Rain Maker!

This was the fastest September of all! WHAT? it's hot again? Dang we had this short little fall it lasted about 4 days then humid n hot like Summer again...LOL During that short reprieve I was able to paint that metal chair I found and if you wanna see how I did here is a You Tube of that important event..haha!

The birding has been very slow this month..One new bird in my radius birding patch since the Spotted Sandpiper at the beginning of Sept.  So adding 2 is all for this whole month.  I'll save that for the end of this post...We have some activity with our regular birds...

wood duck drake

And this is a heavy crop of a Pileated Woodpecker gliding through the air...how aerodynamic is that?

It's been SO dry when I put the sprinkler on an area of the yard the birds came to take showers

The Northern Mockingbird spread his wings and tail feathers in appreciation of the cool water...

This young Northern Parula looked 3 times normal size all fluffed up and getting as much water as possible, it even tried to catch some drops in an open mouth...

The Eastern Bluebird got in on the action as well...

.     .     .

Today I made my way over to the new park that recently opened up in our county.  I have entered it to ebird and made it into a hotspot..So far I'm the only one birding there.  

It is a riverside county park, and there is this little creek that empties into the river here...birds are active along the banks of this creek.  The only problem is fishermen...and hopefully they will lose interest it's a sloped bank and lots of timber down in this creek...

See what I mean...and it can't be too much fun trying to stand there for a long period and getting your line tangled up so I'm hopeful that they will give up...3 showed up while I was there but they left without fishing! :o)  

Today it was kinda of birdy! A few Early Migrants were around fattening up for the trip.  I got the worst photos I've gotten in longggg time of a Lifer there today!  At least I turned it into one.... a Northern Waterthrush not rare so I doubt it will be reviewed  I see the streaking  all the way up the throat...and the beak is not big...hope it sticks at first I thought I had a Louisiana but when comparing the two I called it Northern. I had other bad photos of it too and those helped me with my conclusion. 

I know fuzzy...

An American Redstart (f) very busy around the mud along the bank...quick as lightening and so acrobatic!  

  

Also had Gray Catbird, Northern Parula, Hairy Woodpecker, and this
warbler sp?

Pink legs, long stout beak, olive/greenish coloring with darker fine streaks on the lower wing , I think I see an eye ring but not sure and the tail seems long for a Connecticut. Ideas?

 

This Eastern Wood Pewee was still for a photo...I think this will be a good spot for Warblers, not in my radius tho.

Tons of Pine Warblers are around..and do you know how many warbler females look a lot like Pine Warblers?  Way more than you can imagine!

check out this cool V formation, you know Geese are not the only species that use this method of travel insurance...

47 Double Crested Cormorants.  

at my hotspot Goodale Park

So I got my 2nd September 5 mile Radius bird complements of an ebird reviewer...I saw what I thought was a Hermit Thrush...I've seen many of them at my Hotspot Goodale Park,  and had one already this year in late spring...and I didn't even give it a thought when I put it in as rare figured it arrived early...But the reviewer said "the eye ring looks buffy more like Swainson's Thrush..Fine by me, caChing! #121

October already?? Wow. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Horizons...

Second week of May already seems like this year is on a steamer headed for 2020! Yeah lets not forget that magical number headed our way.  Dates such as that boggle my mind since I'm always reading headstones with birthdates like 1797 or 1840 shows us how very short our life span really is. Hopefully we will all make it well into the the 2020's.  My mom was born in 1924! She is so very close to that century mark. 

Mom with a rhodie she planted many years ago...Happy Mother's Day!

Most of my time these days is spent in a couple of areas of life, family, doing yard work, chores etc, and birding between my trips to town for supplies! My walks in nature are always special to me...so lets jump right in!

I spy with my little eye something that looks so amazing!!

Polyphumes Moth the "Clyclopes Moth" a Giant Silk Moth! 

The vernal Pool hangs on...

A shed Snake Skin, at least 4 ft in length the entire skin was there! 

in the same area where the young Eagles have fledged and only one was around the day we visited...it made me sad he looked so lonely..

Like he was saying "where has my family gone..." sigh must be hard being a bird sometimes...

Down under a nearby bridge chaos of another family was going on as the barn swallows put on a flight show for me....

This is a cellphone shot of the nest of a chipping sparrow...it's in a bush right by mom's front porch we can lean over and see down into it...see the brown dots on the eggs?

and another cellphone shot of the eggs in the bluebird nest gourd...I know you may not be able to see since this is phone has small pixel, but the eggs look as if they have been speckled with tiny brown specks...

What a miraculous job they did building this nest so much work and thought and planning went into it! 

We have many birds nesting here but these are the only ones I've found the nest of...watched the Carolina Wrens as they guided they first brood of fledglings out into the world..

Ive been birding in my 5 mile radius this is one of my favorite wetlands...the roadside one where there is no place to stand have to jump the rail each time a car flies by ....but it's so pretty there!

I called it the Mt Zion wetland...after the road I saw some neat birds there like the Great Crested Flycatcher Male...

This shot captures the beautiful feather detail of this beautiful bird! 

the Yellow Breasted Chats continue to provide me with such a show!! Look at his throat as he makes some of his weird sounds...

Could watch for hours! 

MY latest finds I didn't get good photos of...in case  you are wondering why Im not just jumping into that I did get a shot of the elusive Gray Catbird this week...saw him last week...

And had a loggerheaded shrike out in the open as they normally are, the butcher bird as they are sometimes called due to they like to impale their prey on sharp objects..

Most of the fields around are in amazing color right now with the Ragwort in bloom...

SO my new sightings for the radius this week as I said I got very few photos of them..mainly because of heavy cover, and the birds are so busy finding mates, nest building, it's just a busy time of year for them..

the Mississippi Kite (#102)

had a pair one landed pretty far away...

A Black Throated Blue Warbler, (103)

I know terrible! But you take what you can get he was in and out so fast maybe on my next visit...

same thing  with the American Redstart..(104)

Anyway for the record shot... and then a couple I didn't even get a shot of the Swainson's Warbler (105)...and the Yellow Throated Vireo,(106) along with the heard only Eastern Wood Peewee. (107)  I did get him on tape with a red eyed vireo over singing him..lol 

I found an area where many of the red headed woodies are nesting...

So my count stands at 107 in my 5 mile!!  I made this my big day...it was Monday, and in my radius I  had 61 species for the day!

My Big Day List Here

my little buddy following me around..

Enjoy your week!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Tahquamenon Falls, Paradise Michigan.

It was the weekend and not just any weekend Labor Day Weekend! Guess who forgot all about that?  So in a flurry I got online on Thursday night and found a site open at Tahquamenon Falls State Park, and it was quite a little jaunt up I-75 north and over the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula of MI, where I was headed anyway but had hoped for a slower pace!

In the rear view 

7 mile long Mackinac Bridge

And on Labor Day it closes for a while so people can walk over it! 

The park was full! But we just crammed our way in there with them...howdy there!  The highlight was the river and falls!  

The lower falls was within walking distance of the campground...so we did that.  

                                         

Oops I always forget video does not rotate ...haha...so the river is just awesome and they give you a ton of access to it as  you can see here...

                                                                   Casey leads the way....

here is the lower falls its really a series of small falls with lots of sound...and movement!

The water was no match for this spotted sandpiper who was busy finding a meal..

Tried to get Casey to pose by the falls but he didnt want to be still..

                                                                 Super....

We took off for the trail to the upper falls 

And then there is the upper falls...amazing width on this falls, and not a bad drop of 65 ft.

                                     

there was one little problem for Casey   so guess who had to carry the little rascal down and back UP!

We made it to the Brink of the falls..

Whew he is all of his 20 lbs!  This little guy was giving us hell too!

                                                                        red squirrel

And this American Redstart had a look at us...he sure was bright this is not a good photo but its the best I got.

I got a call from my cousin who lives in Kalamazoo MI, my Uncle Franks daughter...they had made plans to spend Labor Day weekend in St Ignace, MI ... its kind of a tradition for them and they celebrate her husbands birthday...they had 2 cabins at the KOA and I could park my van right there Free!! Saturday and Sunday so I wanted to visit the Shipwreck Museum up at Whitefish Point then I def would head that way!! What a great break for me!  So that's up next. 

                                          The North Country Trail comes thru this park!

                                                               

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.