No Shorebirds, Yet - 03 Jul 2019

I typically equate the 4th of July with the start of fall migration. In years past this day has seen the arrival of the first southbound Least Sandpipers and Lesser Yellowlegs in SE Michigan. Today would be a disappointment, however, as shorebird habitat is all but gone from high water. I would see no shorebirds, yet.

I started the ride this evening at Mouillee Creek parking lot and headed out the Middle Causeway of Pt. Mouillee SGA and rode east to the Humphries Unit. Spotted Sandpipers and Killdeer were the only local shorebirds I would see. Swamp Sparrows, Indigo Buntings and Common Yellowthroats were vocal during the entire ride. At the pump house a flock of mostly Tree Swallows were roosting in the trees by the hundreds. Among them were some Barn Swallows and (possibly) Bank Swallows, but they were difficult to tell apart from the juvenile Tree Swallows.

Stable Flies and Horseflies were harassing me the entire ride, which did not help since birds were largely absent along the dike separating Long Pond and Vermet Units. The North Causeway had a few American Coot and Common Gallinules (with chicks), but little else. Painted Turtles scattered from any floating structures along the Huron River side of the causeway. Dragonflies and butterflies were fairly abundant, so I stopped when appropriate to photograph them. Green Darners, Blue Dashers, Red Admirals, Monarchs, and Black Swallowtails (including one poor fellow looking a bit chewed up).

I then looped around the back of Cell 5, but found only large cobble in the trail and difficult riding along the overgrown dike. Returning to the east causeway I arrived at the Middle Causeway and found it roped off; high water had breached the gap between Vermet and Humphries Units and it looked like machine equipment was attempting to back fill the area. This would force me to continue on down to Roberts Road parking lot and back to the car via Roberts Road. I stopped just long enough to digiscope this juvenile American White Pelican in Cell 4.

A few feet ahead of me I spotted a very large Fox Snake sunning itself by the side of the trail. I made sure to shoo it back into cover to avoid any oncoming tires.

Pte. Mouillee SGA (permit required Sep 1-Dec 15), Monroe, Michigan, US
Jul 3, 2019 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
8.0 mile(s)
10 species

Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)  4
American Coot (Fulica americana)  6
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)  4
Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)  2
American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)  1
Bank Swallow (Riparia riparia)  50
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)  200
Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana)  3
Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)  2
Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S160808964

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

Once back to the car I headed over to Haggerman Road to look for Bobolink and Dickcissels. At least they were cooperative. I decided to chase them with the scope and Sony a7III only (no tripod). I got a nice selection of hand-held digiscoped images, but tossed a ton of blurry and OOF images (I won't be doing this again anytime soon).

Antenna Farm, Monroe, Michigan, US
Jul 3, 2019 7:30 PM - 7:50 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
2 species

Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)  4
Dickcissel (Spiza americana)  4

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S160809177

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