Probably my most enjoyable Michigan birding experience ever

And I don't use those words lightly. For years I have wanted to see a Smith's Longspur anywhere in the world, but have not been privileged to do so. This includes searching on the e. Denali Highway in Alaska where they breed. In recent years, I have suspected that they might be more common in MI than the available evidence suggests, and that we're missing them due to low abundance, low detectability, and the low frequency of birders targeting the microhabitat during the appropriate window of time. This still remains unresolved, but against this backdrop I was only mildly surprised that a flock of these birds was found (by Alison Village) yesterday in Berrien County. In recent weeks there has been a flock of 35 of these beauts hanging out in w. central Ohio, and I couldn't understand how such birds could make it to the arctic without passing through Michigan.

In any event, when I caught wind of Alison's sighting I immediately began building contingencies to chase. At first light this morning I was able to be at the location, where I was greeted with overcast skies, intermittent drizzle, and cold winds from the north. I was ALSO greeted by the songs of at least 4 male Smith's Longspurs from less than 100 ft! Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the birds were displaying! The display involved the birds crouching until their bellies hit the ground, then lifting their tails straight up into the air, and finally fluttering their wings. It was SHOCKING to witness this behavior in Michigan, to say the least.

These birds are absolutely GORGEOUS. To me, they are right there with Painted Buntings in terms of their striking, colorful, clown-like pattern. I wanted to call them Harlequin Sparrows. The face pattern at times recalled Lark Sparrow, at times even Harlequin Duck. And the salmon-tinged orange underparts constituted a color I have never before witnessed on a bird.

Put all this together, and you have easily one of my most memorable birding experiences in my Michigan birding career, and probably my life. I nailed a nemesis and saw a very rare and strikingly gorgeous bird, in unprecedented numbers (at least 20) for Michigan (previous record is 3 individuals from Chippewa Co in 1994). This would be Michigan's 15th record if accepted, only the fourth from spring. Will flocks such as this become more regular in s. MI in late April in future years?

With no further adieu, here are my photos:

No words necessary.

At times the males appeared to have a more intense buffy color on the nape than on the underparts reminiscent of Chestnut-collared Longspur.


Clown-like face pattern.

The only acceptable photo of a female all day.

Note the extensive white in the outer tail (2 feathers on each side rather than 1 in Lapland)

A rare spring Long-billed Dowitcher and 2 oddities

Comments on each of these birds are forthcoming...

Laplands in spring

I've been so busy updating the 09yardbirds blog lately that I haven't been able to post here for a while. It was really nice to get out to the wastewater for the first time in a long time this morning. Though the weather was very cold and unpleasant (intermittent snowflakes, even), the wastewater is totally thawed out and spring is in the air. Had many new yearbirds including Greater Yellowlegs, Tree Swallow, Cackling Goose, Wigeon, Shoveler, Redhead, and Canvasback, but the highlight of the trip were the 40+ Lapland Longspurs along Swanson halfway between Apple and Laketon. It's not their rarity that got me going today (I was trying to make sure there were no Smith's Longspurs in the group, believe me). It's the unusually nice looks (and listens) I was treated to. Typically, my experience with spring longspurs is that they rarely sit still and when they do, it's most often way out in fields where good looks are impossible. This time, I picked up on them in flight by the rattle and followed them to the ground where they fed at length, probably less than 200ft away. The birds blended in fantastically well and often I couldn't see a single one of them, but eventually when they became alert and upright, I was able to score a couple shots of the flock with their heads up.

As you can see, most of the males are in transition or have already attained their alternate plumage, making them very striking birds indeed! This is not a plumage I often get go

od looks at anywhere in Michigan, so I spent a lot of time taking it in. Also, much to my surprise, I actually heard at least 1 bird belt out a weak version of its song, which I've never before heard (in Michigan or elsewhere). It's reminiscent of both Western Meadowlark and Chestnut-collared Longspur, definitely a grassland-ish sound, kind of "twinkling" and ethereal (lack of better words). 

Here is a little better looks at these beauts highly cropped:

A REAL green-morph Pine Siskin (I think)

Well, after waffling on Friday's unusually pale Pine Siskin, today I had another individual (not the same bird) which appears to be the real thing (!). This bird is also considerably more washed-out on the underparts than normal Siskins, but its upperparts appear to be largely as dark a shade of brown as the others, not the washed-out, diluted, color of Friday's bird. What's more, this one has immense amounts of yellow in the bases of the remiges and rectrices which were striking even to the naked eye, in addition to the strongly yellow undertail and uppertail areas. There was a definite greenish tint on the mantle (stronger in some views than in others), and some yellowish in the flanks and neck as well. Thoughts on this bird would be welcomed in the comments box.

Here is the only comparison shot which includes a normally-plumaged PISI.

Variation in Pine Siskins

Year after year I continue to notice strange-looking Pine Siskins in small numbers amongst the larger flocks. And year after year I wonder whether they could be the so-called 'green morph' Pine Siskin. Typically, I end up unsure and move on, usually wondering exactly what a green morph Pine Siskin. Case in point, this extremely washed-out bird which just showed up at my feeder with about 15-20 others.


Could this be a green morph Pine Siskin? A recent post to Ohio Birds showed photos of 1 such apparent individual, and more importantly included a link to the definitive article on how to identify these birds, focusing on how to distinguish them from the very similar female Eurasian Siskin. From what I can gather, green morph Pine Siskins are essentially duller brown, washed-out versions of the typical form, with reduced streaking (esp. on the flanks and underpars), greenish coloration in the upperparts, yellow in the undertail and uppertail coverts (not all birds), more extensive yellow in the underparts, and a more extensive yellow patch on primary bases.

McLaren et al say "... greenish Pine Siskins look like ordinary ones that have lost their heavy brown streaks, revealing an underlying pattern of gray and yellow that blend into green hues overlaid by a fainter remnant of the original streaking. This may be interpreted as an example of schizochroism, in which the phaeomelanin (brown) is reduced or absent while both eumelanin
(black) and carotenoids (yellow) are retained (Campbell and Lack 1985)."

So, back to my bird. It clearly appears to be a washed-out version of a typical Pine Siskin, with major reductions in streaking below, and very pale brown plumage overall. But I see no green hues in my bird at all, no yellow in the undertail coverts, and no more yellow on the bases of the remiges and rectrices than a typical Pine Siskin. It also seems to show no yellow in the underparts. Is this in the acceptable range of variation of green morph Pine Siskins? I don't know (a familiar answer!), but I certainly am not prepared to claim that it is. I have seen enough faded-out individuals similar to this one that I think it may just be a pale variant Pine Siskin, perhaps even one with minor hypomelanism (see "Color Abnormalities in Birds: A Proposed Nomenclature for Birders" by Jeff N. Davis, Birding 39(5):36-46.), a condition in which Davis states there is an "abnormal reduction of melanin concentration from the plumage, skin, eyes, or all three areas". A photograph of a hypomelanistic Common Grackle is seen on page 41 of that article, and seems to be similar in pigment reduction to my Siskin.

Nelson's Sparrow- YES!

There will be many more details to come, but I am happy to announce that today (27 Sep) Tim Baerwald found an inland weedy, flooded field which held at least 2, probably more Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows in Berrien County this morning! My 2 years of searching for the species in Michigan have finally led to a hit- although not one I found on my own.

Here are photos of 1 of the birds and several of the habitat. If you join Tim in his search tomorrow morning (public access is still being worked out), be forewarned that the water is knee-high in many areas, and the whole area is weedy and mucky!

Enjoy the photos, more analysis to come...

A late Cerulean & the beauty of kayaking

The thing I like most about kayaking is the opportunity to explore otherwise unexplorable places. In the spring and summer of 2007 I and several of my friends used this strategy to survey several river drainages for the rare Cerulean Warbler, and we made some neat discoveries. Among other things, we found and GPS'ed the territories of 18 different male Ceruleans along the banks of the Muskegon River and Big Cedar Creek within the Muskegon State Game Area. This is a very wild area that remains unexplored in many ways. The banks are lined with mature canopy forest:
This morning I took the opportunity to get my first taste of fall at this site. When I arrived at above location (an area of particularly high density of Cerulean territories) I noticed a few chickadees and was able to get a mobbing flock going with pishing and Screech-Owl whistles. Much to my amazement, I noticed a male Cerulean Warbler high in the canopy overhead checking things out. He never came closer than about 60 ft overhead, and so I only managed these poor shots:
This struck me as a fairly late date for this species, especially because it appeared to be on territory (and not a lingering migrant in inappropriate habitat). Chartier and Ziarno have this species present in the s. Lower Peninsula into mid-September, and the Birds of MI claims that a few linger into September with 2 Oct 1962 (Kalamazoo Co.) constituting the latest report on record. I would be curious to know others' late dates for this species, and especially others' late dates for birds on territory (my bird was in the exact location of a June 2007 territory, was an adult male, and was there for at least 30 minutes [i.e. apparently not wandering]).

For those who haven't had the pleasure of floating the Muskegon State Game Area here are a few more shots of birds and habitat.