Pt. Mouillee SGA - 17 Aug 1986

17Aug1986 Pt. Mouillee

Hot,humid,90+

1400 hrs.  Arrived at the Pt. To do some birding. Its the middle of the day and its extremely hot out here.  My feeling is that there may not be too many birds active right now.  A few Ring-Billed Gulls are 

flying about the lake waters. Most are floating on the water.  A Green Heron flies out of the reeds to my left and disappears a short distance away back into the reeds.  No shorebirds to be seen along the dike

canals.  Only a single Killdeer on the mudflats.

1430 hrs.  The skies are darkening to the north as i walk southward on the dike. A warm breeze blowing on my face.  I hear thunder off in the distance, moving my way.  A few Bobolink are seen in the willows/dogwoods to my left. The loosestrife is in full bloom all over, and is a spectacular sight.  Carp can be seen and heard surfacing in the canals and out in the lake. The thunder is louder and getting closer. Too late to turn back.  Winds are picking up.  I reach the end of the dike where it meets the lake.  

The marsh opens up a bit here. There is a dried up creek bed on my left, and to my right the dike opens up to shallow, grass-covered banks and mudflats (both good areas to see shorebirds).  No birds here, however.  I do notice quite a few small flocks of Mourning Doves flying overhead, apparently to avoid the impending storm.  A Marsh Hawk flies in off the lake  and is flying in low over the sedges and willows. With my binoculars i can see the white rump patch clearly against its dark brown body.  As it hovers over the ground i can see patches of red along the outlines of its back and wings.  The rain is just about here so i'm going to try to take cover in beds of loosestrife.

1500 hrs.  As i crawl into the brush a small flock of peeps fly in over the dried up creek-bed and land in a small patch of water at the very end.  Its hard to say what they are since they're in winter plumage.  From their white bodies and black eyes, bills and legs, my guess is either Western or Semipalmated Sandpipers.

1501 hrs.  The storm has reached me as I sit huddled in the loosestrife.  As I sit here, getting soaked, I watch the tiny world around me open up.  Three to four different types of spiders crawling about the leaves of the loosestrife.  A green grasshopper crawls along the stem beside me, paying no heed to my presence.  And lots of little inchworms on the spikes of red flowers.  A yellowleg sandpiper flies in to the now flooded creek bed. I can't tell if it is a Greater or Lesser. The bird is in winter plumage.

1545 hrs.  There appears to be no end in sight to the rain, so I may as well move on. I'm soaked as it is. I retrieve my scope out of the weeds and move west along the dike. There are now lots of waders along the shallow areas of the mudflats. A pair of Greater Yellowlegs are fighting/playing? In the shallows below me. They chase each other in flight, and when they're in the water they jump up and down  and flap their wings at each other, all the time yelling at each other. A small flock of Short-billed Dowitchers fly in to feed. They can be readily identified in flight  by the triangular white stripe extending up they're back to behind they're wings.  Even in winter plumage they still retain a great deal of reddish-brown on the neck and chest, with wings barred in black.

1600 hrs.  A flock of 8 to 10 peeps now fly in to feed.  Again, they are either Least, Western, or Semipalmated Sandpipers.  A Spotted Sandpiper flies in, and can be readily identified even in winter plumage by its all-white chest, gray back, and bright eye-ring, not to mention its teetering motion...  Ahead of me on the road appears to be a couple of Song Sparrows, but closer inspection reveals yellow on the head, especially over the eyes, and lack of a dark chest spot.  They turn out to be Savannah Sparrows!  New bird.

1630 hrs.  As I walk along the dike now, an adult Caspian Tern is feeding out in the lake.  Its low croaking suggests a heron.  An immature Caspian Tern is feeding farther out. Its sound is much higher in tone. I can see a Great Egret across the marsh, hunting in cattails.  A Wood Duck flushes near an area that has wood duck boxes erected.  As i leave I notice three or four male Indigo Buntings singing in the cattails, and i spot a female with a grassopper in her beak.  If not for the nearby males, I never would have identified her.

Pte. Mouillee SGA (permit required Sep 1-Dec 15), Monroe, Michigan, US
Aug 17, 1986 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
4.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     This list was entered from notes taken in 1986. Note bird ID skills for shorebirds can be questionable.
14 species (+2 other taxa)

Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)  1
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)  5
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)  1
Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus)  3
Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)  1
Lesser/Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes/melanoleuca)  3
Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)  3
peep sp. (Calidris sp. (peep sp.))  8
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)  10
Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)  2
Green Heron (Butorides virescens)  1
Great Egret (Ardea alba)  1
Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)  1     female type. "white rump against dark brown body"
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)  2
Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)  2
Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)  5     4 male and 1 female (with a grasshopper in beak)

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S41408857

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