Winter's on its way! - 16 Oct 2010

Robin and I drove out to Fisherman's Island State Park in Charlevoix Co. this morning. I hiked the dunes toward the island with the hopes of stirring up an Ammodramus sparrow, but dipped. A pair of Northern Harriers were harrassing a pair of Common Ravens over the island, and one even drifted my way, but turned away before I could get any closer to it.

As I headed toward the tip of the island I saw the first American Tree Sparrow of the season. Several Song Sparrows later I heard the chip note of a Snow Bunting coming from the shoreline.

I scanned the shoreline and found a first-winter Snow Bunting picking among the yellow moss-covered rocks. I took a few digiscoped images from about 100' but decided to wade the shallows to get closer.

I was able to get close enough to get some nice digiscoped images before it took off south along the shoreline with two other birds. Time to get the snow blower ready....

Fisherman's Island SP, Charlevoix, Michigan, US
Oct 16, 2010 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 mile(s)
5 species

Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)  2
Common Raven (Corvus corax)  2
Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis)  2
American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea)  1
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S42374628

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

We then headed to Boyne City along Boyne City Rd. (just north of Charlevoix) and came across this pretty setting of trees.  Colors were past-peak in this area, with most trees losing all or most of their leaves, but this area still had some nice color.  As I got out of the car to take a series of snapshots for a panorama I spotted a swirling flock of American Pipits between the sets of wire fencing.  Approximately 20 birds were moving through the field, with some birds stopping momentarily on the far fencing.

Young SP, Charlevoix, Michigan, US
Oct 16, 2010 11:30 AM - 11:40 AM
Protocol: Traveling
0.1 mile(s)
1 species

American Pipit (Anthus rubescens)  20

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S165081201

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

Photo ops were pretty slim from here out, so a photo or two of the half-moon was in order.  Jupiter and four of its moons were also visible to the left of the moon and bright enough to see through binoculars. I attempted to digiscope Jupiter, and managed to put this composite of two images together: one of Jupiter purposely underexposed to bring out some of its colors, and a second overexposed image to bring out the four moons.  Not bad for a first crack at astrophotography...