Field notes
Outing stories and observations from the field — the longer captions behind the photos.
Eastern kingbird · Washtenaw County
Whenever I see a kingbird I think of Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman, the legendary book he wrote about his 1973 attempt to see as many birds as possible in a year. It’s one of my all-time favorite…
Tree swallow · Washtenaw County
Someday I'll manage a decent photo of a swallow in flight, but in the meantime, this beautiful adult was happy enough to pose near a set of busy nestboxes. Maybe taking a much-needed break from the…
American goldfinch · Washtenaw County
I’m always happy to see a goldfinch. They’re common suburban birds in this part of Michigan, but no less interesting and beautiful for that. Once I started to notice them, I saw them everywhere -…
Cedar waxwing · Washtenaw County
This cedar waxwing was part of a small flock busily hopping from tree to tree near Trinkle Marsh in Dexter. All of them were loath to sit still long enough to be photographed, but this one, maybe…
Savannah sparrow · Washtenaw County
Luckily for me, this sparrow had a clear favorite singing perch in Staebler County Farm Park. He sat here for the better part of half an hour, singing frequently, before abandoning his post to chase…
House finch · Washtenaw County
Ubiquitious dwellers of parking lots and alleyways from New York City to San Diego, house finches are rarely the focus of anyone’s attention, but I like them. They’re chatty and social and…
White-throated sparrow · Washtenaw County
Every winter morning, at least two or three white-throated sparrows can be found picking through the undergrowth behind our house. In particularly cold weather, they puff up so much that they become…
Swallow-tailed kite · Washtenaw County
Swallow-tailed kites are not Michigan birds, or even 'anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line' birds. They like South America, Mexico, and at their most northern, the Gulf Coast. But that hasn't…
Black-necked stilt · Monroe County
The legs on this bird are truly ridiculous. And the color scheme! You could put this bird front and center in a ballet and it would fit right in. I’d had black-necked stilt on my wishlist for months…
Lesser yellowlegs · Monroe County
Like any good community, birding comes with a lot of unapproachable jargon. ‘Lifers’; ‘fluddles’; referring to birds by their four-letter banding codes instead of their names (PIPL for piping…
Caspian tern · Monroe County
The great joy of photographing Caspian Terns in flight is that they fly relatively slowly and mostly along predictable trajectories, which is a particular blessing for me because my camera has no…
Belted kingfisher · Washtenaw County
From some angles, belted kingfishers look faintly ridiculous, being approximately 75% head and beak and 25% everything else, but I think this view is a flattering one. There were two of them fishing…
Wood duck · Washtenaw County
In my personal opinion, wood ducks are probably Michigan’s most beautiful native bird, and that’s coming from someone who thinks that every bird is a stunner. So it makes sense that wood ducklings…
Great blue heron · Washtenaw County
These herons are one of the six or seven birds that even non-birders can reliably name (along with your classic robins, blue jays, bald eagles, etc.) - a sort of ambassador species. I row on Argo…
Cliff swallow · Washtenaw County
To my delight, a colony of cliff swallows decided to post up right across from my house to nest this summer. Cliff swallows aren’t the most common swallow in my area - it’s usually much easier to…
Blue jay · Washtenaw County
Is it still called an ugly duckling stage in a blue jay? This scruffy adolescent was trying their best to get their nearby parent to feed them, but their parent wasn’t taking the bait. I love how…
Eastern wood-pewee · Washtenaw County
I find wood-pewees difficult to distinguish in the field from a half-dozen other small grayish birds, but this one was singing so loudly that there could be no doubt. I heard his song first and…
Indigo bunting · Washtenaw County
Indigo buntings are so preternaturally vivid and beautiful that it seems ridiculous that you can find them all over the place in Michigan in the summer, but you can. This male was part of a noisy…
Loggerhead shrike · Washtenaw County
It's always a particular privilege to see a bird that was once a common resident of the area but is now a rare and lucky find. Loggerhead shrike populations overall are down some 75% since the…
Downy woodpecker · Washtenaw County
This woodpecker was quietly working on expanding his cavity nest when I noticed the motion in the tree. He couldn't seem to decide whether to stay inside or try his luck further up the tree and was…
Bobolink · Washtenaw County
Bobolinks sound a little like R2D2 and look a little like a balding, kinder blackbird, and they're not particularly common in my part of Michigan. They're grassland birds and their population is on…
European starling · Washtenaw County
Starlings get a lot of hate, some of which is fair enough: they’re voracious crop-eaters and sometimes nest saboteurs of cuter and more popular native birds. But it has always seemed strange to me…
Pine grosbeak · Chippewa County
Easily my favorite grosbeak, with apologies to the rose-breasted, the blue, and the evening. This flock was another lucky find during the Michigan Audobon Winter Birding trip.
White-breasted nuthatch · Washtenaw County
Always a pleasure to see a nuthatch with a snack. Although this one did hurl the bit of food in his beak to the ground shortly after this photo was taken, so maybe not such a good snack after all.
Northern yellow warbler · Barry County
This warbler wasn't interested in giving unobstructed views, but was interested in playing peek-a-boo with this stick.
Song sparrow · Barry County
Song sparrows have a voice that belies their small size and nondescript appearance. This one was feeling particularly vocal - a sign of a good day for him, but not so much for us, because he was so…
Red-winged blackbird · Washtenaw County
The sound of red-winged blackbirds is the sound of the summer in my part of Michigan. They're everywhere, they're loud, and they've been known to chase me down when all I'm trying to do is take a…
Killdeer · Washtenaw County
We live near a popular killdeer nesting area in Ann Arbor, so our spring and summer evenings come with a constant soundtrack of their keening calls. They're shorebirds but are often in distinctly…
Mourning dove · Washtenaw County
This mated pair were regular visitors to our birdfeeders in the early spring, and I was lucky to be near my camera when they began a courtship display right outside our windows. They spent a long…
Mute swan · Washtenaw County
Love was in the air for these two residents of Ann Arbor’s Gallup Park - appropriately enough, taken shortly after Valentine’s Day.
Snowy Owl · Chippewa County
In a certain sense, a lot of birding is about delayed and uncertain gratification. You set out looking for a bird in the woods and the entire forest is quiet that day; you follow a rare bird alert…
Great crested flycatcher · Barry County
I first saw this flycatcher at Point Pelee in Canada, so it was a treat to add one to my Michigan list. These birds have a distinctive, piercing 'WEEP-WEEP' call and are common in wooded areas…
Great gray owl · Chippewa County
This owl was an incredible find at the very end of a long, cold day of birding in the UP with a Michigan Audubon group. It was an unusually wintry winter that year. Snowbanks drifted up hip height…