighborhoods of Provo ending up on the south hill that climbs up to the campus of BYU. On that hill were many plum trees which were ripe in the month of August. Joseph picked and picked and we ate and ate. Near my favorite plum tree, we often saw a hummingbird moth. It was usually dark, so we didn't get a good look, but I had seen them before and knew what they looked like.

Yesterday, when we got home from Lake Huron (Nathan and Joseph had arrived home a few hours earlier from Scout Camp), Nathan excitedly told me that he had seen a tiny hummingbird. I said, "Hmmm," as I often do. Later, I went outside to water my flowers and pull a few of my many weeds and saw the little creature that Nathan was talking about buzzing around the bee balm.

I didn't take the picture below, but it is a great depiction of what we saw. Our bee balm is waning, just like in the picture below. Cool creature!


More about Lake Huron and Scout Camp coming later!

Terror in my Eyes!

How'd you like to wake up to this bad boy staring you in the eyes?



O.k. so it wasn't in by my bed, it was on the kitchen counter under this glass, but still! Nasty. I wouldn't let Joseph take the glass off for an ant photo shoot. It makes me yell and dance around like crazy. He wasn't here when I lifted the carpet piece up from inside the cupboard which was teeming with this guy's little brothers.

Planet Earth

My friend, Kristen, told me that they had gotten the "Planet Earth: as you've never seen it before" DVD's produced by BBC video for Christmas and that they were wonderful. They just couldn't stop watching them.

I got right on the list at the library. It took until last Saturday for me to be able to check them out. The kids have been watching them a little bit this week, but I've been busy. How much I've missed!

I decided that the kids and I would watch an episode last night before they crawled into bed. I meant to watch "Deep Ocean," but one about forests came on while I was switching the laundry into the drier. I'm not sorry at all! Intriguing. Beautiful. Enlightening. These are all about nature at it's best. A peek into a world that is rarely seen. If you get the chance to see them, please do!! I have to return them today, but I'm going right back on the waiting list!

Squirrels

Growing up in Utah, we didn't see squirrels much unless we went to the mountains. When we moved to Massachusetts, I thought it was great that there were squirrels running around the back yard all the time. Our devil-cat Pepper, used to kill them and leave them as prizes on our door step.

Here in Michigan there seem to be about three species of squirrels running around and I now think of them as rodents, not cute, unless Brigham catches sight of one and gets excited. They eat up all of the suet cakes meant for the birds. They get into the garbage and also into our garden.

Today while driving down the road, one darted out to run across the road. If you've ever witnessed this, you know how crazy they can be, zipping back and forth trying to wrap their dumb little minds around the fact that there is danger and they should snap out of it and run to the side of the road. If I'm driving and I see wildlife (it happened in Florida when I saw a Great Blue Heron sauntering across the road), I usually slow or stop if possible, but I don't usually swerve. It would be useless to swerve with a squirrel anyway. In swerving, I'd probably hit it.

Long story short, I hit the squirrel with one of my back tires and it died instantly, contrary to the one my dad hit once that writhed and wriggled on the road for a while. My kids, who still like squirrels, were concerned and Sariah started singing the "Squirrels" song starting with, "Don't kill us squirrels." and continuing with, "We're cute and harmless, we are squirrels." Which brings me to my next point.

Who says squirrels are cute and harmless? I may have already blogged this story, but I don't want to go back and check. About nine years ago, when we were moving out of our apartment into our house, I was baking cookies in our apartment and since it was unseasonably warm, I opened the door so the sunlight could come in through the storm door. This crazy squirrel must have smelled the cookies from all I can guess because suddenly it hurled itself against the door. Then, it would run back some distance, get a running start and throw itself against the door again. Several more iterations! I don't call that cute. I don't call that harmless. That wretched, probably rabid squirrel is on my mind today.

Oh, the reason there's no picture to go with this post is because Joseph didn't want to get out of the van and take a picture of my road kill with my cell phone. The nerve!

Florida Wildlife

Besides the birds, we also saw some other animals:

The manatees, of course

Alligators kept in a cage at the boat rental place. They did tell us there have been some sightings in the river lately. I made sure to ask if it would be dangerous!

Lizards, hard to catch

It's mating seasons for the horseshoe crabs!

At least three different species of flutterby

There were hundreds and hundreds of these huge dragonflies around. I guess they were eating up the mosquitoes because we weren't bothered by the bugs.

These are interesting. When we first got there, we picked these globs out of the water which I surmised to be some kind of eggs. By the time we left, they were like big boogers. My guess is that it's hatching time.

Baby turtles hatching on the beach.

We also saw dolphins on two occasions, lots of crabs, fish in the ocean and also really cool fish in the river. There were lots more kinds of birds too!