Snowy Owl Invasion

Well, we're a bit late to be breaking news but THE SNOWIES ARE IN MICHIGAN! Lots of 'em.
Here are some great articles about why this is going on. In a nutshell: Snowies eat lemmings. Too few lemmings drives them south in search of food, as does competition if there are too many.

http://mag.audubon.org/articles/birds/notes-snowy-owl-invasion

 http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/gotsnowies2013/

http://muskegonbirdblog.blogspot.com/
- lots of recent sightings over there. Lots of other great birds too!

We're headed to Bellevue this weekend for Sandhill Crane Counts. Meeting outside Natural Resources at 1:30 pm. and we'll be back around 5:30.
Also headed to Kellogg Bird Sanctuary. Meeting 9 am outside NR.

Let's try this again... Duck Watch!

Duck Watch this Sunday! We'll meet at 3:30 pm behind Natural Resources and carpool to Lake Lansing South. Hope you can make it! We're not likely to see any Harlequins, but they sure are gorgeous ducks! Dress warm!

If you loved bird banding earlier in the year, consider helping out the BULA station!

 

T-shirts are here! Show off your Burke Lake Banding Station pride by purchasing a shirt! Along with standard t-shirt sizes, we also have a few youth and women's shirts, so get them quick before they're gone! All profits go to the future continuation of the station.

All styles (regular, women's, youth), all sizes (S,M,L,XL).............$18.00

Please email burkelakebanding@gmail.com if you are interested in buying a shirt.

Detroit Zoo!

MSU Birding Club will be joining MSU's Ornithology class with Dr. Rasmussen for a behind the scenes look at the Aviary at the Detroit Zoo! Details soon to come.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! OWL PROWL

 

Join us this Tuesday, October 29th for an Owl Prowl through Rose Lake S.G.A! We will meet at Natural Resources, MSU at 6:30 p.m. All are welcome!

WATERFOWL! 

 Hey everyone, there's an exciting new event coming up!

Saturday, October 26th we will be heading out to Muskegon Waste Water Treatment Plant. That may not sound glamorous, but huge numbers of waterfowl concentrate here during migration due to abundant resources, lots of water, and that lovely sewage smell.

Here is a link to their recent sightings blog: birds are awesome!

It looks like there have been a couple uncommon gulls seen and some shorebirds still hanging around. But most exciting is the tens of thousands of ducks swimming about! I do not know what 15,000 Ruddy Ducks looks like, but I can't wait to find out! Hope to see you there!

More details to follow~ we will always meet behind the Natural Resources Building since it is a large, free parking lot on campus. Stay tuned for what time we'll meet and make sure you check out the Facebook event! It's a good place for people to get quick responses to questions. Our email address is msubirdingclub@gmail.com if you have any questions about the club. Fundraising events coming soon!

MEETING next week on Tuesday, October 22 in Room 221 Natural Resources at 7pm. We'll discuss potential sightings and do some other fun stuff.

As always, we welcome anyone and everyone to our events. A couple years ago, I knew my backyard birds and that was about it. TRY NEW THINGS you never know when it will amount to your greatest passion (or obsession).

: ) Check out that bill!

Whitefish Point Trip This Weekend

If you are at all interested in going on the Whitefish Point Trip This Weekend, then you do not want to miss this week's meeting. Like always, we will be meeting in room 221 of Natural Resources at 7pm.

The trip this weekend will cost $5 for everyone attending in order to pay for our camping site at Tahquamenon Falls.

Learn about the trips itinerary including Owl Banding at this week's meeting.  Any Question about the trip or if you can't me it to this week's meeting,  contact the club by email.

msubirdingclub@gmail.com

Hope to see you on Tuesday (Oct.  8th)

Shiawassee NWR trip this Sunday

So we have figured out that a large number of people have not been receiving our emails. We apology and hope it is now fixed.

As some of you know, we will be going to Shiawassee NWR on Sunday. We will be meeting in the parking lot BEHIND Natural Resources at 7am where we will carpool to our destination. The parking lot is located at Farm Lane and Trowbridge.

We have two scopes that will be with us. If you have your own scope please bring it. Also don't forget your binoculars. We will share if you don't have you own right now.  Also, plan for the weather. Right now there is a chance of rain but we can handle that. Pack a lunch if need, but we will probably leave around 1 or 2pm. It all depends on what we are seeing and if we would like to stay longer.

We also have notebooks and pencils so that everyone can keep a list of anything they see on trips. we will pass them out when we get there if you have not already received one.
 

With a variety of habitats, we should see a bit of everything.

A link of recently spotted birds is posted below.
http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Shiawassee/Recent_Bird_Sightings.html

Hope to see some of you on Sunday.
Any Questions just email us.

MSU Birding Club

Meeting

Hey Birders,          
This week we will have our meeting at 7pm in room 221 of Natural Resources. This meeting as well as the rest will start with a bird of the week. We will talk about a few fun facts for a few minutes then start on the rest of the meeting.
There are three amazing events coming up that you don’t want to miss.
This weekend will be a trip to Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. We will do the auto tour and be looking for migrating shorebirds and waterfowl.
The weekend after will be a trip to Lake Erie Metropark for Hawk Watch. Here there will be a large concentration of migrating hawks, eagles, falcons, and vultures.
Our biggest trip of the Fall Semester is our trip to Whitefish Point. This will be happening the weekend of Oct. 11-13^th. We will be meeting up with Northern Michigan University’s Birding Club and be spending it together with enthusiast alike. This trip will be free for dues paying members, or $5 to cover camping cost to those who are not members.
Remember, dues are $30 for the year and include a club t-shirt and bird vocalization CD, plus gas will be paid for on trips. In order to go on the spring break trip (Texas) in February, you must be a dues paying member.  Anyone interested in becoming a member please bring your money to the meeting. We will also be taking orders for t-shirts for non-members. If you are not a member and would like a t-shirt the cost will most likely be $10. We need to get a number of how many shirts will be ordered before we get a final price.
If you are at all interested in any of these trips, please try to make it to the meeting.
See You All Tomorrow.
MSU BIRDING CLUB

Frendly Reminder

Just a reminder,

The first meeting of the school year is tonight at 7pm in room 221 of Natural Resources.

We will be going over the plans for the year including trips and meetings, as well as getting to know each other.

At the end we will do a short trivia game to see who knows the most about birds.

Hope to see everyone there.

MSU Birding Club

First Meeting of the Semester.

The First Meeting of the semester will be on Tuesday Sept. 10th at 7pm.

We will be meeting in room 221 of the Natural Resources Building. The building is located on the corner of Farm Lane and Wilson. This is a different room then was originally thought.

During the meeting, we will be introducing the E-Board and meeting all the new members. We will also be discussing what events we have planned for the year, and showing you how to get involved.

One big thing happening for the club is the opportunity to volunteer at home football games. You will get a free ticket and lunch. A donation will be given to the club for the volunteers. This will be discussed in a future post, but keep in mind, we are a brand new club. As of right now we have no funds to help pay for events. This is a great opportunity to start raising some funds for the club and to get our name out there.






Hope to see a large crowed at our first meeting.

MSU Birding Club

First event for the fall 2013 semester.

The first event of the year for the birding club will take place this Saturday (September 7) at 8:00 A.M. The event will be a bird walk through Baker Woodlot! We will focus on identifying common birds and calls, as well as provide birding tips for new birders. We should finish around ten, for anyone who wants to head to the game afterwards. Baker Woodlot is located at Farm Lane and Service Rd. Please let us know if you have any questions, hope to see lots of new people there!

For those who haven't heard of the Birding Club or don't really know what we're about, we are a group of active birders from a variety of majors. We meet bi-weekly to discuss upcoming trips, learn about bird and bird song ID, and play games. We also go on weekly trips allow new birders to learn the areas natives, and monthly trips farther away, bring exciting adventures in chasing lifers.

Hope to see you all Saturday,

Sparticipation

Sparticipation is Tuesday August 27th from 5-8pm in Munn Field

This is a great opportunity to recruit new members.

We will have a booth set up and at least one person has to be in attendance at the booth at all times. Meeting time is 3pm in order to set up the table and any supplies. If anyone wants to come out and try to recruit members, contact either Kaitlin or Danielle.

Kaitlin made a great poster that will be displayed.

We will also be handing out info sheets with the meeting dates and times, information about the facebook page and the blog link.

A short field guide on the birds of the campus will be available as well. I will also post the finish product in a few days.

Magee Marsh

Reminder,

There is an official Birding Club trip to Magee Marsh in one week. May 8th.

Austin and I will have a campsite at Camp Sabroske, which is 3 miles from Magee Marsh. We will be staying Wednesday and Thursday night. If you would like to stay, just contact Austin and he will let you know where the campsite is.

The following blog has been updating the migrants as they show up.
cranecreekbirding.blogspot.com

Be prepared for an awesome few days.

~Danielle

Still Under Construction

With the blog just now being started, some pages are still blank or missing information.

We plan to use this blog more often, updating everyone on the current meetings, events, and showing pictures of the past events.

Any suggestions can be placed below in the comment section.

Thanks

Photo Credit: Aaron Balogh

 Northern Hawk Owl with prey, Sault Ste. Marie Area