On the first full day I was in Michigan this summer, I went out to several locations, and this ring-billed gull was the best photo I got. I'm still searching for the supposed prairie warblers along the low dunes by Lake Michigan.This redstart at Esch Roadwas sitting still and singing constantly, but from a difficult spot.
This porcupine was at Esch road. It's only the second time I've seen a porcupine in my life.
This Eastern Phoebe was the best picture from one of the most amazing days of birding I've had. I was at a nature preserve I'd never been to before, and the best bird I'd seen to that point was a male indigo bunting with some children. I saw on the map that the natural are extended across the road, so I crossed and came upon a pond with a great blue heron. This phoebe was at the base of a hill. I went up the hill into an open, almost entirely pine forest where there were more birds in one area than I'd ever seen. There were flycatchers, sparrows, pine warblers, and a red-breasted nuthatch, which is one of my favorite birds. I had what I think was a juvenile pine warbler come within about three feet of me and look at me for a while, and when I went back a second time, there was a female purple finch in a bush by the pond. That reminds me that back at the beginning of the summer, I had seen a white-throated sparrow at the Trapp Farm Nature Preserve (later closed temporarily because of garlic mustard problems), which is amazing because it is like a temperate rain forest. I always enjoy the many different habitats up there-low dunes, forest, meadow, lake, etc. And it's amazing to see it transformed in the winter.