From Linda Ar:

The Jackson Whatsapp rare bird alert is moving to a new platform starting today! (See below for how to switch over) If you’re not familiar with the bird sharing groups app (Whatsapp) please read on for an explanation of the new platform, Discord, as the Whatsapp groups will no longer be used. 

As part of the state and county bird alert groups, we are moving to the “Birding Michigan” channel on the Discord app. This is a new, comprehensive platform for all state and local birding groups (rare birds and chat groups alike). We have been working behind the scenes for over a month getting the platform ready and are very excited to finally be launching. Discord runs on both mobile and desktop/laptop systems.

Jackson County will have two groups - a Jackson rare bird alert group and a Jackson chat group, which will be much looser and more conversational.

To join, start by downloading the Discord app at the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android). Then register with your email address, and create a username and password. Then, accept the invite to the Michigan Birds Discord server here: https://discord.gg/rVj3KxpH

Once in, proceed to the “new members” channel, where you will find instructions for accepting the server rules by typing the following into the “New Members” channel.

!agree John Smith

(exclamation with no space + agree, space, first/last name with spaces) with your actual name (instead of John Smith)- & pay attention to spaces and case - it must be exact.  

*To support the safety of our members and in the spirit of transparency, please be sure and use your actual first and last name* 

You will then be able to view all of the channels in Michigan. Notifications for all statewide channels will default to “off”, so if you want to receive a ding on your phone for any of the channels such as Jackson rare bird alert or Jackson chat, you will need to manually turn them on. Instructions for doing this are in the “adjusting-notification-settings” channel. You can also make adjustments in (for iOS mobile): settings=> notifications=> discord, for Lock Screen, Banners, Sounds, etc. I assume Android is similar.

Any questions please watch our tutorial video at: 

https://youtu.be/BJmGNwtswgg

Thanks everyone - I hope you all check out the app, we really love the new platform and hope you do too! It’s going to be a very powerful tool and should really increase the efficiency of reporting all birds to each other at the local and state level as well as promote discussion of birds and bird related topics in general.

Please be in touch for any help or questions you may have. 

Good birding,
Linda Ar

email address

It may have rained but it did not pour!

Three JAS members took a walk along the trails and boardwalks at Dahlem today.  The weather was not ideal and we had some fog and later some light rain. The rain hit while we were in the conifer section of the property, so we lucked out as that was the only good cover at this time of year.  Trails were a bit icy in spots but we had plenty of traction in newly bare spots due to the recent partial thaw.

With the low visibility, I think we heard more than we saw.  A lone Great Blue Heron was flying south over the boardwalk. Hopefully he found some open water to get some lunch.  I finally got a Red-breasted Nuthatch this season, as they have been avoiding me since last winter.  

We ended up a little muddy and a bit wet, but we got out to enjoy the wonderful habitats that Dahlem has to offer.

Species list:

2 duck sp. -- Likely WODU
1 Great Blue Heron -- Seen flying south from boardwalk.
6 Red-bellied Woodpecker
3 Downy Woodpecker
1 Pileated Woodpecker
1 Northern Flicker
9 Blue Jay
7 American Crow
8 Black-capped Chickadee
2 Tufted Titmouse
1 Red-breasted Nuthatch
3 White-breasted Nuthatch
17 European Starling
4 Eastern Bluebird
2 American Robin
1 House Finch
13 American Goldfinch
Number of Taxa: 17

https://ebird.org/checklist/S103510949

ANTARCTICA EXPEDITION CRUISE - JANUARY 24-FEBRUARY 4, 2022

Doug Leffler

In January 2021, Sandy and I booked passage with Viking Cruise Lines for a January 24-February 4, 2022 expedition cruise to Antarctica.  The cruise embarked from Ushuaia, Argentina, sailing across the Drake Passage to reach the Antarctic Peninsula.  Upon arriving at the Peninsula we explored both the Antarctic mainland and several Islands in the Antarctic Archipelago and then returned to Ushuaia for our flight home.

Our expedition ship was The Viking Octantis, which was built in late 2020.  The ship was equipped with several Zodiac rubber-hulled boats for expedition landings, as well as two special-purpose craft for area exploration.

Several expert scientists were on board, including Lars Rasmussen, birder extraordinaire from Denmark, and Noah Stryker who was the 2015 World Birder of the Year.  A variety of seabirds and penguins were observed and photographed, including: gray-headed albatross, black-browed albatross, giant petrels, snowy sheathbill, polar and brown skua, Antarctic tern, Antarctic shag, light-mantled albatross, a variety of storm petrels, gentoo penguins, chinstrap penguins and one emperor penguin.

The scenery in Antarctica is spectacular.  The immensity of glaciers and rock outcroppings are incredible.  Icebergs are everywhere in the bays of the Peninsula, as the glaciers “calve” various sizes of ice into the sea.

Expeditions to landing sites were with the Zodiacs.  Four landings were made during the expedition, with one landing on the mainland and three landings on islands in the Peninsula Archipelago.  The photographs below show some of the beautiful scenery and wildlife that we observed.

The Viking Octantis is anchored in Dorian Bay for Zodiac landings at Damoy Point on Wiencke Island.


Gentoo penguin colony at Damoy Point.


Brown skua at Damoy Point.


Iceberg in Dorian Bay.


Exploring Hidden Bay


Glacier close to calving near Paradise Bay.


Emperor penguin spotted from the ship on an iceberg.


Gentoo penguin colony on Cuverville Island.


A Gentoo penguin makes his way down a colony path to the sea.


A snowy sheathbill is spotted at Base Brown, located on Paradise Bay.


A chinstrap penguin was spotted from a Zodiac on a rock outcropping in Paradise Bay.


Antarctic shags are spotted on a rock outcropping on Enterprise Island.


This crabeater seal was spotted taking a nap on Snow Island, which was our last expedition landing.


Snow Island is incredibly beautiful and is a perfect location to artfully depict with monochrome photography.

At exactly 1201 today the partial clouds broke and the sun came through clear and bright.  Unfortunately, at 1200 today, we ended our tour of Haehnle and Dalton Rd. area.  But the six JAS members had a good outing this morning. Not too cold and just a little bit of wind to make sure we weren't too comfortable.

We started at Hahenle Sanctuary and walked through the overlook prairie and back into the wooded trail.  Continuing into the prairie in Unit #2 I showed the group where our contractor is working on removing the buckthorn in our fen area.  He arrived right on queue and we got the see the grinding in action.  

View to the north into the fen                                                             (Steve Jerant)

We returned back to the overlook through to back loop trail.  Our species list was a bit skinny.  The Northern Shrike I spotted yesterday was nowhere to be seen today and there was not too many songbirds about.  Not even the bluebirds came out for us.

Species list:

Buteo sp.  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  2
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  2
Black-capped Chickadee  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S102297728

From Hahenle, we caravanned (I'll be glad when this COVID thing is done) over to the Hawkins & Dalton Rds. area in search of raptors.  With the snow on the road, I did not want to stop the 5 card train without any shoulders on the road.

We only got two Red-tailed hawks and flushed a group of Mourning Doves.  At the turn in Dalton we had an eagle far out to the east but could not get a good read on it. 

Our Next tour is at Dahlem on 02/22 at 9AM.

View to the east from turn @ Dalton Rd.                                             (Steve Jerant)

Species list:

Mourning Dove  24
Red-tailed Hawk  2
eagle sp.  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  11
Dark-eyed Junco  1
Northern Cardinal  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S102297779

It was agreed that our winter walk rescheduled from last Tuesday (12F) to today (27F to 41F) was a good idea.  It was sunny and clear with a mild breeze.  The Leonard Preserve is one of the Washtenaw County Natural Area Preservation Program properties. This was our first visit to this venue but we have visited other NAPP properties including Spike Avis and West Lake Preserve in the past.

(Steve Jerant)

Joann Ballbach led this winter tour with her usual delightful mix of science, story telling, and folklore.  She went over the basics from why its winter to the molecular structure of a snowflake.   As usual with Joann, we concentrated on plant life but also checked out varieties of tracks in the snow on the trail and on the frozen river.

(Steve Jerant)

One of the very visible natural features in winter are galls. These are deformities on plants where insects or other parasites create a structure on the host that can look like a bloated section of stem, a bud, or in the case of our mystery gall today, a dried flower.  There were many goldenrod galls and willow galls.  Then we found a poplar tree full of galls but they were unfamiliar to all of us.

   (Steve Jerant)

Robert did the research after the walk and found information written by Dahlem's own past Education Director, Ellen Rathbone.  

from the Adirondack Almanac
by Ellen Rathbone

...it is indeed a cottonwood gall of a type made by cottonwood gall mites (Eriophyes parapopuli), aka: poplar bud gall mites. These mites, which are so tiny that it would take five, lined up end to end, to stretch across a 12-pt. period, can be found on other members of the poplar family, too, not just cottonwoods. One of the things that I discovered in my research that I thought was rather interesting is that these mites, unlike the overwhelming majority of mites and spiders, have only four legs. Not four pairs of legs (spiders and mites), but four legs…period. That’s just wrong. Despite their small size, and obvious lack of appendages, these miniscule pests travel very well, thank you. How do they get around? By wind, water, insects, birds and yes, even people. They are extremely fertile, producing up to eight generations in a single year (thank goodness they only live about a month as adults).

(Robert Ayote)

Oh, we also were birding when not looking at plants.  Below is the species list 

eBird checklist

21 Mourning Dove
2 Red-tailed Hawk

3 Red-bellied Woodpecker

2 Downy Woodpecker

1 Northern Flicker

5 Blue Jay

6 American Crow

3 Black-capped Chickadee

1 Tufted Titmouse

1 White-breasted Nuthatch

4 European Starling

1 American Tree Sparrow

2 Northern Cardinal

Number of Taxa: 13

A Message from
Monica Day, Big Tree coordinator
Pegg Clevenger,  JAS Member

Jackson Audubon Society is steward of the Jackson County Big Trees database and measures and keeps a list of our giant trees. Recently we found out that 10 mature oak trees were to be cut down to build a parking lot for Frost School. The ISD bought Frost from the school district for $1 and will be moving service and some students to the building after remodeling. The area north of the current bus drive adjacent to Cascades School has ten White and Bur Oak marked for removal.

Audubon’s Big Tree coordinator, Monica Day, along with JAS member, Pegg Clevenger measured the trees of this pleasant grove. The oaks appear to be in very good condition. Pegg said, “When we climbed back in the car and calculated the diameters from the circumferences and multiplied by the scientific growth factor, I was stunned into disbelief. We re-measured. The smallest tree was 191 years old! The largest is estimated to be 290 years old.”

These trees germinated pre-settlement. Bur Oak can live to be 500-years and have thick fire-resistant bark. Birders of Audubon know that oaks are the ideal wildlife plants and no other plant genus supports more species of butterflies and moths. Our birds need caterpillar-protein to support their young and the mighty oaks provide shelter as well.

Even if ISD plants many trees elsewhere, the ecosystem service these mature oaks currently provide can never be matched in a human lifetime. Their deep roots are absorbing water from the high water-table in that area, protecting property.

These ten oaks are worthy of saving. Beautiful trees build a school yard into a campus. We hope you will consider sending your opinion to the ISD:

Dave Salsbury dave.salsbury@jcisd.org
East Jackson School District

Doug Schedeler doug.schedeler@jcisd.org
Columbia
Erin Slater erin.slater@jcisd.org

Jackson Public
Georgia Fojtasek georgia.fojtasek@jcisd.org
Jackson Public

Blaine Goodrich blaine.goodrich@jcisd.org
Western
Kevin Oxley kevin.oxley@jcisd.org
517-768-5141
Superintendent, ISD

Thank you,
Monica Day, Big Tree coordinator
Pegg Clevenger, JAS Member

Three of us brave JAS members took a brisk walk at MaCready.  It wasn't that cold this morning, it was in the double digits, after all, 10 F.    The property is back open to the public after the deer season closure.  Trails were a bit icy in a few spots but not too bad.  With low bird activity we were able to check out lots of plants with little interruption.

We walked the red trail though the conifer sections with the hope of seeing some crossbills, but alas, it was only a hope.  

The eBird checklist is available HERE

Traveling

1.76 miles

1 Red-bellied Woodpecker

3 Downy Woodpecker

1 Blue Jay

2 American Crow

8 Black-capped Chickadee

2 Red-breasted Nuthatch

3 White-breasted Nuthatch

Number of Taxa: 7

Jackson Audubon members took a walk on the Hoffman Trail.  We had a beautiful clear sunny morning, almost too sunny as we were walking east.  Not to disappoint, Michigan weather came and it clouded over about halfway through the walk.  It was a bit wet but we were able to make it from Moeckel Rd. in the west through the woods over to the water crossing in the Riethmiller wetland.  Some of the six members ate some wintergreen berries found on the trail.

Only four woodpeckers were observed.  We did get three Red-headed woodpeckers along with some of the usual suspects:  Red-bellied, Northern Flicker, and Downey.  

At the Riethmiller wetland we tried to bring out a Virginia rail, but no luck.  However, some skunk cabbage was seen (see below) but unlike the Wintergreen berries, none of us had a taste.  

You can see our eBird trip list online or summary below.

Traveling 2.25 miles

2 Red-tailed Hawk

3 Red-headed Woodpecker -- Individually identified

3 Red-bellied Woodpecker

1 Downy Woodpecker

1 Northern Flicker

4 Blue Jay

8 American Crow

7 Black-capped Chickadee

5 Tufted Titmouse

1 Golden-crowned Kinglet

2 White-breasted Nuthatch

2 Eastern Bluebird

25 American Robin

30 Cedar Waxwing

2 American Goldfinch

1 American Tree Sparrow

2 Northern Cardinal

Number of Taxa: 17

12/21/2021

Gary Siegrist lead a tour of Hahenle on Tuesday.  Weather was overcast but not too cold (like last year).  There is no open water in Mud Lake Marsh but Eagle Lake is still partially open and we got to see some late Trumpeter Swans on the water and flying over us later in our walk.  There is high water in the back prairie.

We had a good collection of woodpeckers but the sparrow count was low.  

The next tour on December 21 is on the Hoffman Trail.

Bird count:
3 Canada Goose

3 Trumpeter Swan -- On Eagle lake. All adults

6 Mallard

1 American Black Duck

2 Hooded Merganser

1 Bald Eagle

1 Red-tailed Hawk

1 Red-bellied Woodpecker

2 Downy Woodpecker

1 Pileated Woodpecker

3 Northern Flicker

4 Blue Jay

5 American Crow

5 Black-capped Chickadee

3 Eastern Bluebird

1 House Finch

1 American Goldfinch

1 American Tree Sparrow

1 sparrow sp.

2 Northern Cardinal

Number of Taxa: 20

Checklist available HERE

The weather this weekend brought a few inches of snow and froze over most of Mud Lake Marsh.  No cranes were seen or heard today.  We had a bit of open water that hosted a small flock of American Black Duck and Mallard. 

Ross spotted a group of Canada Goose far out in the horizon and we found a pair of Mute Swan on Eagle Lake. We also spotted this little fellow on the trail.  I am loving the use of native plants on him.

Unless it gets a lot warner, this will be the last post of the year.  Remember Haehnle Sanctuary is open all year and the parking lot is plowed after heavy snow.  It’s a great spot for a short cross county ski or a quiet winter walk.  And we do have a fairly regular Northern Shrike…

Crane counters:   Steve Jerant & Ross Green
Compiler:  Steve Jerant
Submitted by Steve Jerant

Crane Count:  0 (0 total observed)
Species count:  11

14 Canada Goose

2 Mute Swan

3 Mallard

11 American Black Duck

1 Pileated Woodpecker

2 Northern Flicker

2 Blue Jay

1 Tufted Titmouse

1 White-breasted Nuthatch

2 Carolina Wren

4 American Tree Sparrow

Number of Taxa: 11

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S98261835

You can view past postings and historical crane counting data on the Haehnle web site at http://www.haehnlesanctuary.org/crane-count