Labor Day Weekend in Michigan
Monday 7 September 2015
89 °F
I spent this weekend on my family's last trip to Michigan for the year. We are in the process of selling our property there so this may also be our last regular summer visit to Michigan.
We left on Saturday morning, knowing that the highways would be even uglier had we left Friday afternoon. On the way out of Chicago, there was a traffic jam on the Skyway where it passes over Wolf Lake in the Calumet area. I quickly got out my camera and snapped this distant photo of a MUTE SWAN on the lake:
We arrived at our property along a beautiful small lake called Selkirk Lake in southwest Michigan in the early afternoon on Saturday.
My parents were pretty busy settling matters regarding selling the property; however, I managed to have a good time and I went swimming, tubing behind a motor boat on a lake (so much fun!), played "Taps" on my trumpet outside each night, and sang at a local church. I even fit in some birding on the property before we left this morning. This is a confused juvenile male ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK that was singing even though it is the fall (although it certainly doesn't feel like it with the recent 90-degree heat we have been having - maybe that's why he was confused!)
This small GREEN HERON flew up into a tree for its photo:
Some of the property we are selling includes great-quality deciduous woodland for birding:
Green Frog in the lake:
My bird-of-the-weekend was a family of federally near-threatened RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS that appear to have nested on the property this year. This is a juvenile:
I also heard and briefly saw PILEATED WOODPECKERS, a massive crow-sized species that is always an awesome sight - and that will be my avian runner-up for the weekend. I guess both awards go to woodpeckers!
Stay tuned, because I am leading the second Oak Park Bird Walk of the season this Sunday. Speaking of bird walks, there is still one walk with three spots open - Sunday, October 11 at 8:00am. Email [email protected] for details.
For more information on Oak Park Bird Walks, please visit: sites.google.com/site/opbirdwalks/
Also, I will continue posting nightly "migration reports" for birders who want to get out on the best days of migration on my other bird blog, "Arrivals and Influxes:" ilmigration.blogspot.com
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 865 Species (no life birds recently)
Thanks for sharing your bird knowledge!
by Mary Stevens