# Gentle winter brings area unusual birds



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

We are still seeing bluebirds that never left for the winter. We clean out the bluebird houses in the fall and have them available as winter storm shelters when needed.

Gentle winter brings area unusual birds
Monday, January 14, 2002
by Mike Magner 

Bird watchers across America are chirping with delight this winter as warmer temperatures, food shortages further north and the usual array of wayward birds have brought scores of extraordinary sightings.

Snowy owls from Canada have been spotted in Muskegon, a black-throated gray warbler from out West is living near Centreville and thousands of cranes, geese and ducks are hanging around many of Michigan's still-unfrozen lakes and ponds, ornithologists report.

Feller DeWitt, who on Dec. 14 and 15 participated in Muskegon County's 72nd annual bird count, said a purple sandpiper and a harlequin duck were the two most unusual birds spotted here this year.

The purple sandpiper's habitat is normally western states. The duck normally is found much farther north or west. They are spotted here on occasion though, DeWitt said.

"I don't understand this myself," DeWitt said. With the mild weather also up north, it seems birds native to those areas would stay there, he said.

DeWitt chairs the 80-member Muskegon County Nature Club's Christmas count. He said the bird-watching hobby is so much fun because annually there are many unexpected sightings.

Causing "quite a stir," are the sage thrasher and the black-throated gray warbler which have been spotted in the state, although they are western birds, DeWitt said.

Elsewhere in recent weeks, there have been robins in Minneapolis, bluebirds in Chicago and an ash-throated flycatcher in Boston far from its usual winter home in Mexico.

Birders from Michigan, Ohio and other states also have been trekking to a suburban Cleveland home where a rare brown-headed nuthatch has taken up residence.

"It's been an interesting season," said Geoff LeBaron, director of the National Audubon Society's 102nd Christmas Bird Count, just completed by thousands of volunteers at nearly 2,000 locations. "My understanding is there's been a lot of interesting stuff all over the place."

When "unusual species" are seen during the Dec. 14-Jan. 5 bird count, volunteers flag them with a "US" on reports sent to the Audubon Society's Web site (www.audubon.org), LeBaron said. "We'll probably see more 'US' flags than normal this year," he said.

Among the unusual species reported in Michigan so far have been a blue-winged teal in Coloma, a merlin in Gobles, an Iceland gull in Genesee County, a red-breasted nuthatch and a short-eared owl in Tuscola and a red-shouldered hawk in Clinton.

In Manistee alone there were four unusual species: a red-throated loon, a black scoter, a northern flicker and a yellow-bellied sapsucker.

Rare bird sightings are actually routine for ornithologists in Michigan, where more than 400 different species are known to live or visit.

"It was remarkably average" on Jan. 1, when an Audubon count was done in Wayne County, said Julie Graves, supervisor of the Rouge River Bird Observatory at the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus.

"We had about the same number of species as last year," Graves said. "The biggest difference was because of the (December 2000) freeze, there were no Canada geese last year. This year we have a lot of them."

The high numbers of waterfowl lingering in January's rare open waters around the state is the biggest surprise this winter, agreed Joe Johnson, manager of Michigan State University's Kellogg Bird Sanctuary in Augusta.

"There are more sandhill cranes, kingfishers, a large number of sea gulls and unusual numbers of ducks," Johnson said. Hardy waterfowl can stick around until the waters freeze, then make a short migration until the spring thaw, he said. "They can go to Kentucky in 10 hours and then come back."

More fragile songbirds have no such option, said Audubon's LeBaron. They either migrate south when the days get shorter in late summer and early fall, or they don't survive, he said.

Of course, there are always stragglers "usually young birds or ones with something wrong, who may have just not gotten it right," he said. Most die in the first heavy snow, "but the way the weather went this year, more of those straggling birds were able to survive longer," he said.

There also have been scattered "irruptions," or streams of birds from areas where food has become scarce, LeBaron said.

Snowy owls have flocked south from Canada, where rodent populations have dwindled, he said, while redpoles, crossbills and pine grosbeaks that normally nest in Canadian forests descended into the northern United States last fall in search of fruits and seeds.

The constant changes are why at least 50 million Americans are into bird-watching, said Sue Wells, executive director of the National Bird-Feeding Society based in Northbrook, Ill.

"There are no absolutes with the birds," Wells said. "I think this is probably one of the biggest charms about the activity and why people get so enamored of the hobby. No two days are ever alike in your back yard."

*

If you have an eagle eye, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources wants you. Through Tuesday, residents can report sightings of bald eagles in Michigan. Last year, a two-week eagle spotting survey turned up 1,510 reports in 74 of the state's 83 counties. Most were from schools, recreationists and a few from residents, the DNR reports. Bald eagles can be found throughout the state. Look for them near ice-free rivers, dams, cooling ponds at power plants, and at road kill locations.

For more information on reporting the wildlife sighting, go to www.michigan.gov and click on "Travel and Recreation."


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## johnhunter (Jun 17, 2000)

Had a group of about about 4 dozen robins in my yard in Novi in mid-January. I was surprised.

Saw bluebirds in Hillsdale county on 1/1.


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## fishandhunt (Dec 14, 2000)

Go to Fish Point to see snowy owls. I've seen probably 3 or 4 a day up there. I was deer hunting during muzzle loading season in an old beat up duck blind with a plywood top and one lit right on top for 10 minutes. Another time I was walking out and one sat on a rock and stared me down from 10 feet away. I haven't got to see one feed yet. Fish Point is on Saginaw Bay and aside from the duck hunting, there is a lot of opportunity to see birds. A large number of raptors migrate through the area. Ive seen Red Tailed Hawks, Coopers Hawks, Peregrine Falcons, Red Shouldered Hawks, American Kestrel, Osprey, Northern Shrike, Sparrow Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Bald Eagles, Northern Goshawks, Northern Harriers, Rough Legged Hawks and a few more I couldnt identify.

All manner of waterfowl, from snow geese to lesser geese, even oldsquaw, harlequins, white winged scoters and Sandhill cranes. Plenty of wading/shorebirds too, egrets, herons (blue & green), bitterns, rails, even the rare piping plover. 

There are also many varieties of songbirds. I had a Carolina Wren nest in my shrubs! Ive seen a few Evening Grosbeaks, many different tangers, vireos, finches, flycatchers, warblers, Baltimore Orioles, Yellow Headed Blackbirds, Cedar Waxwings, etc. etc.


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