10 replies to this topic

[Alyah]

Yup, I just got back from another Michigan trip and have a few mystery birds. All birds were spotted at Brevort Lake.
First is this sparrow that was hanging out with a Song Sparrow. Is this a Savannah? Or am I way off?


Second are some swans. Probably nothing much can be made of them. I was taking pictures of a duck way out across the lake and didn't notice the swans until I looked at the pictures. Can anyone say if they're Mute Swans or not?

Last picture, third ID: This bird flew overhead and I thought it was a crow at first. It didn't look quite right, so I tried for pictures. This is the only one I got.

And now a question...I saw a heron or heron-like bird fly overhead. It was low enough that I could see brown stripes on the neck/breast area. It was smaller than a Great Blue. Given that the lake is pretty much bare of vegetation, can I say with certainty that it was a Green Heron and not a Least Bittern? I do have two awfully blown out pictures if needed.

[psweet]

• Savannah Sparrow -- note the short tail in the second shot.
• No way -- you could have Trumpeters and Mutes, but the shots just not good enough to say
• Northern Harrier, I think, but I don't know that I could rule out Cooper's.

I think you can safely say it wasn't a Least Bittern (for one thing, you almost never see them flying that high in the daytime) but I can't rule out immature Black-crowned Night-Heron from your description.

[BarnSwallow]

Agree with psweet. Harrier was my first impression of the flyover, but hard to tell.

[Alyah]

Thanks all! Savannah Sparrow is a lifer! I didn't think much could be made of the swans or the mystery flyover, but I figured I might as well post them. Are Trumpeter Swans seen more often in a larger group, or are they more often in pairs like the swans in the picture? As far as I know, these were the only swans around (I say this after missing them entirely until I viewed the pictures).
As for the heron, I'm kicking myself for not having the camera out when I first spotted it. I'd forgotten about night-herons. Google shows several that would match what I saw, and I just compared sizes between the two possible herons. One reference said crow-sized for Green Heron and what I saw was bigger than that. However, it looks like a Green Heron is more likely in the U.P. than a Black-Crowned. I'm all confuzzled.

[creeker]

My impression of the flyover is Northern Harrier as well.

[blackburnian]

my initial thought was mute for the swans

[blackburnian]

id say harrier for the flyover too

[Alyah]

Yeah, Harrier was my thought when I saw the white rump. I'm also pretty sure the swans would be Mute Swans considering the eBird reports for Trumpeter Swans in the area list between 10 and 40 birds in a sighting. Thanks for the extra input!
I've got a picture of the heron ready to post, so I'll go ahead and do that when I get an opportunity, although I don't think it will help at all.

[Alyah]

Here it is. The heron was flying away from me towards the sun, so this is really awful.

[TheBillyPilgrim]

This is definitely a shot in the dark, but my impression of your Heron is American Bittern (they look heavier and longer-winged than Greens in flight). Just an initial impression, though. The bird's definitely too far to get a solid ID.

[Alyah]

Yep. This one will have to go down as "I'll never know," which is too bad since all of the possibilities would have been lifers. Thanks again everybody!