Photo of the Week: Elusive Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron sitting on a tree limb

What a pleasant surprise I had yesterday! I added three life birds (Horned Grebe, Lesser Scaup, and American Golden Plover) to my birding list, and saw lots of migrating water birds and several neotropical songbirds near Lake Erie.

It was wonderful to see the life birds, though I wish I had been able to capture better shots of them (you’ll see a shot of the Horned Grebe at the end of this post).

Nonetheless, one of the birds that stood out for me was the Black-crowned Night Heron I saw at Erie Marsh Preserve in Monroe Michigan, just north of the Ohio border. Continue reading Photo of the Week: Elusive Black-crowned Night Heron

Photo of the Week: Bonaparte’s Gulls at Ford Lake

Two Bonaparte's Gull swimming on Ford Lake

Spring brings thousands of birds through southeastern Michigan, as raptors, songbirds, and waterbirds migrate north to Canada and beyond for their summer breeding season.

And this weekend, spring migration brought through the Bonaparte’s Gull, a small bird that winters along the coastline of Texas, Mississippi, and Mexico, but spends its summer breeding season in the taiga and boreal forest of central and western Canada. Continue reading Photo of the Week: Bonaparte’s Gulls at Ford Lake

Photo of the Week: Common Loon at Newburg Lake

Common Loon

What a treat! Seeing the Common Loon at Newburg Lake was a FOY (first of year) find for me. Check out the bright red eye and the white collar, distinguishing marks for the Common Loon. If I hadn’t read about the sighting in our Michigan birding email list, I would never have known the loons… Continue reading Photo of the Week: Common Loon at Newburg Lake