My daughter had a friend over for a visit last Saturday. A very warm day for February here in Michigan as the temperature was near 50°f. My wife was in need of some much needed sunshine and I am always up for the opportunity to be outside so my wife and I took the kids over to Kensington Metropark.

Kensington Metropark is located in Milford Michigan about 40 minutes west of Detroit. It is just under 4500 acres in size and encompasses Kent Lake in Oakland County and Wildwing Lake in Livingston County. This park is also well known for being able to feed the birds literally from the palm of your hand. A great place to let your kids begin their admiration of the birds!

This is also a great migrant trap for birding! Many species of birds call this park home. In the winter you can see Mute, Trumpeter, and Tundra Swans. Many species of waterfowl can also be seen including Gadwal, Wood Duck, and Common Merganser.

This day though was making sure the girls had fun!

As we started our walk we passed by a few of the many Sandhill Cranes that call the park home. These birds are very used to humans and you are able to walk close by without so much as a flinch from them. They are dangerous to feed though from your hand though. Their long beaks come to a point that would hurt a bit as they go for your hand. These birds are forbidden to be fed by humans by the park. So its a look no touch rule.

Continuing down the path we walked behind a group of wild turkeys that ran ahead of us. The girls really enjoyed that!

After trying to hand feed the songbirds at a couple of usually reliable feeding spots along the path we made our way over to the boardwalk along Wildwings Lake. The boardwalk runs along the eastern edge of the lake and during the warmer weather of spring through fall we can see Swamp Sparrow, Wood Duck, and Great Egret along with a Great Blue Heron rookery but today we get the year-round residents like Black-Capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, and White-Breasted Nuthatch among others. While walking the boardwalk we had close encounters with a couple of mute swans and a muskrat.

The young ladies were so excited as the chickadees ate seed from their hands! My wife and I watched as the birds flitted and chatted around them with the girls waiting for a bird to land on their hands.

In the end, the birds, Black-Capped Chickadee and Downy Woodpecker, landed maybe a couple of times to snatch a morsel from their hand but maybe more importantly they experienced just a taste of the joy I have watching the birds!

No new birds were seen today but I did get to see the joy of nature in small faces!

BIRDS SEEN THIS TRIP:

Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Mallard, Gadwall, Sandhill Crane, Ring-billed Gull, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-Capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-Breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, American Tree Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Cardinal.