Adventures of an Aythya Americana

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 extr...

White-Breasted Nuthatch enjoying some mealworms.  Northern Cardinal and an Eastern Bluebird visiting a mealworm feeder.  White-Breasted Nuthatch feeding upside down on the suet feeder.  Molly and I visited the home of her parents Mark and Kim along with Molly's sister Meagan, our brother-in-law Seth, and our cute nephew Elisha (who Uncle Lucas hopes to teach how to love birds) for Super Bowl Sunday. At their house, we were able to take a few pictures of the bird visitors to their superb feeding setup.  A male House Finch perched on the feeder.  Two Eastern Bluebirds enjoying some mealworms. A few of the visitors to the feeder are unique only to winter. Dark-Eyed Juncos and American Tree Sparrows find their way back to lower Michigan in late fall and leave for the the boreal forest of Canada in the early spring. American Tree Sparrows make an even longer journey. They will leave us in the early spring for the far northern reaches of Canada and Alaska. Oddly enoug...

Horned Larks in a corn field southwest of the 128th Avenue and Bingham Street intersection 1/24/21 Snow Buntings (primarily white, in background), Lapland Longspur (fourth bird from the right), and several Horned Larks feeding in a field 1/24/21  On a cold Sunday morning on January 24, 2021, I received a text message from a birding friend named Lonny. T he conditions (cold and snowy) were good for seeing a flock of Horned Larks that morning, so Lonny let me know in a text that he was on his way to see if they were at their common locale of 128th Avenue and Bingham Street in West Olive . I had previously informed him of my bad luck of being unable to get a good look at a Horned Lark, so I appreciated that Lonny was very willing to make sure I would have my chance to see them.    Snow Buntings and Horned Larks taking flight 1/24/21 Minutes later, I found out via text that Lonny's hunch was right: he saw a large flock of Horned Larks , Snow Buntings , and even some Lapland L...

As an alternative to Instagram and text messages filled with bird photos, I decided it would be fun to start a blog where I could include the photos I was able to take with some fun facts about the birds and the experiences finding them. I could then provide a link of these experiences to family and friends. I am certainly known for having a few failed blog attempts, and this may certainly become one of them. Nonetheless, for the time being this seemed like a fun endeavor, so here is my attempt at a first post. Blog names are always difficult, and I debated for a long time what I should title this blog. Fortunate for me, the inspiration came in the form of a Redhead duck I saw on Sunday, January 31 at Holland State Park . The Latin name for this duck is aythya americana , so I thought it was a fun play on words to name a blog that describes the adventures of a redhead human trying to find redhead ducks and other birds, hence "Adventures of an Aythya Americana".  A posse of...