NATURAL DETROIT

This is our blog of birdsó, animalsò, insects!, and other things{ from nature that we see around town.  In addition to our entries, see the photo albums and links on the side panels.  To enlarge any of the photos to full size, just click on them and if you see something that we haven't, send us the picture and the location in the City of Detroit where you spotted it and we may post it.

Ruddy Ducks Wearing Winter Colors

We saw these ruddy ducks wearing their winter colors in the pool at the foot of the James Scott Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle.  The males are missing the bright blue bills that you see at other times of the year.  We were happy to see these those though, even sans the blue bills - had not yet spotted ruddy ducks in the city.  As we walked closer, they quietly drifted further and further away.   

Up in the Tree - an Owl!!!!

Spotted this great little owl on a tree during our nighttime walk on Monday.  Was really cool and a very cute bird.  We had never seen an owl in the Motor City before.  This one was only about 10 feet or so above our heads.  It was not frightened at all by our taking pictures (some with flash) and walking around beneath it.  The owl just watched us.  At first we thought this was a northern saw-whet owl because of the clear streaks, but it seemed to have little ears.  A little further research tells us it is an eastern screech-owl and that they are not skittish birds.  The eastern screech owl is the smallest eastern owl with ear tufts.  We really wanted to hear it sing.  It remained silent though.  You can here what they sound like here though.  Is a great spooky sound.  Much celebration in the household at this sighting.  

  

 

Check this out.

Got up early on Saturday or rather I was rudely awakened by my father to take an early morning drive through Belle Isle to see if any interesting birds might be out on the water.  It sounded fun enough and I could see that he was excited, so we drove down before the storm came through town.  While on the island, we saw some birds that we had not yet seen in Detroit - we were pretty geeked about that.  The first, was a large gull.  I spotted it out in the middle of the main channel of the Detroit River.  It looked like a large dark object floating pretty far out in the water - maybe a piece of wood or something.  After watching it for a minute or two, we could see it was a bird that was feeding on something floating in the water.  It seemed to be bossy with other gulls that were nearby and they did not want to go closer.  Eventually, we got these photos and at home figured out it is likely a great black-backed gull.  We have not yet seen much variety in the gulls here, so this was pretty exciting.  Great black-backed gulls are much more common along the Atlantic coast, but they do come to the Great Lakes area, particularly in winter. Without further adieu, the great black-backed gull:

 

Goldfinch cleared for Landing!

 

Hawk! Up Above! There!

One of the rituals of my family (well, maybe just my father) is to shout "hawk!" when we are driving down the road.  This happens whenever he spots a hawk on in a tree, flying overhead, on a light pole, on a fence post, pouncing on a mouse in a field, etc. 
That and to randomly shout "blackbird!" in the same way - this one though is unconnected to an actual bird sighting and has something to do with a Kerouac poem.  I'm not really sure. (This disappoints him. He insists that we check here at about 7:40 minutes in, if you want to know).  Hawk sightings are pretty cool, especially in the city.  Driving on the highway though does not make for good opportunities to stop and take a picture.  We have gotten lucky a couple times in some of the city's cemeteries and on Belle Isle, but we see many more than we get pictures of.  Identifying different types of hawks is difficult - takes experience.  A really great place to see pictures of hawks and other raptors that pass through our area is the Facebook page of Detroit River Hawk Watch.  It is a worth looking at.  They also have a web page that gives more information on hawks along the Detroit river.  Their page has a graph that shows the times of the year when different hawks are passing through.  Clink on the photo (from their webpage) to see a larger version of the graph.

      

Woodpecker's Delight

Finally, we see some woodpeckers at the feeder.  Pretty exciting around here.  Had my father running to the window all morning.  The red-bellied woodpecker is the one with the tight black and white pattern across its back.  The name of these birds does not seem to make sense.  They have bright red heads that you notice first.  However, there is a pickish hue on their bellies and that is where the name seems to come from.  At first glance, red-bellied woodpeckers can look very similar to northern flickers.  If you look closer though, the red-bellied doesn't have the flicker's black throat scarf or the velvety gray on its head.  The other woodpecker in our pictures appears to be a downy woodpecker. Telling the difference between a downy and a hairy woodpecker is not easy though.  This one seemed to have the bill of a downy - narrow and like a thorn. We saw this on the same day as the red-bellied and then again a few days after.  The oldest known red-bellied lived more than 12 years, while the oldest known downy lived over 11.  

Chickadee Easing In

 

Don't Eat these Grapes!

Here is a beetle spied one day in our driveway.  Yes, beetles are everywhere, but this one caught our eye and we headed for the camera.  It's a grapevine beetle and a little bit cute. Apparently, they enjoy the fruit of the vine like I do (i.e. they eat grapes). It's also known as a spotted June beetle.  Their underside is shiny black or metallic green, but we let this one be and did not flip it over.  Northern grapevine beetles have dark legs, while their southern cousins are lighter.  

Sound of Summer

Great green cicada!  This summer, they seemed to come late.  It does not seem like summer until I hear them.  

 

Grackle's Color

We, like everyone else, take Grackles for granted.  Just another black bird with a sharp eye.  If the light is right though, their iridescence shines through. So many colors on one bird.  It's mesmerizing.  Take a look.  

 

Birdwatchingdaily.com has a good article that explains how the colors appear iridescent.  

Iridescent feathers are made up of complicated arrays of minute reflectors ... sometimes comprise several ordered layers of melanin granules, air cavities, or both. The structures are sometimes twisted, so they work like the crystals of an infinitesimally small chandelier, absorbing and reflecting a range of wavelengths.

In male peacock feathers, reflectors are spaced and shaped to reflect different wavelengths, producing an array of hues. Similar processes create iridescence in grackles, hummingbirds, and other shiny-feathered birds. The effect enhances some wavelengths and cancels out others. Iridescent birds are shiniest on bright days when the sunlight’s intensity is high ...The noniridescent colors arising from feather structures are white, blue, and occasionally green.

The article also tells us how the color blue occurs in birds.

Unlike virtually every other feather color, no pigment turns feathers blue ... In the cloudy zone of blue feathers, the melanin and air cavities are so close that the distance between them is shorter than a wavelength of light.

For a complete explanation and the full article, see here.