Belle Isle birds - November 26, 2006

[Allen Chartier]

Birders,

This morning there was a virtual army of birders searching the trail along 
Nashua Creek on Belle Isle (Wayne Co.), checking the three locales where 
Northern Saw-whet Owls were reported in the past couple days. The two 
locations reported by Jennex and Pease did have owls today, but the site 
reported by Overman had only whitewashed branches (provided I was in the 
right spot...). It is possible that three birds are present, and last year 
it took a while for them to settle in to their preferred roost sites. Both 
birds today were along the north side of the creek, to the east of the zoo, 
on the south side of the trail (between the trail and the creek). Coming 
from the east, walking past the newer red bridge (the trail turns right, or 
north, into the woods), there is a small tree across the trail just after 
the trail turns left again. About 15 feet past this, look left (south) into 
a tangle about 30-40 feet off the trail, and perhaps 6-8 feet off the 
ground. This owl was very difficult to see as it was tucked well into a 
tangle. Continuing west on the trail, another owl was in the patch of three 
tangled trees where "old reliable" was last year. There is a large (12-inch 
diameter) branch laying on the left side of the trail where two main trees 
are located (Dan Gerteiser placed a child's pink toy cellphone on the branch 
today). The bird was in the leftmost tree, about 10 feet up and about 10-15 
feet off the trail. This is where an owl was seen only a couple times last 
winter, the reliable roost was in another denser "cousin it" tree-tangle 
about 25 feet farther down the trail. Hopefully the birds will settle in for 
the winter, as they did last year, and hopefully birders will remain on the 
trails to enjoy the owls that are most easily visible.

Elsewhere on the island, I found a single White-winged Scoter off the 
western tip of the island, though other birders were reporting two of them, 
and still others were reporting two Surf Scoters. They are all in 
female/immature plumage, so it would pay to wait for the birds to dive or 
flap their wings to be sure of the ID. There were two cargo ships going up 
the Canadian side of the river when I was there this morning, scattering 
ducks everywhere, so almost anything is possible, and the birds could be 
almost anywhere.

The female Long-tailed Duck reported by Karl Overman was still present north 
of the water slide, well offshore and probably closer to the Detroit 
"mainland" (scope required), and a few Snow Buntings flew overhead while I 
was there. Two Horned Grebes were also there among the fairly numerous 
Common Goldneyes (all distant), Buffleheads, and Hooded Mergansers.

And finally, a single white morph Snow Goose was among several hundred 
Canada Geese in the Athletic Field on the south-central side of the island 
in the morning.  But, in late morning the resident pack of feral dogs (4 of 
them) were chasing and flushing the geese. Most had resettled when the dogs 
had moved on just before noon, but the Snow Goose was no longer among them. 
It could still be on the island somewhere.

Allen Chartier
amazilia1 at comcast.net
1442 West River Park Drive
Inkster, MI  48141
Website: http://www.amazilia.net
Michigan HummerNet: http://www.amazilia.net/MIHummerNet
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Every day, the hummingbird eats its own weight in food.
You may wonder how it weighs the food. It doesn't.
It just eats another hummingbird.
---Steven Wright