Photo of the Week: Shorebird Migration Begins

A Solitary Sandpiper, a medium-sized brown shorebird with white belly, and white-dotted brown back looks up briefly as it forages in shallow waters on the mudflat.

It’s that time of year when shorebirds migrate south from their breeding grounds. The first shorebirds began arriving in southeast Michigan over the past couple weeks.

While it’s exciting to see shorebirds return to our area after several months up north, their return is also the beginning of my grumbling, ranting season.

Shorebirds are hard enough to identify when they’re in breeding plumage, with bright colors that make it a bit easier to distinguish what they are.

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Photo of the Week: Vesper Sparrow

Large brown sparrow with short bill, half obscured by green leaves, perched on a brown tree branch with blue sky in the background.

This weekend was one of the few times I’ve actually seen a Vesper Sparrow, instead of only hearing it singing its distinctive song of whistles, trill, and buzz.

As you can tell from my photo of the half-obscured bird, it’s not one of my better photos.

I could barely make out the large sparrow with thin white eyering, short bill, crisp brown streaks on its breast, and long tail in the mass of green leaves.

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Photo of the Week: Eastern Towhee

Large sparrow with thick bill, long tail, black head, brown flanks, and white breast perches on a brown tree branch. The bird has its mouth open as it sings. Shadows and green leaves with muted blue sky in the background.

I could hear the unmistakable song of “drink your tea” from a distance at one of my favorite local birding locations.

The sound was coming from a lower branch of a tree bordering the trail.

As I approached the area of the bird’s song, I peered up into the tree leaves and shadows, searching each branch until I finally found the black-headed brown and white bird.

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