Merlin! - 20 Dec 2016


I drove down to Sterling State Park this morning to look for Count-Week birds for the Monroe, MI Christmas Bird Count. Skies were overcast and generally dark, but I needed to give the camera a test-run. During Sunday's CBC the cold weather had rendered the camera inoperable; I would see f/0 and 1/2000 sec exposures at ISO 400, which generated dark images at 10-20 frames at a time. Turns out that the 1.7 TCII that I was using was shorting out the contact between lens and camera, thus ruining the exposures. So, when I removed the teleconverter, the camera seems to work just fine!

I arrived at the park at just before 8 am and captured a small flock of Horned Larks that landed on the road next to the car. 


As I drove south through the park a male Northern Harrier was spotted flying along the road ahead of the car. I couldn't get the bird to cooperate, but got a few decent pics. 


I decided to stop by the campground and look for the Killdeer that the Volkers had found on Sunday. Sure enough, the poor little guy was walking around the snow-covered parking lot looking for something to eat. Luckily, the creek to my right has open water, so there is hope that it won't perish.


As I tromped around down by the lakeshore a Hairy Woodpecker appeared overhead. I heard it call first, then saw its larger-than-a-Downy's bill.  I also took the opportunity to photograph some of the American Tree Sparrows and Song Sparrows that were foraging nearby.




As I was leaving the park I saw a dark falcon flying along Waterworks Dr. toward the entrance, and even watched it swoop at a pickup truck that was driving by. I landed in a tree next to the road, and gave me a chance to grab the scope and get some digiscoped images before it flew off into the field to the south.  This Merlin would give us a count-week bird and #81 for the Monroe, MI CBC.



By the way: the camera worked perfectly! Now, I just need to get used to only using the 300/2.8 VRII  w/o a teleconverter. The camera autofocuses faster, and vibration reduction is smooth and quiet now.

Sterling SP, Monroe, Michigan, US
Dec 20, 2016 8:00 AM - 10:05 AM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Cloudy, overcast. Looking for count-week birds for the Monroe, MI CBC.
20 species

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  15
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)  7
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)  1     bird first found by Jack&Janet Volker on Sunday during the Monroe, MI CBC. Found in the campground parking lot.
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)  3
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  1
Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)  1     Adult male
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)  1
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)  1
Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus)  1
Merlin (Falco columbarius)  1     Found at entrance to park as I was leaving. Digiscoped the dark falcon as it perched in a treen next to the road.
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)  1
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)  1
Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris)  6     in parking lot at entrance
Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa)  1
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)  1
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  6
American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea)  3
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)  1
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)  1
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S33139158

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