Screech-owl Pellet

Posted on April 5, 2020 by admin

I am “social distancing” myself because of the COVID-19 virus. My nature observations are limited to my neighborhood, reminding me that I am surrounded by nature.

I found an owl pellet in my front “lawn.” I see or hear a Great Horned Owl in my yard a few times a year. Eastern Screech-owls nest here. The pellet I found was about 2-inches long, too small to be from a Great Horned Owl. Owls swallow their prey whole and regurgitate undigested feathers, bones, fur, and the hard parts of insects. Dissecting pellets reveals part of the diet of an owl. It does not show soft-bodied animals such as worms or soft-shelled insects. Eastern Screech-owls eat small birds, small mammals, worms, insects, frogs and even crawfish. My pellet contained feathers and the upper mandible of a bird. From the shape of the mandible I believe it was from a House Sparrow. It is difficult to determine the feather color after they have been in an owl’s stomach.

Eastern Screech-owls live in suburbia and nest in a tree cavity in my yard just outside of Detroit. We once found a family of young owls lined up along a branch over our deck. I think they look undignified when they come at twilight to our birdbath. I often hear them calling in the early evening or just after dark. They do not “hoot” as a stereotypical owl does, but they have a soft, trilling, whinny call. The link at the bottom of the page will take you to Bird-sounds.net and you can listen to their call. If you learn their distinctive call, you might hear it in your own yard.

Learn their call and listen for them. They are nesting now, and when they are on territory, they are more vocal.

Link to Screech-owl call on Bird-sounds.

Webpage Michigan Nature Guy
Follow MichiganNatureGuy on Facebook

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Posted on March 22, 2020 by admin

Recently (February 29^th) I visited Shiawassee Park in Farmington, Michigan to search for the Black-bellied Whistling Duck. This duck normally occurs in Texas, Louisiana, and Arizona, but one individual has hung around southeastern Michigan since last August. This is the eighth Michigan record. Normally I don’t chase after other people’s bird sightings, but it was the first sunny day in weeks, and I wanted to get out of the house.

The Upper Rouge River flows through the park. Water quality along this stretch of river is good. One sign of the water quality is the Redside Dace (Clinostomus elongatus), a state endangered minnow, occurs here. Speckled Alders (Alnus incana), several a foot in diameter, grow along this winding river. A Tufted Titmouse called “Peter, Peter, Peter” from the opposite bank. Spring is coming.

I sauntered along the river, enjoying the sunshine and my quiet time alone. I continued watching the stream and found only Mallards. Mallards are pretty ducks with their green heads set off from their brown breasts by a narrow band of white. If they were rarer, people would stop ignoring them.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck confronting Mallard

I found the Black-bellied Whistling Duck with a group of Mallards. It was standing on a submerged log. I could see its pink legs under the water. Other field marks of this distinctive duck are a pinkish-red bill, a gray cheek patch, white eye ring, and a black belly. They are nocturnal feeders and this one had her/his bill tucked under their wing sleeping. A Mallard got too close and suddenly the Whistling Duck woke up, snapping its bill. It didn’t call. I wanted to hear its whistle.

This short walk renewed my spirit. I hope the signs of spring I observed were real. I’m ready for a rebirth.

Webpage Michigan Nature Guy
Follow MichiganNatureGuy on Facebook

A Canada Goose fostered by Sandhill Cranes

Posted on July 9, 2019 by admin

At Kensington Metropark near Milford Michigan a Sandhill Crane family has adopted a Canada Goose gosling. This extended family is the most photographed bird group in the state. A Canada Goose probably laid an egg in a Sandhill Crane nest. When it hatched the cranes adopted it as their own; feeding the downy gosling along with their own colt. Currently the gosling is feeding itself while foraging with its family. It seems to be developing normally and appears healthy.

This is the first documentation of a Sandhill Crane raising a Canada Goose but it might have occurred before. Sandhill Cranes are typically secretive nesters so a mixed family would be unobserved. There is an article from Alaska Public Radio by Nina Faust titled “The Goose that Thought He was a Sandhill Crane” that could document another mixed family. It documents a Canada Goose that is traveling around Homer with a Sandhill Crane family. No one witnessed a gosling with the cranes. I often see mixed flocks of cranes and geese in fields during the fall as they congregate before migration. An extended family would be unnoticeable.

I doubt we will ever know what happens to this family once the young fledge. All the birds are unbanded and they will be untrackable once they leave the area. I hope the gosling’s instincts allows her (or him) to be a normal Canada Goose despite its incredible upbringing.

Webpage Michigan Nature Guy
Follow MichiganNatureGuy on Facebook

Snowy Owl Quest

Posted on January 22, 2018 by admin

American Goldeneye L Phantom Snowy Owl R

I met Trapper Dave and Bobcat Bill at Foote Dam on the Au Sable River. Mallards and Common Goldeneyes swam below the dam. Cold air, -10 degrees F, and a five mile an hour breeze stung my cheeks. We headed toward the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base and possible Snowy Owls. We scanned the snow covered runways for owls. We saw no owls. Our only birds were a flock of Rock Pigeons on one of the hanger roofs. We decided to continue our owl quest at Tuttle Marsh.

Tuttle Marsh National Wildlife Area covers 5000 acres and is managed by the Huron National Forest. A loop road leads around the impoundment and my imagination turns every snow covered stub or small snow mound into an owl. We stop frequently and at one stop we find an otter slide. The otters crossed the road, slid down the bank and then pranced across a frozen pond. They are the only Michigan mammal to play solely to have fun.

We continue to the mouth of the Au Sable River and walk out the catwalk into Lake Huron. Shards of ice, several feet across, line the shore. Ice chunks float down the river and several Goldeneyes swim among them. On the lake side of the walk several round ice disks spin with the wave action. The turning disks contact other disks or rocks and wear down any sharp edges. I can see the disks growing in size as small pieces of floating ice adhere to the outside of the disk. Red-breasted Mergansers float in the waves out in the big lake. A stiff wind blows and we don’t dare stand in the open too long at these temperatures. We flee back to the warmth of the truck.

Otter slide and tracks

At Loud Dam we see a hundred Trumpeter Swans below the dam. I hear them call as I get out of the truck. Trumpeter Swan recovery is one of the greatest conservation stories. In 1933 only 66 Trumpeter Swans existed in the 48 states, fewer than I have in my current view. They are a common sight now in the Grayling area and we find one or two nests every year without searching. Buffleheads, Goldeneyes, Mallards, Common Mergansers are mixed in with the swans. David Sibley has some helpful tips for separating Trumpeter Swans from Tundra Swans.

Trumpeter Swans

Ice crystals form unique patterns at these temperatures. We find pretty crystal shapes along small streams and at the edge of the river.

Ice Crystals

We spent the day wandering through Nature even though the temperature never reached zero. We dressed for it and knew when to seek shelter from the wind. Despite the lack of a Snowy Owl it was a fun day. There are things to see outdoors in Michigan no matter the season. Get out and look.

Webpage Michigan Nature Guy
Follow MichiganNatureGuy on Facebook

Common Loon: Michigan’s Northern Icon

Posted on February 17, 2015 by admin

L-Adult Common Loon with young of year R-Young of year

No other bird signifies the wilds of northern Michigan better than the Common Loon (Gavia immer). When I wake up while camping along the shore of a northern lake and feel its eerie cry, I am connected to a primitive time and the primitive land.

However, I did not encounter my first loon at a pristine lake as I imagined but rather in the Detroit River. My dad and I were birding from the shoreline of Belle Isle on a dreary November day when I spotted a dull, grey, Common Loon in its winter plumage. Floating low in the water, looking unducklike, I knew immediately it was a loon. I was twelve years old and I still recall my excitement. Detroit smokestacks formed the background. My next loon was seen and heard the following summer at Lake Michigamme in the Upper Peninsula. This was the first time I heard its haunting call.

Common Loons breed in Michigan north of Saginaw. Our current population is 500-775 nesting pairs. While this is up from the estimated 220 pairs in the early 1980s, there are still thousands of suitable lakes without a nesting pair. Loons are diving birds with their legs placed toward their tails. This gives them trouble walking on land. It is rare to see a loon on land except at its nest. Loons return in early spring and it is not uncommon to see them on a lake the day after its ice melts. How they know that the water is open remains a mystery. Nests are built near the waterline and often touch the water. Nests are little more than bare ground when the eggs are laid. Both parents incubate the eggs and add grass, sedges, reeds, and other vegetation to the nest. My photograph of the nesting loon was taken with a long lens and then cropped down. The resolution makes this image too coarse to print but acceptable for a blog post. This nest was on an island and had a safe zone marked around it.

L-Common Loon on nest R-Warning buoy for boaters

L-Adult birds feeding chick R-Common Loon chick

Both parents feed and defend the young. They flap their wings and call when a predator is nearby, finally diving if danger is too close. The pair that I photographed is on a lake with a nearby Bald Eagle nest. The loons’ behavior alerted me to the presence of the eagle several times. This pair nests on a lake with a lot of watercraft activity even though a suitable (at least suitable to my eyes) lake without boats or loons exists nearby. They will swim close to drifting boats seemingly unafraid, and merely dive to avoid jet skis.

L-Adult Common Loon with watercraft R-Sub-adult Common Loon in second year plumage

L-Adult Common Loon with watercraft R-Common Loon in second year plumage

Immature birds, once they are fledged, resemble winter plumage adults, and gain their adult plumage in their third year. Rarely seen in Michigan are the sub-adult (second year) plumage birds. One was on the lake where I photographed the nesting pair. Winter, immature, and sub-adult plumage Common Loons always have white near their eyes. It might not surround it but they always have a partial eye-ring. This character distinguishes them from other loon species.

We need to set aside bogs along lake edges as well as islands for nesting habitat. Manmade platforms placed at the water’s edge are also effective. If watercraft operators respect the loons’ space they can co-exist. I hope that loons will continue their recovery.
Copyright 2015 by Donald Drife

Webpage Michigan Nature Guy
Follow MichiganNatureGuy on Facebook

Review: “The Kirtland’s Warbler”

Posted on November 17, 2013 by admin

William Rapai’s book The Kirtland’s Warbler: The Story of a Bird’s Fight against Extinction and the People Who Saved It covers the first 170-years of the Kirtland’s Warbler from the first specimen in 1841 through the 2010 warbler census. The University of Michigan Press is to be commended as it continues its tradition of providing sound scientific writings in a readable format. The known population has fluctuated from approximately 330 birds in 1974 and 1987 to over 3500 by 2010. After the 1987 census Doug Middleton (an amateur ornithologist) remarked to me that there were more Kirtland’s Warblers in museum cabinets that currently alive. Since the book was written the population has increased to over 4000 birds.

As I write this review, I sit in the heart of “Kirtland Country.” I am only 15 miles from where Norman Wood discovered the first Kirtland’s Warbler nest. A small plaque marks the location. Across the road is Doug Middleton’s stone cabin used for many years as a base for his studies of the Kirtland’s and other Crawford County warblers. I’m in the Jack Pine Plains and during the spring I often hear Kirtland’s Warblers singing.

Nathan Leopold was one of the first to study the Kirtland’s life history. Leopold is better known for the Leopold and Loeb murder in 1924. Before committing this crime, Leopold collected and had mounted a Kirtland’s nest, young, and a male and female adult bird. Through Doug Middleton’s intervention, this habitat study was presented to the Cranbrook Institute of Science and was on display for many years. I saw it numerous times as a boy.

Rapai documents several unique attempts to study the bird. Both Josselyn Van Tyne (curator of birds at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology) and Harold Mayfield (another amateur ornithologist) attempted unsuccessfully to hand rear young birds. Another plan put forward was to trap the warblers and keep them in captivity each winter. This would remove the hazards of migration and the mortality on the wintering grounds but the plan was never implemented.

In 1971, the Kirtland’s Warbler Advisory Committee was formed. They recommended a Cowbird trapping program and a plan for managing Jack Pine habitat. These have been the keys to the bird’s recovery.

The tragic 1980 Mack Lake fire is also mentioned. Started as a “controlled burn” it lost containment, burning 20,000 acres and killing one firefighter. I walked the area of the fire a week after it burned helping to assess the plant life. I also helped to cut cross-sections of downed, dead trees to determine their ages. I visited the area several times over the next few years as the Jack Pine and other vegetation regenerated.

Rapai points out that the Robin is not technically Michigan’s State Bird and chronicles the attempts to name the Kirtland’s Warbler as the state bird. The Robin was designated the “state bird” via a non-binding resolution and retains that status largely because of tradition.

Rapai mentions the past studies of the warbler’s droppings and current studies being done with pieces of warbler toenails, feathers, and blood samples. Isotopes from these samples reveal what types of food the birds eat, even months earlier when they were on their wintering grounds. He outlines future threats to the bird and calls for continued vigilance to protect the bird’s population

This excellent book preserves the story of the bird’s recovery and the people that worked to make it happen.

Reviewed by Donald Drife

Webpage Michigan Nature Guy
Follow MichiganNatureGuy on Facebook

The Return of the Merlin

Posted on December 21, 2012 by admin

Merlin jess digitally removed (Photo by Donald Drife)

The Merlin is a Blue Jay size falcon. The females are noticeably larger than the males. The males are more colorful possessing a blue-gray back as opposed to the brown back of the female. Like all falcons, they have pointed wings, that they beat rapidly, and a long tail. They lack the brownish color of a Kestrel and never hover to hunt. Their faint “sideburns” and the narrow tail-bands distinguish them from the larger Peregrine Falcon. The “sideburns” on Peregrine Falcons are distinct and their tail-bands are much wider than a Merlin’s.

Merlin showing jess (Photo by Joyce Drife)

The photographs are of a captive female bird kept at the Outdoor Discovery Center in Holland, Michigan. This group sponsors many fine educational programs for all ages including birds of prey photo shoots.

Merlins (Falco columbarius) are increasing their breeding range in Michigan. There are two areas near Grayling, Michigan where I regularly see them. However, I have not found a nest or seen young but the birds are around all summer.

Merlin captive female (Photo by Donald Drife)

Historically, they probably nested in the Upper Peninsula. The first nests found were in the mid-1950s. Their population crashed (along with most raptors) in the 1960s due to DDT and other pesticides. The first Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas survey, during the 1980s, recorded Merlins from 72 townships statewide. The second Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas survey, 2002 though 2008, recorded them from 231 townships. A nest was found as far south as Ottawa County. Old breeding records show that Merlins nested in northern Illinois in the early 1800s. Hopefully, this species will continue to expand its range into southern Michigan.

Don Drife

Return to Michigan Nature Guy Homepage

Works Cited

Haas, S.C.G. Merlin (Falco columbarius). in A.T. Chartier, J.J. Baldy, and J.M. Brenneman, editors. The Second Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas. Kalamazoo Nature Center. Kalamazoo, MI., 2011. <http://www.mibirdatlas.org /Portals/12/MBA2010/MERLaccount.pdf >.

Works Consulted

Clark, William S., Brian K. Wheeler. A Field Guide to Hawks: North American. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987

Cuthrell, D.L. Special animal abstract for Falco columbarius (merlin). Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Lansing, MI., 2002. <http://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/abstracts/zoology/falco_columbarius.pdf>

Sandhill Crane in Michigan

Posted on November 10, 2012 by admin

A Family of Sandhill Cranes

Michigan’s tallest breeding bird is the Sandhill Crane. Cranes and Great Blue Herons are often confused by beginning birders. Adult Sandhills are gray overall, with a white auricular region (the bird’s facial “cheeks”) and a red cap. The red cap is an area missing feathers so the adults have a bald spot. Young birds lack the white cheeks and red cap being brown overall. Cranes never show the bluish cast of the heron. Sandhill Cranes often fly in a v-formation. Their quick wing upbeat distinguishes them, even at a great distance, from other birds. Closer, one can see their outstretched necks. Herons hold their necks in an “s” shape while flying.

The Michigan subspecies is the Greater Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis subsp. tabida). The genus is Grus, the specific name is canadensis, and the subspecies is tabida (for Mr. Olsen’s class). Greater Sandhill Cranes are five feet tall and weigh approximately fourteen pounds.

Sandhill Crane with Chick

Birds return to southern Michigan in February and start nesting in March. A normal clutch is two eggs but most pairs successfully raise only one offspring a year. The young can fly in about 70 days. They spend the first year with their parents. It takes five to seven years for the young to reach maturity. Captive birds live as long as 60 years.

Barrows’ prediction in 1912 that the species would abandon Michigan never came true. He writes that the population was stressed because “The Sandhill Crane has been a favorite mark for the rifle, its flesh forms palatable food, and its nesting grounds have been lessened through drainage” (Barrows 12). The federal government protected the Sandhill Crane in 1916. In the 1930s and 40s it nested in just 12 counties. By the 1980s, it bred in 44 counties. The population increased two or three times from the first Breeding Bird Atlas of Michigan (1991) to the second (2011) and it now occurs in every county in the state (Hoffman). With the population increase, more states are considering allowing the hunting of this regal bird. Currently thirteen states have an established hunting season.

It was a red-letter day to see this bird when I was growing up, but now on most trips (during the growing season) to our Grayling cabin we see at least a pair of them. It is still exciting to see a migrating flock of these magnificent birds. I hope that the crane’s population will be maintained for future generations.

Greater Sandhill Crane, Ogemaw Co. Michigan

Sandhill Cranes feeding

Works cited

Barrows, W.B. 1912. Michigan Bird Life. Special Bulletin. Michigan Agricultural College. Lansing, Michigan, USA.

Hoffman, R. 2011. Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis). In A.T. Chartier, J.J. Baldy, and J.M. Brenneman, editors. The Second Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas. Kalamazoo Nature Center. Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. Accessed online at: <www.mibirdatlas.org /Portals/12/MBA2010/SACRaccount.pdf >.

The Michigan Nature Guy’s Blog

To get people looking at, enjoying, and understanding the natural world around them.

Category Archives: Michigan Birds

Screech-owl Pellet

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

A Canada Goose fostered by Sandhill Cranes

Snowy Owl Quest

Common Loon: Michigan’s Northern Icon

Review: “The Kirtland’s Warbler”

The Return of the Merlin

Sandhill Crane in Michigan