(I can't believe morel hasn't beaten me to this item.)

About a month ago, I had a remarkable birding experience.  I was out
cycling (with Brian Dunkle no less) northwest of here.  As we turned
onto Reithmiller Rd. from Waterloo Rd. there in front of us were two
Sandhill Cranes. 

The Sandhill Crane is one of the largest birds, if not the largest,
found in Michigan.  They are about 3 feet tall, and have an average
wingspan of more than six and a half feet.

I would guess that the pair we saw were no more than 50 feet in front 
of us right in the middle of the road.  It was hot out, and that 
stretch was well-shaded.  They did not want to move.  They let us get to
within 20 feet before they decided to take off.

Watching them unfurl those big wings and take off was a real treat, too.
And they treated us to their call, too.  To me, it sounded like a gross
between a warble and gobble.

Now, tell me about some of the birds you've seen.

253 responses total.

(we saw a big mother of a turtle on that ride, too, but I guess that's
another item :)

Hmmm...  Lately the only interesting bird sighting was the Red Tailed hawk
that flew across M-14 at about windshield level.   Neat, but I thought for
sure I was going to hit the sucker.

I've been seeing (and hearing, the weird part) seagulls at Kroger lately.
Or, some seagull-type bird. Sea bird. Whatever.

While rafting down the Snake River in Wyoming we were able to 
see bald eagles at close distance both perched and in flight.
Amazing birds.  The guide estimated their wingspan at about eight
feet.  

 
On M-28 about in the middle of the U.P., we were driving and saw off in the
distance what looked like a fat turkey sitting on the shoulder watching
traffic.  As we drew closer, we saw that it was an adult bald eagle,
counting cars!

Re 4: You lucky dog!  The eagles were not there when we went by.
      The only disappointment of the trip!

(Nancy and I saw a bald eagle flying over Huron River Drive just west of
Maple road back in January.  It was the day congress voted to give the
pres the power to flatten Iraq.  We assumed it was a sign.)

re #5 - was it taking license plate numbers, too? :)

 Sandhill cranes are very plentiful in the Waterloo/Grass Lake area.
They visit my alfalfa field 2 or 3 times a week. Maybe there will be
some at the Picofest.

   Years ago at the krogers in Westgate shopping center there were 
pigeons (sp?) That had built nests in the Krogers sign (like in the O).

Don't know if the birds or the nest are still there though, as I don't
get to that side of town very often.

Not only were there no pigeons there, Joni, but the Kroger's sign was
gone, too. I had to ask a passerby if the store was still a Kroger's as
it wasn't apparent from the parkinglot.

We saw a flicker flying into its tree at the botanical gardens. They're
much smaller than I had imagined. Also, there were meadowlarks and
bobolinks in the field north of UMTRI on Huron Parkway the last time
I walked by...

I've been seeing lots of goldfinches lately on my bike rides.

Re #11:  The flicker was smaller than you expected?  My god, what did you 
expect?  Something the size of a Pteradactl?   ;-)

Well, today was a moderatly interesting birding day.  This morning saw a
great blue heron flying over the Huron River at the bend just west of Maple
Rd.  Nothing too unusual about that, but on the way back about an hour
later, there it was, still at the bend of the river, sitting on a snag,
preening.  That was pretty neat.  Then while driving around the highways,
saw two great egrets.  One was in the pond on the north side of I-94
between State Rd and US-23 and the other in the pond north of M-14 by Nixon
Rd.  While taking the pup for a walk in the neighborhood, saw a coopers
hawk that was being mobbed by a flock of small birds.  As it continued to
circle lazily, I don't think it was bothered *too* much by bombarded by
the little birds.  Then early this evening, I had just parked the car in
the garage and heard some chickadees in the pine just outside.  At first I
saw about four, and started "pishing" at them.  (Some of the smaller, more
curious birds, especially chickadees will come and investigate where the
odd sound is coming from if you make a soft psssssssht psssssssht sound.)
Soon, I was surrounded by 8-10 curious chickadees, several within arm's
reach.

I hope you didn't make any sudden moves :)

Neat!  I'll have to try this next time I see them around here. 

We spotted a hawk on an electrical wire right next to the road on
our Tuesday night bicycle ride.  Unfortunately, I did not get a good 
enough look to really identify it.

There was something that looked like a Stork (I dunno my birds) flying
around Island Park this morning. Big sucker.
Also some 5-10 lb. fish that seemed to like swimming half out of the water.
I cought those on video.

Brian, what did your "stork" look like?  Was it all white?  If so it most
likely was an egret.  Could have been a sandhill crane, but by the location
it's much less likely.  If it looked light blue or grey, it was a great
blue heron.  On the Huron River, west from Main St. (I'm sure you ride your
bike along there, everyone else in Washtenaw county does!) you can usually
see a GB heron if you watch carefully enough.

White or light grey, neck about two or three feet long.
I wanna know what these fish are, though - I watched the video...they're
eerie.

About 8 years ago I saw a goshawk waste a mallard hen on one of the greens at
Leslie golf course. It was pretty spectacular. The goshawk was probably around
because it was pretty cold up north at the time. It hung around for about 3
days and stashed the mallard in a pile of leaves on the fence line. I called
my brother-in-law (a certified bird freak who worked at Baraboo and hung out
on the Galapagos watching finchesfor a few months) and told him about it. That
was a mistake because HE hung around for about three days (we lived right next
to the golf course then).

We just got back from Macinac Island, where were fortunate to see several
hummingbirds.  Neat!  (Not ruby-throated, but still not sure exactly which
kind).

If they *weren't* ruby-throated hummingbirds, I hope someone who can 
identify birds saw them, because r-t's are only hummers that appear east 
of the Rockies.  Actually, I'm fairly certain what you saw were female 
and/or immature r-t's wich don't have the red throats.  

Maybe I should have said we didn't see any red...just a lot of green!

I seen a pair of hummingbirds a month or so ago. On three different times.
We had this plant on our pourch. And they would be buzzing around it. 
I was within a few feet of them. One had the red neck. The other was green.

Hector, leave it to you to have a red-neck humming bird.   ;-)

Yesterday, we spotted a young blue heron on our bike ride.

The stretch of the Huron River below Barton Dam is a good place to see herons
and (occasionally) big white egrets. They like the marshy area along the inside
of the bend. I have seen 5 herons at one time and the one time that I saw the
egrets there were six of them.

The other evening, heading west across US-23 on Washtenaw, we saw literally
thousands of birds, all lined up on the overhead wires parallel to the
freeway, for some distance in both directions from Washtenaw.

Saw a hawk the other day near Fowlerville, hovering over I-96.

Were they all facing the same direction?  :)

It's that time of year for the grackles to congregate and begin
migrating.  One of their favorite spots was the woods around the
Northern Telecom plant where I used to work.  I spent about 10 minutes
out in the parking lot one morning watching them.

   Saw a flock of sandhill cranes yesterday, driving south from
the UP.  They were on US 27 (I don't remember exactly where).
Grey and brown (young ones), they reminded me of ostriches
more than herons.  

Where'd they get the car?
 :)

(birds today - DRIVING south! In my day, they'd all FLY south!)

 Well, I had the pleasure of seeing my very first, in-person, in-the-
wild, close-up, real live bald eagle on Thurs.  I was driving to my
place up north (halfway btween Grayling and Kalkaska) and about a mile
before I got to my  place I saw a bald eagle sitting on the roadside,
eating a very dead possum roadkill. It flew away as the car approached,
and seemed to gain altitude very slowly. Its white head and tail were
unmistakable.

You're lucky, katie.  I've yet to set eyes on a bald eagle.

I've heard hundreds of Veeries, Hermit Thrushes and Wood Thrushes over
the years, but I've actually set eyes on only one Wood Thrush.

  If you have your heart set on seeing a bald eagle, go to Alaska.
They are almost as common as crows, at least around Juneau.  Also,
during the salmon season, you can see many of them along the
rivers, and especially around Homer.  I've heard that huge numbers
of them flock there. (Not that bald eagles really flock.)  I've
been to Juneau three times to visit my sister there, and have seen
several bald eagles each time.  Once, I got a sequence of photos
of one taking off from a small iceberg.  The last time I was there,
one flew past the picture window of my sister's living room (which
looks out over Juneau).

  Or go to Muskegon..  For some reason a bunch of eagles have come back
to the Muskegon area in the past few years.  The fun part is that they
seem to like to hang out at my parent's house, which sits on a steep hill
over the lake and has some trees with the type of dead branches eagles
apparently prefer.  It's gotten to the point that nobody even gets excited
when they show up any more.  There have even been three or four of them
in the yard at a time.  None nesting there, though.  I think it's great
that they're becoming more common but I worry about them eating fish from
Muskegon Lake.  As smaller lakes go, it's not *that* dirty, but there are
some factories on the lake and (even if I liked fish) *I* wouldn't want to
live on a diet of fish from the lake.

  Last time I went home I didn't see any eagles (they're mostly around 
more in the late fall, winter, and early spring, for whatever reason)
but I did see what I'm pretty sure was an osprey.  An old college roommate,
Eng-Shien, had come up to visit from Texas and we were going down the hill
to get to the boat (so we could go waterskiing) and the bird, whatever it
was, was circling not 30 feet above us, rising in an updraft.  We got a
pretty decent look at it.

  There're a couple of birds I haven't seen in a long time (and would like 
to see again.)  Haven't seen a kingfisher in ages, and it's been a long, 
long time since I've seen a pileated woodpecker.  The pileated woodpecker
is my favorite (at least among the ones I've seen.)  It looks an awful lot
like the ivory-billed woodpecker, though the ivory-billed are much less
common (and may not be native to Michigan.  I don't remember.)  I also miss
seeing wood ducks and pheasants in the yard.  I just don't see as many
interesting birds in Ann Arbor, period.  Probably has less to do with this
being Ann Arbor and more to do with the fact that my parents have a huge,
quiet yard, on the lake, and have many birdhouses and feeders scattered
about.  Still, I rarely see anything here besides sparrows, grackles, and
pigeons, whereas at home we had lots of nifty, colorful birds like indigo
buntings, scarlet tanagers, millions of goldfinches (they love the thistles
that grow wild on our hill), baltimore orioles (they come every may, regular
as clockwork, and they're more likely to stop by if you put out a few nice,
juicy oranges for them), and a million others.

 Pileated woodpeckers are very rare. They live in northern Michigan.
Kingfishers are quite common around the Ann Arbor area.

Mike, take up bicycling, seriously.  Except for the pileated
woodpeckers, and maybe the tanagers, all of the species you just
mentioned are to be found around Ann Arbor.  I've seen all of these on
bike tours around here.

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