Dunlin @ Pt. Mouillee - 03 May 2006

Arrived at the foot of Siegler Rd at about 4 pm.  Sunny, mild, very light breeze.  Biked the North Causeway.  

Saw an adult Bald Eagle flying to the nest across the Huron River (north shore).  Small flocks of Forster’s Terns and Bonaparte’s Gulls still out in the river.  

As I rode along the Nelson Unit/Long Pond Unit I flushed (2) Sora from the shore.  Got to see them fly away but I wasn’t fast enough for either binocs or camera.  Still, nice to see.  

In a field at the edge of the Nelson Unit I counted 17 Dunlin and 1 Lesser Yellowlegs.  Rest of the way was pretty quiet – lots of Red-winged Blackbirds, Canada Geese and American Coots, but little else.

As I arrived at Cell 2 at Pt. Mouillee I saw an eagle flying away toward the lake.  It banked long enough for me to see an awful lot of Golden Eagle, but I could not be certain.

Between 4-5:30pm it was quite windy and water levels were fairly high.  Only a few highlights, otherwise:

(2) SORA along Long Pond Unit - flushed from banks.

(17) Dunlin and (1) Lesser Yellowlegs in Nelson Unit

Cell 2 has lots of exposed mudflats, but the only occupants were:

( 6) Green-winged Teal

(2) Blue-winged Teal

(2) Killdeer

(~200) Dunlin

I managed a nice digiscoped image of a Dunlin near shore (see top). These birds still appear to be in mid-molt, evidence of them still moving through northward?

Pte. Mouillee SGA (permit required Sep 1-Dec 15), Monroe, Michigan, US
May 3, 2006 4:00 PM - 5:40 PM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 mile(s)
9 species

Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors)  2
Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca)  6
Sora (Porzana carolina)  2     Long pond unit. flushed from banks
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)  2
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)  1
Dunlin (Calidris alpina)  217
Bonaparte's Gull (Chroicocephalus philadelphia)  6
Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri)  6
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S41862800

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)