I think only the ducks had a good day but we were able to do our observations tonight through breaks in the rain. The water in Mud Lake Marsh was high and a visibly larger area was evident than just one week ago.  Changing full and partial sunlight along with dark clouds made for some spectacular views. 

The largest movement of birds were the wood ducks and the blackbirds, but these were more muted than normal due to the weather.  The great egrets continue to roost for the evening and watching them glide in bright white against a black sky is always a treat for me. 

There were just a few raptors tonight and for one of them, we could not agree if it was a falcon or an accipiter. 

Only a single pair of cranes will be roosting tonight. If it was the same pair as last week, we thank them for their patronage.

Crane counters:   Ross Green, Gary Siegrist & Steve Jerant
Compiler:  Steve Jerant
Submitted by Steve Jerant

Crane Count:  02 (8 total observed)
Species count:  30

30 species (+2 other taxa)

Canada Goose 19

Wood Duck 64

Blue-winged Teal 3

American Black Duck 1 DNS

Mourning Dove 5

Sandhill Crane 8 2

Great Blue Heron 2

Great Egret 21

Northern Harrier 2

Bald Eagle 1

hawk sp. 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker 1

Downy Woodpecker 2

Blue Jay 10

American Crow 3

White-breasted Nuthatch 1

House Wren 2

European Starling 2

Gray Catbird 1

Eastern Bluebird 8

American Robin 56

Cedar Waxwing 12

House Finch 2

American Goldfinch 3

Song Sparrow 4

Swamp Sparrow 3

sparrow sp. 4

Red-winged Blackbird 185

Common Grackle 1

Common Yellowthroat 2

Yellow-rumped Warbler 2

Indigo Bunting 1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S95610141   

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

Half a dozen JAS members joined the watch for raptors at Erie Metropark on Tuesday.  It was a beautiful day with a clear sky, but a few more clouds might have been nice to help locate birds.  We observed 9 raptors including a Peregrine Falcon attempting a lunch break on a Black-bellied Plover.  My list shows 9 Bald Eagles, but the official count from the Detroit River Hawkwatch cited only 1.  We may have been seeing 'local' birds which they do not count at migration.  

I addition to gulls that normally clog the sky while you are trying to spot raptors, the site has been overrun for the past days with huge numbers of Blue Jays coming over the border from Canada.  I entered 2000 in eBird, but per the official Hawkwatch post on Tuesday, "We totaled thirty-seven thousand, two hundred and fifty-one."  So I guess I was a bit off.

A few of us took a walk on the trail adjacent to the observation area to see if we could get some smaller birds for our trip.  We got a hummer, a few warblers, and the usual suspects. And we did see one of the most dangerous animals in Michigan-the dreaded Metropark deer. Famously unafraid of humans.

My eBird list is available HERE 

Detroit River Hawk Watch
Brownstown, Michigan, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 28, 2021
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	715	1150	1150
Osprey	0	17	17
Bald Eagle	1	27	27
Northern Harrier	1	125	125
Sharp-shinned Hawk	92	2074	2074
Cooper's Hawk	0	5	5
Northern Goshawk	0	0	0
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	0	0
Broad-winged Hawk	931	20064	20064
Swainson's Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	5	42	42
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	25	519	519
Merlin	2	20	20
Peregrine Falcon	4	21	21
Unknown Accipiter	0	0	0
Unknown Buteo	0	1	1
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	0	0
Total:	1776	24065	24065

We kicked off the 2021 season today. The only cranes that were in the marsh were seen when we arrived this afternoon.  Some cranes were spotted coming down just to our north and others were heard to the south. 

Egrets made a strong showing tonight and all roosted together with our two cranes.  The sparrows were not too plentiful but we had lots of waxwings feasting on black cherries and pokeberry.  Three Northern Harriers were active during most of our time on the overlook.  They moved over most of the area working the marsh as normal but also coming up the emergent marsh as well as soaring higher in the sky.  Our big treat was a Common Gallinule which is a somewhat rare sighting for Haehnle.

It was a beautiful afternoon with the colors just barely starting to show.  A few groups of Canada Geese came in just after sundown and a single bat, likely a Big Brown, closed out the night observations. 

Crane counters:   Ross Green, Gary Siegrist & Steve Jerant
Compiler:  Steve Jerant
Submitted by Steve Jerant

Crane Count:  02 (32 total observed)
Species count:  31

Species

Canada Goose 22

Wood Duck 76

Mallard  1

Mourning Dove 6

Common Gallinule 1

Sandhill Crane 32

Great Blue Heron 3

Great Egret 45

Turkey Vulture 1

Northern Harrier 3

Bald Eagle 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker 1

Downy Woodpecker 1

Northern Flicker 1

American Kestrel 1

falcon sp. 1

Blue Jay 7

American Crow 4

Black-capped Chickadee 1

White-breasted Nuthatch 1

House Wren 2

Carolina Wren 1

Gray Catbird 1

American Robin 10

Cedar Waxwing 10

American Goldfinch 7

Field Sparrow 1

Song Sparrow 1

Swamp Sparrow 2

Red-winged Blackbird 250

Common Yellowthroat 4

warbler sp. (Parulidae sp.) 1

Indigo Bunting 1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S95276343

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

The Haehnle newsletter has been released for fall 2001.  It is available on the Haehnle website at this LINK.

Hope to see you at the Sanctuary this fall!

Eleven JAS members and some guests toured Haehnle on Tuesday lead by Gary Siegrist.  He provided some history of the sanctuary and we got some insight into the wildflowers in bloom. 

1984-NovDec_MA_NewsHaehnleArticle.pdf

It was hot and there were many mosquitoes.  

eBird list

The weather was perfect today for a walk trough the grassland trails at Watkins Lake.  Our group of 15 started on the east side and walked the trail to the lookout of the wetland to the north. After returning to parking are we continued west to the upland grassland area to walk the red trail loop.

Highlight species include:

• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Eastern Towhee
• Bobolink
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Scarlet Tanager

See the trip's eBird checklist  for full species list.

Our spring summer 2021 Newsletter has been published. Articles include backlog due to Covid.  See Gary Siegrist updates on the 2020 CBC & Haehnle, Gary Mason on Lime Lake Fen, Becky's Birding during a pandemic, and more.

eBird Checlist

Gary Siegrist provided a tour to a few JAS members who braved a moderately cold morning today.  We had lots of sunshine and no real wind until the end of our walk.  Gary lead the group on a loop walk showing of the new section of trail from the woods into the prairie at the rear of the sanctuary.   

Birds of note were an immature Bald Eagle and a Brown Creeper.  See eBird posting for more details.

Jackson Audubon Waterloo Christmas Bird Count 2020

With only a couple of leaders reporting in it looks like some good birds were found but with numbers of birds counted down. Joyce Peterson reported 5000+ cranes Saturday morning with other leaders that have reported in also seeing cranes in their areas. Rough-legged Hawk (2), Merlin, and lots of Bald Eagles were seen and Purple Finch and Pine Siskin filled in some of the winter finches. On the Hoffman Trail where the water flows over the old dike, I found in five minutes Swamp Sparrow (1), Northern Shrike (1), and called in a Virginia Rail. If you go look for the rail, wear knee boots as there is water flowing over the dike from the edge of the woods to the start of the grassland. 

Gary Siegrist
12/20/2020