Northern Saw-whet Owl - 3/27/06 - Aberdeen Park - Kent Cty - MI 

Northern Saw-whet Owl 

Northern Saw-whet Owl 

Northern Saw-whet Owl 

Ross's Goose - 3/26/06 - CTH D pond - Racine Cty - WI - taken with a digital camera through my binoculars 

Ross's Goose 

Ross's Goose 

Ross's Goose - 3/26/06 - CTH D pond Racine Cty - WI 

Ross's Goose - 3/26/06 - CTH D pond - Racine Cty - WI 

Greylag Goose

Black-headed Gull 

Common Gull 

Greylag Goose

Rose-ringed Parakeets 

Blackbird 

Robin 

Robin 

Spring Break trip to London

I was able to go on a trip to London with my dad this past Monday and Tuesday. While we didn't have much time there to begin with, we were able to bird for about 2.5 hours in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens Tuesday morning. The highlights for me were 4 species of tits (Blue, Great, Long-tailed, and Coal), Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Tufted Ducks, and a couple of Redwings. I saw a total of 40 species - 30 of which were lifers for me. I will post some of my best photos above.

Muskegon Lakefront

Caleb and I went over to the Muskegon lakefront on Tuesday in search of a reported Mew Gull. We spent about 4 hours on the lakefront and came away with probably 300 Ring-billed and maybe 40 Herring Gulls but nothing else. There were some ducks moving around out there - notably at least 1200 Long-tailed Ducks flying around off the mouth of the river. Hooded Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, and Greater Scaup were the only other species we observed in the river and along Lake Michigan. We went inland and searched for a Varied Thrush that was staked out and came up empty on that bird. We checked North Muskegon's Custer Park on Muskegon Lake and found a nice diversity of waterfowl on there. At least 120 Scaup, 2 Redhead, 35+ Common Merganser, and 47 Mute Swans were present.
We stopped at the Muskegon Wastewater facility on the way back and among the 100 or so Herring Gulls at the dump was a beautiful adult Glaucous Gull. A Bald Eagle flushed off the breakwall and flushed many of the gulls. The Central dike had a fairly light streaked Snowy Owl which we watched fly along the dike in front of us. Several Snow Buntings flushed and towards the end of the dike there were 5 Green-winged Teal along with Gadwall and American Black Ducks. White Road had several Rough-legged Hawks, a Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, and the below Golden Eagle which allowed us to drive right up to it. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and the Glaucous Gull and Golden Eagle were both Michigan birds for me. Muskegon Wastewater continues to amaze me...

Golden Eagle - 2/7/06 - Muskegon Wastewater - MI