Sag Bay Snowy Owl expedition

[Dmcwhir513 at aol.com]

Chatskis -

Snowy Owl is very high on the list of birds wanting to be seen by our visiter 
from Israel, so yesterday, acting on good info from Joe Soehnel and Jerry 
Hall, we semi-slid up to Tuscola and Huron counties for a look-see.

We concentrated our owling efforts on the 8 square miles around 
Akron/Broadway in Tuscola Co and Sebewaing/Bayport in Huron with no owls being seen.  Also 
worked the coast roads from Quanicasse to Fish Point.

Did have harrier and a small group of redpolls in Tuscola, 6-8 small groups 
of Snow Bunting next to and on the road in both counties (great views), and a 
longspur in Huron Co.  Was surprised not to pick up a shrike in the scrub along 
the bay.

Alan did have two lifers - the longspur and Wild Turkey.  We caught the 
turkey out in the open and it broke into a fast walk, then panicked and burst into 
flight - a long way from any cover.  

It flew up at a fairly steep angle for a ways before more or less tiring (?) 
and stalling.  At that point, it wing-wobbled and careened toward the ground, 
crash-landing in an undignified heap.  If we had been closer, I'm sure we 
would have heard the "thump".  After a second, it brushed off it's dignity and 
turkey-trotted the remaining distance to cover.  It was definitely the longest 
flight I've ever seen ventured by a turkey.

Hi-jinks by the Bay.       May your days be merry and bright.   - Doug



**************
Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.
     
(http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp00300000002548)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/mich-chat/attachments/20080210/a7c9ddcb/attachment.html