[StoneFinn]

Originally Posted by Hack

I'm hitting my favorite birding spot next weekend in northern Michigan, hoping I am not too late for the spring migration. Michigan is blessed by being located in a major fly-way. We see lots of cool birds here in the spring. A few years ago, my best bird was a Lewis' Woodpecker, normally only seen in the desert out West. It was blown off course and was spotted at Whitefish Point in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I happened to be in the area and drove over to the area and I ended up spotting it in the scrubby pines. It was amazing!

I'd love it if birders would post their lists in here of things they seen on their birding days. It would be cool to read what others are seeing in their part of the world.

Jake

'allo Jake... and great to hear from you-- that is an awesome story about the Lewis' Woodpecker ! Talk about you being in the right place at the right time there!

I am a pretty avid birder and bird photographer-- in my early 20's I was lucky enough to be the naturalist for one of the Audubon Society Reserves in the US for a while. Even before then, when I was small my Mum was a vet tech, also in the States, and I was able to do things like raise a set of orphaned ducklings, and even an orphaned great horned owl at home. The ducks, we eventually released ourselves, though the owl went to a Raptor rehab center after a while.

I also was also lucky to have a large raptor nest right next to my side of the house on the farm growing up-- so birds have always been a huge focus of mine. I started working on photographing them with that nest-- running out with my kodak 110 insta-matic trying to get decent snaps of the ospreys or the owls.

Since that time, I have traveled all over North America, and now also parts of Southeast Asia, into New Zealand (to see the Albatross specifically), and live in Australia. I have even been lucky enough to stand within a couple of meters of the Little Penguin-- an Aussie native penguin-- in the wild down in the Melbourne region.

Thank you everyone for posting and sharing your stories and photos! Keep them coming every one makes me smile, and I love being able to share some of the birds that I see that others might not ever be able to... and seeing birds that I might never be able to travel to see myself

My partner has become used to me doing things like suddenly stopping the truck, grabbing the ever present camera, and me running off somewhere, chasing after something... usually all she hears is "BIRD!" as I jump out... LOL She has an eternal patience with me, especially when it comes to this-- her only "rule" is that I don't run the truck off the road, into another MV or off a cliff because I am too busy looking at a bird. I think that is fair.


Otherwise-- I am hoping for the safety and well being of all my and our feathered (and scaled and non-scaled and so on) friends up in the Gulf of Mexico....

will close with a couple more photos tonight...
A **small** flock of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos in NSW


One of the ducks (that I am still working on an ID for) at one of the local park ponds.