Shiawassee County sightings

[Russell Emmons]

Jeff: Nice to hear some of the stuff you, Steve, Darlene, Doug, etc. are 
finding yet while Atlasing!  Seems around this neck of the woods it's a 
mixed bag at this time!  Yesterday around this area, hundreds upon hundreds 
of flocking Tree, Bank, & Cliff Swallows already! These would be migrants! 
One must be careful to list such as breeders in any particular block now. 
Also for some time we have swarming, mixed flocks of Red-Wings, Grackles, 
Cowbirds, Starlings, both adults and young staging up already around here. 
Have seen Green Herons, Great Blues dispersing around the area. Have started 
hearing Eastern Screech Owls whinnying already, likely stating their next 
seasons territorys. Bats are out in force each evening, don't usually them 
until mid-August!
  Seems most of the neo-tropicals have already moved on or at least they've 
stopped singing and won't show themselves!
   Have seen reports of migrating shorebirds various places but none here. 
Of course tho, we rarely ever get any in this area at any time. Killdeer and 
Spotteds  are about it!

   Jeff there was a time not that long ago, we often had Bob White familys 
in our yard at the feeders, and frequently 2, 3 or more adults calling each 
other from adjoining fields on fence posts! The fields and fence posts are 
still there as always but no Bob-Whites. This was true over in Macomb county 
also!----We did find 2 blocks this summer with singing Bob-Whites tho!

Common Moorhens used to be a regular sighting/breeder at the St. Johns 
Marsh/St.Clair Flats not far from here but are few & far between seen 
anymore!

Grasshopper Sparrows, Dickcissels have never been seen around here but we do 
ocasionally see 1 or 2 Grasshopper Spars.at the north end of the county. 
Same goes for Upland Sandpipers. All these 3 we see up north around our 
Kalkaska county place regularly.

On the plus side Wild Turkeys, Wood Ducks, Sandhill Cranes have been 
increasing in this area!  Ring-necked Pheasants are doing fine. Just this 
summer there is a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers present just a mile or so 
from here!

Russ Emmons, south end of St. Clair county!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jbuecking at juno.com>
To: <Mich-chat at envirolink.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2007 10:37 PM
Subject: Shiawassee County sightings


> Mich-chatters,
>
> I enjoyed some fine birding this morning while atlassing in
> Middlebury Township. The highlight of my morning was listening to 3
> (!) Bobwhites, both species of cuckoos and Sandhill Cranes at the
> same time. This was near the south end of Balcom Rd, just north of
> Hibbard (pg 36 of the Atlas & Gazetteer, a few miles south of Ovid,
> just east of the Clinton County line). I've ever heard more than one
> Bobwhite calling at the same time in Michigan before. This was on
> land indentified on a DNR sign as being under the Hunters Access
> Program (HAP). I plan on trying to find out if they could have been
> released there.
>
> Practically all of the atlassing I've done this year has been in
> Shiwassee Co. Some of the sightings of species considered to be
> of "Special Concern" are the following.
>
> Common Moorhen - 7/11 - Large pond on Garrison Rd, just east of Waugh
> Rd (Bennington Twp)
>
> Grasshopper Sparrows - (1) 7/11 Bennington Twp, just east of Moorhen
> location, (2) 7/8 New Haven Twp on Easton Rd in a poor soybean field
> between McCaffrey and State Rds(not re-located yesterday).
>
> Dickcissels - (1) 6/23 Hazelton Twp, Reed Rd just N of Henderson Rd
> and 2 along Allan Rd between Durand Rd and Reed (same date). Also in
> Caledonia Twp on 7/1 single birds seen along Wilkinson Rd and
> Wildermuth Rd between Hintz and State Rds.
>
> Jeff Buecking
> Fenton
>
>
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