After a long day of rain, imagine you’re out with your fiance at a nearby marsh when you spot an unusual colored bird.
A large pink wading bird.
A Roseate Spoonbill.
In Michigan.
That’s not usual.
In the United States, the Roseate Spoonbill is usually found in the southeast. Almost a thousand miles away.
But that’s what a local couple found in Saline, Michigan this weekend. Continue reading Photo of the Week: Roseate Spoonbill, Rare Bird and First State Record for Michigan
The black V on the throat against the yellow breast stood out for me when I saw the sparrow-sized bird singing away on the fence.
The male Dickcissel with the rust-colored shoulders always makes me smile when I see it in summer, because I typically only find it when I hear it singing.
Dickcissels are one of Michigan’s grassland birds, along with Savannah Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, Eastern Meadowlarks, and Bobolinks. Continue reading Photo of the Week: Singing Dickcissel
Along with dozens of other birders in southeast Michigan and beyond, I traveled to Lake Erie Metropark in Brownstown Township, Michigan in late May to look for the slender Wilson’s Phalarope, a rare shorebird for Wayne County, Michigan.
Smaller and more slender than a Killdeer, the Wilson’s Phalarope has a needle-thin black bill, cinnamon colored neck, white breast, broad black strip on the gray back, with lanky black legs during breeding season. Continue reading Photo of the Week: Wilson’s Phalarope at Lake Erie Metropark