Collared Doves Still at Ravenna

Dec. 28 Email:

Following up on Steve Minard’s message of 15 December (below), Adam Byrne and I stopped off in Ravenna this afternoon and found the Eurasian Collared-Doves that Steve had seen on the 15th.  Like Steve, we found them perched on a telephone pole in front of Ravenna Feed and Grain. 

Today there were six doves, not five.  Of those six, five were “pure” Eurasian Collared-Doves, with blackish primaries, dark gray under tail-coverts, and the correct pattern on the undersurface of the outermost tail feather (black on the outer web projecting farther toward the feather-tip than the black on the inner web).  The sixth also had blackish primaries and dark gray under tail-coverts, but it had only one tail feather, so we couldn’t tell if it had the correct tail pattern or not.

 

- Phil Chu

Varied Thrush Still Near Snug Harbor

Dec. 27 Email from Beth Miller:

Bailey Mitchell found a Varied Thrush this afternoon at Lost Lake trail!  Go to the 4th plastic bridge.  GPS Coordinates:  43.25024° N, 86.33443° W.

Dec. 28 Email from Mike Boston:

Varied Thrush seen this morning at 11:00 a.m. in the same general area but a little further along the trail, a few yards south of the Barred Owl sign.

Purple Sandpiper at Pere Marquette Park

 Purple Sandpiper on the south side of the south pier, 3/4 of the way to the elbow.

Charlie DeWitt

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Snowy Owl on Tuesday

Phil Willemstein photographed this Snowy Owl yesterday on a pole south of White Road in Egelston Township.

Crossbills at Lost Lake Saturday and Today

The flock of White-winged Crossbills reported Saturday morning on our Muskegon Christmas Bird Count along the northeast shore of Lost Lake (north of Snug Harbor at Muskegon State Park) were reported by Beth Miller again this morning at the same location.

Eurasian Collared-Doves, Etc.

To Muskegon County Bird Listers Dec. 15:

Five Eurasian Collared-Doves were atop a pole in Ravenna in front of Ravenna Feed and Grain.  This is also by the Musketawa Trail near Crockery Creek.  They look to be good Eurasian Collared Doves with dark upper undertail.

Also seen on the Wastewater CBC today were Greater White-Fronted Goose, a Snow Goose and a Northern Shrike from the Musketawa Trail west of Swanson.  Hundreds of Canadas there too.  Another shrike on the fence of the Ravenna Sewage Ponds and just north of there, three peacocks on a roof.  

- Steve Minard