January 2-3, 2021 - New Year Birding

January 3, 2021 - Purple Sandpiper at Holland State Park.

New Year’s Day starts the clock for a birder’s year list. Many birders attempt to beat their personal record of birds that they had seen in the past year or all time. Some birders take this drive to see more birds than the years before to whole new heights and have what is known in the birding world as a "Big Year". "Big Years" come in all shapes and sizes. My friend Corey sent me an article of a high schooler in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago area) that was having a "Big Year" in Cook County to see as many birds as he could in a year in that county (he saw over 282 birds). Some birders celebrate their big year by seeing as many birds in the ABA Area, which includes the United States (Alaska and Hawaii included), Canada, St Pierre and Miquelon, and 200 nautical miles off shore. In 2019, John Wiegel saw a record 840 bird species in this region. Others take a "Big Year" to a whole world extreme. Noah Strycker, author of the book Birding Without Borders (which I received as a Christmas gift from the Dahmers), saw a record 6,042 birds in one year while visiting all seven continents in 2015. Dutchman Arjan Dwarshuis broke Noah's record one year later by seeing the current world record of 6,852 species in one year. 

January 3, 2021 - Female Long-Tailed Duck at Holland State Park

Although I do not plan on a "Big Year" for myself this year, the changing of the year does provide me with excitement of not only growing my life list of birds I have seen but also tracking when I had first seen a specific "common" bird of this year. While some birders brave the cold early on New Year's Day to jumpstart their year list with both common and rare birds in their area, I instead enjoyed our day indoors with our family at the cottage and peered out the windows to see what bird would be my first of the year. It took a day and half for me to finally see the first bird of the year, but on January 2 I was able to see a White-Breasted Nuthatch going down a large tree from the top down right outside the cottage window. Other common backyard birds quickly followed, including a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, an American Crow, and a Black-Capped Chickadee. 

September 17, 2020 - White-Breasted Nuthatch enjoying a meal on our platform feeder

Later in the day my father-in-law Mark and I drove from the cottage at Kimball Lake to the nearby Pickerel Lake, which had some waterfowl in its open waters. At Pickerel, Mark and I were able to beef up our identification skills by finding the three swans that can be found in Michigan: the non-native Mute Swan (brought over from Europe), the Trumpeter Swan, and a lifer for me and Mark: the Tundra Swan. Identifying Tundras and Trumpeters are difficult, but fortunately Mark's scope and David Sibley's helpful comparison guide helped us feel confident with our ability to differentiate the two (see this link for more details). We also saw some Hooded Mergansers, Mallards, Canada Geese, and Common Goldeneye in the open water. 

March 14, 2021 - two juvenile Trumpeter Swans near a non-native Mute Swan. 

Our family left the cottage on Sunday, January 3 and while packing up I heard the distinctive call and saw the signature flight of a Pileated Woodpecker, adding another species for the year. On the drive home, Molly and I saw a flock of Wild Turkey in Newaygo and at our stop at Hemlock Crossing county park to pick up my Coffee with the Birds Mug from Ottawa County Parks, we added Downy Woodpecker, Dark-Eyed Juncos, American Goldfinch, and a Blue Jay to the year list. When we finally made it home in the afternoon, my excitement of seeing common birds I had already seen propelled me to see if I could also have a two day streak of seeing a bird that would be considered a lifer. 

January 3, 2021 - Male Long-Tailed Duck (not displaying a long tail at the time of this photo). 

After unpacking the car, Molly gave me her blessing to go find some more birds on Sunday evening. I first raced off to a neighborhood near Holland State Park. Oddly enough, a Northern Mockingbird has made itself a resident in this neighborhood near the state park. Typically Northern Mockingbirds are found further south of us, but they are more recently beginning to make residence in the southwest portion of our state. A quick drive by the feeders where this bird had been found earlier in the day proved fruitful as I noticed the Northern Mockingbird in a tree. Adding a new bird to my life list is exciting, but in cases where a lone species is found in the area I often find myself feel sorry for the bird because it appears to be the lone species in a large area (perhaps I am anthropomorphizing the bird's feelings too much or perhaps the bird is thrilled to be left alone as a hermit).

Click on the "Blue" pins to find where I saw each species mentioned in this blog post. 

January 3, 2021 - one lonely Northern Mockingbird hanging out in a tree near S Hampton Street and N Bristol Street in Park Township near Holland State Park. 

I then headed off to Holland State Park to find my next lifer bird: the Long-Tailed Duck. This bird winters in Michigan along the Great Lakes but finds itself returning back to the Arctic breeding grounds. Fortunately I was able to see a male and a female off the pier that cooperated for some photos. Since this date, I have seen Long-Tailed Ducks many more times and each time I appreciate how stunning they are. Long-Tailed Ducks are a joy to watch especially in late winter as they are beginning to pair up and provide some fun aerial displays flying around the pier (see the video taken through the scope I am borrowing from my father-in-law Mark below of some Long-Tailed Ducks strutting and diving during a visit to Holland State Park on March 13, 2021). 

January 3, 2021 - Female (top) and male (bottom) Long-Tailed Ducks off the the pier at Holland State Park. 

One rare bird decided to make an appearance that day as well: a Purple Sandpiper. I had seen the Purple Sandpiper for the first time the day before Thanksgiving. Fortunate for me, I was able to also add it to my 2021 year list. As I was photographing the first one I saw, I eventually saw three other purple sandpipers fly over. Seeing four Purple Sandpipers was a treat since it is not guaranteed you will even see one Purple Sandpiper per winter season in this area. These sandpipers are a real treat to watch since they especially do not mind having the presence of a human nearby and nonchalantly carry on their business of eating invertebrates while I was able to photograph them. However, as Corey VanDyk will likely attest, this bird is a prime example of a poorly named bird, which the more into birding I get the more I realize how many poorly named birds are out there (search Red-Bellied Woodpecker and you will see what I mean). To the credit of the ornithologist who named the bird, supposedly on very rare occasions in the right lighting a purple sheen can be examined on this shorebird (I certainly do not see it).  

January 3, 2021 - the Purple Sandpiper, a rare bird not seen every year at Holland State Park but thankfully paid a visit to us in 2020 and 2021. 

Other birds that were seen were some Red Breasted Mergansers, Great Black-Backed Gulls, a Wood Duck, and a lot of mallards. I left the pier at sunset with a good start to my 2021 bird year list. 

January 3, 2021 - Female Red-Breasted Merganser. (See 1/30/21-1/31/21 post for photos of the male Red-Breasted Merganser).