Failed eBird's April challenge

Couldn't cut the mustard.  I started this month birding on April 1st at Belle Isle in response to this month's eBird challenge.  (Truthfully, Belle Isle is the only place I've birded this year.)  The challenge:  chose one place and bird that location twenty times during the month of April and document all sightings.  I tried but didn't make it.  Twenty times is a lot and many of the days were already occupied by other commitments.  As of yesterday my April visits numbered fourteen.  I am going to try to get back either today or tomorrow to round out my effort at fifteen visits.  

I checked the eBird site and found the March challenge winners, but I couldn't find the description of April's challenge to include here.  April weather in my location began with cold, north wind days that persisted through Easter.  Nevertheless, with each visit I seemed to find a new bird. 

For no particular reason, I chose these photos to document my effort.  I did enjoy the challenge and found birds I probably will not see again this year.  I also saw birds that I had not seen in many years because I have not paid attention to seeing waterfowl. 

Common Loon.  No doubt about it a handsome bird.

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted merg pair and Horned Grebe in the foreground

Terrible photo, but possibly my only chance to see a Fox Sparrow this year.

Another horrible photo.  It is only me or do others find Hairy Woodpeckers difficult to find?  Here there are a pair.  It seems like Hairy Woodpeckers should be easier to find on Belle Isle.

A Bufflehead photo where the bird's eye can be seen!

Blue-winged Teal

Pied-billed Grebe.  Super cute little bird.

Bald Eagle landing clumsily on a piece of floating debris.

There is a nesting pair on the island.  They are an attractions for the many non-birders who have read about them on social media and visit the island to see them.  I have been stopped by many who have asked "do you know where is the eagle's nest is?"  The nesting Osprey are also gaining some traction with non-birders. 

Caspian Tern

American Kestrel.  After seeing almost every visit in Jan, Feb, and March, I saw only once in April.  There is a nesting pair on the island.

Black-crowned Night Heron.  Seen and photographed many visits.

This really bothered me.  I believe I saw the bird again yesterday.  From Nashua Canal it had made its way to Muskovy Lake.

Field Sparrow

Just removed a crawling tick from my neck that came home with me following yesterday's visit.  I was hoping that our cold and relatively snowy winter would keep the little bastards numbers down.  Wishful thinking.

A river runs through it

Yesterday two young men, in their late teens, were fishing in Belle Isle's Nashua Canal.  I asked if they were catching anything and they said they had each caught a couple of bass.  They explained that the bass hid under the roots and logs at the edges of the creek.  One of them said, hopefully, "there are also pike in the canal".  The other boy added, "Did you see that the swan had a fishing lure stuck in its bill.  Yeah, it looks like someone hooked it and then cut the line."

I had walked past the Mute Swan, alone and swimming slowly, considered taking a photo but didn't.  I didn't notice the fishing lure.  With this new information I hustled back to see if I could see it. 

The swan's bill seems slightly opened, most likely, because of the lure.  Every few feet it would shake its head slowly back and forth in its vain attempt to dislodge the lure.  I wondered how long it had been like this.  I thought the neck of the bird appeared to be skinny.  Also, it's not my camera work that makes the swam appear to be listing to the left.  That's how it was swimming.  All of the swans are paired up and nesting. This poor creature appeared miserable.

Earlier in the winter I saw a Herring Gull at the Humbug Marina with the same predicament.  As with the gull, unfortunately this bird's prospects for survival are poor.

After photos I passed the fishermen and said, "good luck."   I was twenty feet beyond, when one called out, "hey, just got a bass."  I went back for photos.        

The bass was about ten inches in length and appears to be a small-mouth bass.  I should have asked.  They would have known.  I asked if the fish was big enough to keep.  "Nah, we don't keep them.  I'll just throw it back."  My kind of fishermen.  

This map is at the end of the Nashua Canal at the kayak portage.  Everyone has their favorite place.  This is mine. A true gem.

Native Gardening from the NYT

The Four Ecologically Crucial Things You Should Do in Your Garden by Elizabeth Roach, April 9, 2025.

I commented on this recent NYT article and received very helpful feedback about how to manage tall meadow plants that grow too tall and then fall over because they have no supporting meadow plants around them.

Elizabeth from NYC responded with this:  "It’s not as nature would do it, but try the “Chelsea Chop.” Basically, cut those perennials back when they reach about 6 inches. They’ll both stay short and thicken up.

You can get fancy and do a graduated circle. Cut lower on the outside of a clump, gradually cutting higher toward the inside. You can leave the original rangy growth in the middle. You’ll get a longer bloom time, and the short stalks will hold up the longer ones on the inside."

I have several plantings that I need to try this with:  Ironweed, false sunflower, blazing star come quickly to mind.

The comments section closed before I could thank her. 

A cure for my doldrums

Originally I wrote winter in front of the word doldrums in my blog title, but I removed winter so doldrums stands on its own.  Any doldrums.  Does not have to be winter doldrums.  I've said it many times, Belle Isle is my favorite place in Michigan.  Can that be true?  Of all the places?  I think it is.  Possibly this is because it's so close to home and is an easy getaway for me.  And there are always surprises.  Honestly, I'm not sure I would have had the incentive to revitalize my stagnant birding  without Belle Isle so nearby.  This, plus the fact that multiple quick two to three hour visits this past cold and, relatively, dreary winter got me out and away from my doldrums.  I don't think of myself as a winter doldrums person, but this winter I became acquainted with this side of myself and had to find an answer for such an unpleasant state of being.

     

Common Loon (Gavia immer) and six below.

Last Friday, April 4th was a beautiful day and the birds did not disappoint - even prompted me to make my first Wayne County Discord post.  Turning right from the bridge I glanced over the grass to the river and saw close waterfowl that I could not identify from the car.  I have not seen the three species selected for this post in some significant number of years.  And, as the photos mostly reveal, so close.  

A couple of hours later two Common Loons in different plumage were found quite far out beyond the beach bringing the day's count to four.  

Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator)

Female and male with Horned Grebe in foreground.

 

At least twelve counted.

Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus).  At least twenty were on the river.

The eBird April challenge is the bird and checklist at least 20 times from the same location.  The better to experience how spring migration evolves over April and May.  I considered trying to do this at Belle Isle but it seems highly unlikely that I'll be able to pull it off.

Friday, April 4, 2025 eBird checklist 

Additional findings on Tuesday, 04/08/2025

Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii)

Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax).  There were three.

Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors).  There were four.

Common Merganser (Mergus merganser). 

Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata).  There were six.

Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)

Addendum 04/19/2025:  The number of Red-breasted Mergansers and Horned Grebes grew significantly in the days following 04/04/2025.  Though not included in my original post, the number of Bufflehead has also been high thoughout the month.  They are just starting to diminish now.  Two Common Loons were present as recently as 4/15.    

Ring-necked Duck

I mentioned in a prior post that I had not done much winter birding in many years.  I made up for it this year with several visits to Belle Isle - even though I saw essentially the same species each time.  This year's cold weather made for lots of ice on our waterways and we had large congregations of waterfowl on the river.   Some species, like Ring-necked Duck (Althya collaris), I had not seen in several years - as in, when you don't go birding, you don't see birds. 

At first there were five, three males and two females.  I approached carefully and not too closely, but one of the males became jittery and flew off.  This left me with two pairs who were wary but still stuck around.

The long neck and head of the male Ring-neck Duck reveal a bouffant appearance when viewed from behind.  The bird on the left displays this amusingly.  This is suggested in the lateral view with the arrow pointing to that slight head feather indentation of the bird on the right. I imagine that this serves a similar function as the male Hooded Merganser's display when around female birds.   

A very handsome duck if ever there was one.

Waterfowl surprise me with their unwillingness to allow a slow approach.  All January and February, no matter how carefully I approached the river and even while still some distance away, the flotillas would turn their backs and begin their swim away from shore. I like the photo above because even at rest this female is keeping a watchful eye.

Female and male.

Is anyone else confused as to why this duck is named ring-necked?  I went on a search and found a possible answer in photos of birds in flight.  In flight the male's bright white lateral crescent thins out and is visible as a partial white ring just above the bird's open, in-flight wing. This is best viewed with a good lateral image of a bird in flight.  It's the best answer I can find for the moment.  I don't have my own Ring-necked Duck flight photo and I couldn't find one on-line that I could legally download to show this but will keep looking.