Michigan Birding Trip Report - Day 8 (Friday 1st June 2018)

With a number of targets still to track down, our penultimate day in America saw us head back in to Ohio to Oak Openings Preserve, a sprawling network of habitats and trails situated around an hour south of Detroit. Upon arrival we headed straight for the stretch of road that our first target was known to be nesting in, and sure enough it wasn’t long before we were enjoying close up views of a pair of Lark Sparrows, foraging on the roadside and surrounding grassland before flying over to feed their grown young waiting under a nearby bush. 

Lark Sparrow

The stretch of road we encountered the Lark Sparrows

On the eastern most periphery of its range in Ohio, Lark Sparrows are relatively uncommon in the state, much preferring the great open plains of the West and central portion of America, however Oak Openings in particular has long been a stronghold for this species in the area. 

Lark Sparrow habitat

Lark Sparrow warning signs!

With our Lark Sparrows well and truly in the bag we headed further in to the preserve, parking up near the lodge area and immediately clocking on to a pair of Field Sparrows busying themselves in the car park. A short walk in to the nearby wooded fields soon revealed our next new bird in the form of a solitary Brown Creeper, calling and clinging on to the side of a large trunk, working the crevices for any insect morsels as we watched on. Having missed these throughout our time here this was a welcome surprise, turning out to be our only bird of the trip.

Brown Creeper - virtually a Treecreeper

Red-spotted Purple

A very worn Spicebush Swallowtail

A calling empid further down the track had us hurrying over to try and nail it to species level, and our suspicions were confirmed with several audio recordings that we’d finally found a Willow Flycatcher, the high to low pitched call the reverse of the low to high call of the Alders that we had been hearing throughout (an Alder Flycatcher calling in the distance offered a nice comparison).

Willow Flycatcher

Thankfully this was the last of the flycatchers we needed for this trip, and with ID always a bit tricky in the field, in particular when trying to separate Alder and Willow, a sound recorder is a must. 

Eastern Wood Pewee was also in attendance

The scrub at Oak Openings Preserve

We were soon distracted by a calling Yellow-breasted Chat in the next tree along, our first and only of the trip. Much larger than I was expecting, we had good views as it beetled around in front of us, obscured at times by the foliage on the branches but often sitting right out in the open belting its song, the large yellow chest shining out like a beacon. 

Yellow-breasted Chat

Admiring a showy Song Sparrow at the side of the road but with more Field Sparrows giving us the run around by not keeping still long enough for a photo, having cleaned up on most of our remaining targets and with no sign of those elusive Winter Wrens we called it a day, a showy Red-headed Woodpecker making short work of a rotten tree near the car park our only bird of the trip.

Song Sparrow

Red-headed Woodpecker

Northern Cardinals were also calling in the thickets

Heading back in to Detroit for a final evening of pizza before our flight back to the UK the next day, the large “Dip” sign on the wall seemed a little bit ominous and hopefully not a forewarning of our final day's outcome in our continued quest for Sedge Wrens…

Dip!