At the end of the year, birders commonly list their top sightings for the year.
And this year was an exciting year for me!
Shorebirds, a raptor enjoying the plentiful cicadas, and an unexpected large wading bird made my list of top bird sightings.
It was hard to rank which bird was more thrilling to find, so I’ve listed my top birds in chronological order.
Many were life birds, meaning they were birds I saw for the first time.
Other birds were vagrants, birds found outside their typical habitat, or rare birds not typically seen in southeast Michigan.
- Eared Grebe
Seen in Wyandotte, Michigan, along the shore of the Detroit River in Bishop Park.While the Detroit River was almost completely covered with ice, the grebe was found swimming in open water next to the boardwalk, much to the delight of birders.
- Whooping Crane
While I’ve seen the Whooping Crane in the past in Michigan, I haven’t seen it in the past two years.Until March 2021, when it was spotted in a former golf course, so far out from where I could find it that any photo I would take was blurry. Here’s my poor photo of the Whooping Crane in Lenawee County.
- Summer Tanager
One of my favorite birds to find this year, I spent almost an hour looking for it at Nankin Lake in Wayne County.Frustrated with not finding the tanager, I was on my way to my car when I met two other birders, also looking for it. Within five minutes, one of the birders found it, high up in the canopy.
- Mississippi Kite
Word spread quickly within the birding community when the Mississippi Kite was found in eastern Washtenaw County.Typically seen in south-central United States, the slender, gray raptor was found in a nature preserve where it could enjoy meals of cicadas. Life bird!
- Wilson’s Phalarope
Possibly the first confirmed Michigan breeding record in years, a pair of Wilson’s Phalaropes chose Lake Erie Metropark in Brownstown Township to raise their young.Smaller than a Killdeer, I could barely see the Wilson’s Phalaropes in the tall blades of grass.
- Yellow-breasted Chat
A life bird, I only found it from song identification with Merlin.After confirming the song, I perused the tree tops to find the yellow-breasted bird with thick bill and white spectacles high up in the tree canopy.
- Roseate Spoonbill
An unexpected find in Michigan, the vagrant Roseate Spoonbill was found in mid-July in Washtenaw County, Michigan.How a wading bird that’s usually seen along the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and South America found its way to southeast Michigan was a hot discussion topic in the birding community.
- Piping Plover
Another first, a nesting pair of Piping Plovers along the shores of Lake Erie in northwest Ohio, at Maumee Bay State Park.It was a celebration for me to see them and watch the pair raise their young throughout the summer, the first nesting pair in 83 years in Ohio.
This photo was taken of Erie in September 2021, the last remaining Piping Plover chick in the park before migrating south.
- Hudsonian Godwit
Originally identified as a Marbled Godwit, the large shorebird with long bill attracted dozens of birders to the shore of Sterling State Park in Monroe, Michigan.
- Cape May Warbler
While not a rare bird for our area, seeing a Cape May Warbler at my backyard feeder was an unexpected find this fall.They would have usually migrated south, I suspect it was one of the last Cape May Warblers in the area.
Wrapping Up
For me, it was a fun year of birding.
Since I rarely use Facebook and I don’t have What’s App, my bird sightings were based on my regular bird outings with my husband as well as reports on the longtime birding mail list and eBird.
I am very thankful for eBird and the Merlin app, tremendous tools that helped me identify birds.
