Shorebirding Bonanza! - 15 Aug 2010

I arrived at Siegler Rd. parking lot just before 10 am and unhitched the bike for another tour of the hot and muggy Pt. Mouillee SGA. With temps to reach mid 90's this afternoon I knew that winds would soon pick up and and bird photography would get progressively less desirable. It would still turn out to be a heckuva day...

The North Causeway did not produce much in the way of birds until I reached the Long Pond Unit. Flocks of Lesser Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpipers, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, and the occasional Short-billed Dowitcher were moving up and down the length of the shoreline.

As I stopped to put the binoculars to a particular Short-billed Dowitcher in the ditch below me a Northern Harrier lifted out of the Nelson Unit and proceeded to soar directly in my direction. I grabbed the camera did my best to get flight shots of the female bird as she soared over my head and headed toward the Vermet Unit.

At the junction of the Vermet and Long Pond Units a couple was walking in my direction, but didn't so much as flinch as the harrier flushed just a few feet from them and circled overhead before flying away. I was a bit flabbergasted when they asked me if I had seen anything of interest...

The east shoreline of the Long Pond was drying out, so there were only a few Least Sandpipers foraging in the isolated puddles. Common Buckeyes were numerous, and I managed to photograph a pair of butterflies locked in a moment of passion.

I pushed on toward the Banana Unit knowing that the best birding would probably be there, so I ignored the dozens of American Coots, Pied-billed Grebes, Wood Ducks and Great Egrets nearby in the Lead Unit. A flyover Bald Eagle did not even prompt a moment's notice.

I spotted Adam Byrne and Brad Murphy scoping the Vermet Unit north of the Middle Causeway, so I decided it was best to check in with them before going to Cell 3. I was glad I did, as they filled me in on the 21 shorebird spp. they had observed, and even pointed out the immature Yellow-headed Blackbird foraging directly below us along the dike.

I spent a few minutes photographing and digiscoping the bird as it hopped and fluttered from one emergent stem to another. I then took off toward Cell 3 in anticipation of some crazy shorebirding.

In the NW corner of the cell I was greeted by a pair of American Avocets. They were foraging in deep water among a pair of whirling Wilson's Phalaropes, several Lesser Yellowlegs and a pair of Stilt Sandpipers. A Red-necked Phalarope had been seen in this area just a few minutes earlier, but I couldn't relocate it among the dozens of Pectoral Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Stilt Sandpipers and Lesser Yellowlegs to just east of the Avocets.

Along the shoreline of the massive mudflats were dozens more of Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Killdeer and Semipalmated Plovers.

As I scanned shorebirds the sun was moving high enough in the sky to make viewing difficult. I decided to spend a few minutes digiscoping the American Avocets before scanning the rest of the flock, which included dozens of gulls, terns, and more shorebirds along the east shoreline of Cell 3.

With the winds starting to pick up I thought it best to head around the east dike to scope the far shorebirds. A Wilson's Phalarope was feeding close enough to shore for me to wade through the thick vegetation to get some relatively close (~60') digiscoped images. Beautiful birds even in basic plumage I was finally getting some nice images, even though I could barely see the bird in the viewfinder of the Coolpix P6000. The high sky and glare was wreaking havoc with digiscoping views.

While scanning the phalarope I noticed three Long-billed Dowitchers feeding alongside a few Short-billed Dowitchers near the NE shore. The Long-bills were easy to pick out: they were the dowitchers in mid-molt. The gray feathering along their backs and primaries accentuated their heavily-barred sides and undersides.

One bird was particularly barred heavier than the other two, which showed some traits of being Short-billed Dowitchers. But they don't molt until they reach their southern migration destinations, so they had to be LBDO's (right?).

Now covered in burrs I headed along the east shoreline, where I ran into Cherise Charron. Together we scoped the Hudsonian Godwit that was feeding out near the gull flock and looked for the Red-necked Phalarope (w/o luck). The east shoreline mudflats had a White-rumped Sandpiper and an odd-looking gull that Adam and Brad described as a possible Franklin's Gull, but we only found an immature Herring Gull among the mostly Ring-billed Gulls. We did see the White-rump, and even saw it fly off from the near shoreline. Otherwise, there were few birds other than the odd Pectoral, Least or Semipalmated Sandpiper. We failed to refind the Marbled Godwits (flown off earlier in the morning), and I could not find the Baird's Sandpipers to save my life, so we walked back toward the NW corner.

We again got wonderful views of the American Avocets feeding the NW corner, and I took a few more digiscoped images of them and the phalaropes before saying my goodbyes to Cherise. Wonderful lady!

Needing to get home, I sped along the Banana Unit toward the Vermet Unit and stopped only to scan a flock of American Coots in the middle of the unit. Adam and Brad had spotted a possible Cinnamon Teal (eclipse plumage) among dozens of Mallard out in the unit, but I could only find the coots. While scanning them a pair of Mink jogged across the dike in front of me. I was too slow w/ the camera, which was secured to my Cotton Carrier vest. Deciding not to stop anymore, I biked directly back to Siegler parking lot and headed home. Can't wait to get back here!

Pte. Mouillee SGA (permit required Sep 1-Dec 15), Monroe, Michigan, US
Aug 15, 2010 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
6.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     I arrived at Siegler Rd. parking lot just before 10 am and unhitched the bike for another tour of the hot and muggy Pt. Mouillee SGA. With temps to reach mid 90's this afternoon I knew that winds would soon pick up and and bird photography would get progressively less desirable. It would still turn out to be a heckuva day...
21 species

Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)  2
Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)  2
American Coot (Fulica americana)  2
American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana)  2
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)  6
Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus)  6
Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica)  1     cell3; gray with red belly feathers;
Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus)  8
Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus)  3     note molting feathers, barring on flanks
Wilson's Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor)  2
Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria)  3
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)  12
Stilt Sandpiper (Calidris himantopus)  2
White-rumped Sandpiper (Calidris fuscicollis)  1
Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)  12
Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos)  12
Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)  24
Great Egret (Ardea alba)  2
Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)  1
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)  1
Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus)  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S42350375

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