Early this morning my dad and I visited Maple River SGA. I always get Willow Flycatchers singing from the power wires along Taft Road. Today we saw or heard at least a dozen Willow Flycatchers, they were seemingly everywhere. However, Willow Flycatcher looks identical to Alder Flycatcher. Voice is key. At the start of this big year, I pondered how to tackle this issue. The obvious answer is to take video, with audio, of the bird singing. My digiscoping camera does a pretty good job of handling this task. I then shot the bird with my SLR for good measure.
Willow Flycatcher singing, with multiple birds in the background
I took some stills of the same Willow Flycatcher.
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| Willow Flycatcher (same bird as in video above) |
I was surprised to see so many Willow Flycatchers along this little stretch of road, but it was nice to have them back. Also along Taft were at least 3 singing Clay-colored Sparrows.
Next target was Golden-winged Warbler. Gratiot-Saginaw SGA is a good location for this bird. We ran into one singing Golden-winged, but it moved around a lot, and the area is separated by a wet, wide ditch. The bird finally moved to a bare tree, out in the open, and I wasted no time digiscoping this beautiful warbler.
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| Golden-winged Warbler |
Distance to the bird and backlight prevented any top notch photos. This gorgeous warbler was one of my last two eastern warblers for the year. Connecticut Warbler is my last. I won't have a chance at this bird until the fall where I'll have to be very lucky to pick one up during migration.
My friend Kevin Welsh and I depart Michigan on the 23rd to start out job/grad project out west in the Great Basin area of Nevada and California. However, we will be taking the scenic route, with 2-3 days in SE Arizona! It is my only chance to get there this year, so this whirlwind of a trip will have to be very productive.
I hope to add a bird or two in Michigan during my last few days here, but time is very limited.
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