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!

Hooded warbler (Setophaga citrina) photo from wikipedia.

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) photo from wikipedia.

Scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) photo from wikipedia.

Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) photo from wikipedia.

April 2017 Weather Summary

The high temperature for the April was 82.2 degrees. (April 15th) while the low was 27.5 (8th.) Only two days had low temperatures below 32 degrees.  The average temperature was 53.4 degrees, which was nearly 15 degrees above the average for March.

There were 13 days of rain recorded by the weather station. The monthly total was 4.29 inches. Ten days saw more than a tenth of an inch of rain and the 20th had the most rainfall with 0.79 inches.

Average windspeed was 3.9 mph. The highest recorded sustained windspeed was 35 mph, on the 8th.