Thursday, May 4, 2017

Rare birds at Huron Hills

I recieved this email from the staff at Natural Area Preservation yesterday. It comes from the City of Ann Arbor's Ornithologist, Juliet Berger


I observed a Hooded Warbler at Huron Hills Golf Course Woods today. It was both seen and heard singing, in the mature woods near the small cattail pond west of a home. This is in the section closest to Huron Parkway. In the past this species has nested here, at least once before that we know of, in 2014. A striking yellow bird with a black hood, Hooded Warblers are a Species of Special Concern for our State. We are at the northern edge of their breeding range, as they are generally a more southerly nesting species. They require high quality mature woodlands with shrubby understory, and like to nest near the ground in a shrub. Here is a link to the allaboutbirds.org website article about the Hooded Warbler. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hooded_Warbler/lifehistory

Also, we observed a Pileated Woodpecker checking out the woods in the same area, as well as 2 pair of Scarlet Tanager, and a Wild Turkey. The woods were hopping today!

Wilsonia citrina (Belize).jpg


PileatedWoodpeckerFeedingonTree.jpg
Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) photo from wikipedia.

7Z1E5997a.jpg
Scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) photo from wikipedia.


Gall-dindi.jpg
Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) photo from wikipedia.


1 comment:

Brian Kuehn said...

I have seen and heard a lot of wild turkeys in the area. The other little fellows haven't been seen so I will need to keep a better look out for them.