I snuck away from a family gathering for about an hour this afternoon to drive to Hickory Glen Park in Oakland County to see if I could find anything interesting - I was thinking primarily of dragonflies. I haven't seen many dragonflies at all this year, but was rewarded with a new one today.
Above and five below: Female Spangled Skimmer (Libellula cyanea).
I think this is a really pretty little dragonfly. I was excited to see it. When I saw the white stigmas and dark-tipped wings I knew it was one I had not seen before.
It was a flyer and a percher, but mostly a percher and overall quite cooperative.
Above: Slaty Skimmer (Libellula incesta), not new for me, but the first one seen this year.
I also saw Common Whitetails, male, female and immature, and a female Halloween Pennant. I tried for photos of the pennant but it was windy and the spindly little grass it preferred to perch on was waving all over the place. Every one was out-of-focus.
In bright sunny and sandy areas, clumps of butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) were scattered around the woodland trails.
After leaving the Willow Metropark Henslow's sparrows, I drove to Conservancy Farm in Superior Township. What a beautifully managed grassland! Although I did not see the Henslow's sparrows that are at the farm, I saw all of the other grassland species - starting with Savannah sparrow, Dickcissel, Bobolink and Eastern Meadowlark.
Above: I like this photo of the Savannah sparrow perched on the wooden birdhouse. I think the puffy clouds add nice context. The Savannah sparrow returned a couple of different times to perch in this spot.
Same for the Dickcissel. The clouds may not be so dramatic, but this bird put on more of a show.
Such a great bird and one I don't get to see every year. So, in years when I do see Dickcissels they become my favorite bird for that year.
No far from the bird house was a fence post from which the bird sang. The wind drowned out his sound too.
15 second video of the Dickcissel singing from a fence post, but mostly being drowned out by the wind. I like that I caught the bird in flight.
Distant photos of Bobolink - the nearest I could get.
On Saturday, 06/24/17, Jerry Jourdan posted two Henslow's Sparrows (Ammodramus henslowii) at Willow Metropark. I'm glad he did. I needed to discipline myself, but I got out early on Sunday morning to look for them.
I didn't have to wait long before a small bird flew in to the tallest weed in the field and sang. Although the bird was well seen and vocalized beautifully it still seemed too early to leave. And my photos turned out to be a little too distant.
There were two birds in this location favoring the right side of the field. The bird above did not vocalize and I thought it might be the female. The vocalizer was perched 20 feet to the right of this bird. While my photo is pixelated, I like the way the colors of the bird show up. The head, face and neck feather colors of Henslow's Sparrow are unique for a midwest sparrow.
The habitat. That's the bird perched up on a milkweed in the exact middle.
Above and nine photos below was the real fun. The bird was so cooperative and beautiful to see singing from the top of the tallest weed. I didn't want to crop too closely because this would only highlight the pixelation.
Getting 1:40 video of the singing Henslow's was the icing on the cake. As sweet as this bird is, the noise pollution from the wind and the overhead planes from Metro airport is truly revealing of this area. Toward the end of the video, the wind is drowning out the bird.
I spent about 40 minutes alone with the birds and learned that there was another on the left opposite side of the field. I also got video of the left field singing bird which I may also download, but it was singing from within the grass.
As I was leaving, I heard vocalizing coming from a nearby maple tree. I found the bird in the tree and could not really be certain that it was not also a Henslow's. But that would be strange. A Henslow's sparrow in a tree?
I took several shots and the one above and two below were the most revealing. I finally decided that this was a hatch-year Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis).
Another birder that I didn't know showed up and I was able to key him in on the locations of the birds. He suggested that I had "taped the birds in." I made it clear that I don't use recordings of any kind during nesting season - and for that matter, rarely in any other season either.
Shortly thereafter Jerry Jourdan arrived and I was able to thank him for posting the presence of these great birds. I had to leave, but was not yet finished with birding. More to come.
I came across a fledged robin at the edges of a building in a parking lot I used yesterday morning. It was accompanying its father and doing the usual begging. It was a real youngster, still tail-less with that baby-rounded body fledglings have and its legs appeared disproportionately long. It was a fast runner, but flight would still have challenged it. Overall, it was not in great baby robin habitat but it looked robust.
As I watched it running along, it reminded me of an antipitta and made me laugh. I only had my iPhone with me. It's a terrible photo and you need to look closely to see the round-bellied, long-legged and tail-less antpitta.
Of course, you would never see an antpitta so out in the open as this - but, this is an American antpitta.
