Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Terns, Sandpipers and Warblers





Today I birded northern Ottawa and southern Muskegon Counties.  Top picture is Forster's Tern with Caspian Terns, middle is Solitary Sandpiper and above an Upland Sandpiper.  I was able to pick up 24 new Michigan species today.  Zack, that brings my total to 166.  Some of the Warblers were Orange-crowned, Golden-winged, Yellow, Blackburnian, Palm, Black-and-White and Common Yellowthroat.
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- Charlie DeWitt

3 comments:

sissypants said...

WOWW!! That was one super hit, Charlie! Maybe I'll follow in your footsteps Saturday :) I only have YEWA, COYE, and Blackburnian for warblers! My total is at 163...

Tiffany VK said...

Charlie, I may be wrong, but I think the smaller tern in your picture is a Common. The reason I say this is that the body seems to be gray (not white) and the primaries seem to be gray, rather than white as a Forster's would have. Anyways, that's just my two cents.

Tiffany VK said...

Charlie, another field mark that supports Common Tern is that the bird in the pic has a "dark wedge" on the inner primaries. This is characteristic of Common but not of Forster's. By the way, which tern is more "common" in Muskegon County?