Kay’s Birding Blog

Several years ago, we qualified for a pond, constructed with funds from the Federal Government.  The funds were part of a grant awarded for wetland restoration to benefit migrating birds.  This pond has been a bird, frog, turtle and dragonfly magnet.  Each year, its diversity has increased as the habitat has improved.  We’ve had numerous sandpipers in spring, hooded mergansers in late summer and great blue herons at all times of the breeding season.

Recently, Rick and Deb Kreiger, who manage Michigan Audubon’s Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary in Manistee, came to visit Saving Birds Thru Habitat and Charter Sanctuary.  They were especially interested in seeing the progress we’ve made on our prairie.  Their interest stems from the fact that they hope to find a way to replace some of the mowed areas on the Lake Bluff property with prairie plantings.

Pied-billed Grebe by Robert Epstein

While here, we hiked the trail on Charter Sanctuary.  Our first stop was the pond where we found a pied-billed grebe – an exciting discovery, as it was the first ever on our property.  As we watched the little bird swim around on the far side of the water, a green heron jumped up from the cattails and flew onto the branch of a dead aspen.  We left the birds soon after, not wanting to frighten them off.  It’s enough to know that they are taking advantage of the habitat provided for them; we didn’t have to harass them by hanging around to see what they did next.

The Kreigers were also impressed with the numbers and variety of birds foraging in the serviceberry bushes, laden with ripe fruit.  There were catbirds, rose-breasted grosbeaks, a brown thrasher and a couple of orioles.

Green Heron by Jeff Kingery

While both Rick and Deb are beginning birders, they are dedicated to the cause of conservation, and they understand that creating a healthy habitat begins with replacing non-native plants with natives.  It will be exciting to watch the positive changes taking place at Lake Bluff as they work toward that end.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 9:16 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.