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On the way home from my dads birthday party we drove by south beach and there were several birders looking at the gulls. We stopped to see what they were looking at and they told us it was a Slaty Backed Gull. This is my first Slaty Backed Gull this year, I did see one last year at approximately this time. This is the seventh record in the state of Michigan and the fourth in last 12 months. 
Slaty Backed Gull
Slaty backed Gull Notice the deep pink legs
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Last friday I went looking for gulls at the south beach power plant. There were at least 500 gulls. The first birds I noticed were a juvenile Glaucous Gull and an adult Great Black Backed Gull. They were both flying, which made for some decent pictures. There were both Ring Billed and Herring Gulls too. 
Glaucous Gull
Saturday I went to my camp in Amasa, Mi looking for Spruce Grouse. We didn't find one. We didn't find any Ruffed Grouse either, which is odd since there are a good amount of them around. I did get some good pictures of a Black Capped Chickadee. We went back to south beach to look for more gulls and found one Thayer's Gull. 
Black Capped Chickadee
Today, we went back to south beach but found no other unusual gulls. We did see two Peregrine Falcons, though. And finally, I saw a sign of spring today (yes!!). A welcome chipmunk. 
Eastern Chipmonk
The last 3 classes were great and the whole weekend turned out great! On my way home while birding in the Traverse City area (which had a good number of ducks) I got an eBird post of a Northern hawk owl. So we had to go look for it. We looked for about an hour with no luck (Turns out we had the wrong address). On the way over to the correct address we saw a birder. We asked him if he had seen it. Turns out he was the one who reported it! While heading over I spotted a male pheasant. We met up with another birder too. We eventually found it in a field. With the ducks and the owl that brings my big year total to 68. Look on the front page to see some updates on my list and favorite bird too!!  Northern Hawk Owl When I first got up I went for a walk. Nothing much, got a Tufted titmouse and Red bellied woodpecker. The Titmouse is pretty rare for the U.P. The workshops were great! Me and my dad went for an owl walk and heard a Great Horned Owl !!!!!!. The great horned is my 60th bird for the year!!!!. Happy Birding
On the way to the workshop, we got a flat tire causing me to miss the first class. I purchased a pair of vortex crossfire 10x42 binoculars today to. I got my years first turkey vulture today. We finally got to the workshop and was listening to bird banding at Burke lake state game game area. The class so far have been great. At about 8 pm we went on an owl prowl. Overall there were three species of owls heard. Two of which I heard. I heard a barred and northern saw whet owls. And I missed the great horned. Both owls I saw were the first this year. Them and the vulture brings my total for the year 59.
This Thursday, Friday and saturday I will be at a Bird workshop in Tustin, Michigan. The workshop is mainly about bird conservation in Michigan. One of the topics is owl migration at the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory. I will try to blog at the end of the day and let you know what kind of birds I'm seeing.
Update on my BIG YEAR 55 birds as of March 19 This weeks tip is to look at your states Audubon rare bird record committee bird list. You can learn what species of birds have been seen in your state. This is my Audubon's website http://www.michiganaudubon.org/research/recordscommittee/michigan_checklist.html 
This weeks tip is to look on telephone poles for Hawks during the day and Owls at night. Snowy and Great Grey Owls can be seen during the day. During 2 hours of driving I saw 22 hawks on telephone poles.
This weeks tip is to look back every Monday for another tip.
We first started out at the lower harbor power plant. Nothing much, 6 common goldeneye were it. Non-bird related, We did see 3 people ice skating on the frozen over part of the lake. We moved on to look at the upper harbor power plant and the dead river. I could see 2 beautiful male Long tailed Duck. They were very cooperative. 
Two male Long Tailed Duck
There were a couple of Mallards in the hot ponds next to the power plant. Nothing else. We then went to look for a pair of pheasant and a ruffed grouse. We saw no sign of either. I have a photo of the pheasant in my gallery from last week. That picture will be in my local newspaper next Monday. 
Photo Quiz #1
I will put a photo quiz at the end of some of my blog posts. The bird could be from any time. This picture I took at the Bay Beach Wildlife sanctuary in 2013. You put the answer at the bottom of the page or you can email me at [email protected]. I will put the name of the first 3 people to get it right on my next blog post with the answer. Happy Birding
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