Black-legged Kittiwake - 04 Dec 2022

 

Yesterday a Black-legged Kittiwake was reported on the Detroit River next to Belle Isle State Park. This morning it was re-located swimming in the cove next to the Dossin Great Lakes Museum and reported to be "very tame" and allowing great views. I grabbed the camera and Robin and I drove to Detroit; she had needed to visit the museum for school so it was a perfect opportunity for both of us.

Along the way I got a call from Patricia Rydzewski, "Guess what I'm doing right now?". "I bet you are looking at a kittiwake?". "Yes!" Of course, just as we arrived the bird had left... 

Luckily, Diane Kovach and Lori Waller said that it would return shortly as it tended to fly out over the river then return to forage. They were not wrong. In just minutes it landed in the small cove and swam along the shoreline next to the museum. 

After a few quick bursts with the Sony a1 and 600/4 lens I decided to walk over to the museum side of the cover where lighting was MUCH BETTER. The Black-legged Kittiwake was popping against the blue waters in the sunny but breezy afternoon light. Ridiculously great views just a few feet away from shore!

A gorgeous 1st-year bird was showing its distinctive black ear-patch, black neck patch and bold black carpal bars on gray wings and white head and chest. Bill was jet black, as were the legs (see below).

It swam along the shore looking for minnows. It would make short bursts on the wing to catch the hapless minnows and was feeding quite well.

At 30 fps I was shooting like a madman trying to catch the flight bursts and fish-eating behavior. I expected to fill up my 160 GB card w/ 3500+ images in no time. However, I would later find out that my camera somehow got switched to single-frame capture, so every burst recorded only the first image. I thought I'd be more upset, but given the number of images I did have I was somewhat grateful that I didn't have to review so many images.

Luckily, I had time to capture some 8K video for the first time w/ the Sony a1 in the great light, so I was able to record the behavior in real-time. The YouTube video has been downsized to 4K.

I was curious to see how well the frame-capture quality was. Below are a number of frame grabs from the video. Impressive!

Adults have clean white heads and chest with gray backs, wings, and black wing-tips. Bills in adults are a clean, creamy yellow in contrast to the all-black bill of the Immature birds, like this one. They are rare to the Great Lakes Region, spending their winters north along the east and west coasts. 

map courtesy of allaboutbirds.com

A number of Immature birds have been reported recently, with several seen on Lake Erie near Cleveland. Here is the eBird map of sightings

map courtesy of eBird and allaboutbirds.com

Magnificent bird! And a great pre-birthday present!

Belle Isle, Wayne, Michigan, US
Dec 4, 2022 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
11 species

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  120
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)  12
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)  6
Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)  6
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)  12
Common Merganser (Mergus merganser)  4
Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)  1     Yesterday a Black-legged Kittiwake was reported on the Detroit River next to Belle Isle State Park. This morning it was re-located swimming in the cove next to the Dossin Great Lakes Museum and reported to be "very tame" and allowing great views. A gorgeous 1st-year bird was showing its distinctive black ear-patch, black neck patch and bold black carpal bars on gray wings and white head and chest. Bill was jet black, as were the legs (see below).

It swam along the shore looking for minnows. It would make short bursts on the wing to catch the hapless minnows and was feeding quite well.
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)  6
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)  6
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  1
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S158912047

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