Went to Poosey CA in Livingston County on Friday (3/3) to look for raptors.
I had 1 Northern Harrier and one dark morph Rough-legged Hawk on the way
over, along with Red-tails and Kestrels. At Poosey, Red-tails were
everywhere. Also I saw three Rough-legged Hawks there, all light morph.
After searching a pine grove for a while, I found 6-8 (rough guess)
Long-eared Owls. Those birds have some crazily effective camouflage. Also,
after having seen them in flight (had never gotten an "ID quality" look at
one before), I determined I saw one LEOW at a grove in Knox County near
Baringer about a month ago that had previously been an "unidentified owl
sp". Regardless, raptors were everywhere at Poosey.

Saturday (3/4) I got to see the waterfowl spectacle at Squaw Creek NWR with
the Grand River Audubon birders. That's a lot of birds. Don't have anything
to add to Steve's list posted earlier except for one female Great-tailed
Grackle (our car split off early).

Atlanta CA (Macon County) had a fair number of the usual dabblers today
(3/5) like Pintail, GW Teal, and Mallards at the marsh behind the shooting
range. The north end of Long Branch lake had lots of Ring-billed Gulls,
several Bald Eagles, Common Mergansers, Northern Shovellers, and a few other
common waterfowl species. There could be fantastic shorebird habitat there
this spring if conditions don't change too much, because after the rain
today the north end was basically a big muddy mess since it's been so dry.

A pretty busy birding weekend. Time to get to work now I suppose...

Phil Wire
Kirksville, Adair County
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