Yellow-headed Blackbird

 

May 8th

          Last night we drove to Ann Arbor to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of some old friends.  It was a wonderful evening and we got home late.  However, we were up bright and early for our usual Mother’s Day activity which is birding. 

          We ended up at Howards Marsh and saw three good birds there.  When we arrived, we saw a group of birders with big cameras snapping pictures of a male Yellow-headed Blackbird walking around in the grass.  Next, we took a long walk all around the impoundment and ended up flushing an American Bittern from the cattails.  This was great because we rarely get to see this bird in flight.

          As we were walking back to the car, another group of birders had a female Yellow-headed Blackbird surrounded.  One of them mentioned that there were Bobolinks very close by.  We walked over a little bridge and there were two male Bobolinks in the grass.  A Bobolink has a very distinctive song that sounds like R2-D2 from Star Wars.  It’s always fun to hear them singing. 

(3 new species, total 237)

          American Bittern (scarce)

          Yellow-headed Blackbird (scarce)

          Bobolink 

                                     Yellow-headed Blackbird (male)

                                         American Bittern

                      Yellow-headed Blackbird (female)

 
                                        Bobolink

                                          American White Pelican



 


Comments

  1. AnnMay 9, 2022 at 4:06 PM

    So good to hear that American bitterns are settling in at Howard Marsh. Great that you got it.

    ReplyDelete

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