Low Battery Birding - 30 Mar 2026

Temperatures hit 70ºF this afternoon and the winds didn't look too bad so I took a late afternoon ride to Pt. Mouillee. Skies were mostly cloudy but a bit of sunlight was poking through the clouds.

I drove down Haggerman Road to check the Antenna Farm. A Northern Harrier drifted over the field inside the fence line while a pair of Bald Eagles floated overhead.

Otherwise the area was quiet. An Osprey appears to be starting to nest at Port Sunlight and US Turnpike.

Parking at Mouillee Creek I rode the Middle Causeway to the Walpatich Unit and looped around to the north end of the Lautenschlager Unit. A flock of 100+ Red-winged Blackbirds were foraging in the corner as a tight unit so they were nice to photograph.

Scoping the west side of the Lautenschlager Unit from the east bank I found decent numbers of Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Gadwall and American Wigeon. Again, no Greater White-fronted Geese so its pretty assured that they've moved on.

I returned to the Middle Cauesway and headed east toward the Banana Unit. Several thousand Lesser Scaup and Greater Scaup were scattered in the Vermet Unit while hundreds of American Coot continue in the Humphries Unit. In the NE corner of the Humphries a roosting flock of 250 American White Pelicans.

Ahead of me on the Middle Causeway were a pair of Song Sparrows foraging close enough to get the binoculars out.

A pleasant surprise was a third bird that turned out to be a Field Sparrow! That eye-ring and pink bill helped to differentiate from the similar-looking American Tree Sparrows that continue to hang around.

I continued east to look for the Short-eared Owl but settled on distant looks at a female Northern Harrier flying south along the east side of the Humphries Unit.

Incidentally, I had forgotten to charge the battery after the last outing so I was down to 4/5 bars. When I reached the path between Cells 1 - 2 I found myself looking at 3/5 bars; I didn't want to get too much lower so I throttled less / peddled more and was able to get back to the North Causeway before I hit 2/5 bars (nothing to see along the Lake Erie shoreline or Cell 4).

As I rode south along the dike separating Vermet and Long Pond Units I flushed another female Northern Harrier from the phragmites to my right. I could only watch as it blasted past me and back north toward the North Causeway. 

I didn't want to run out of battery juice so I didn't dally during my ride back to the car. But, I did have to stop and get a few pics of the rays of the Sun breaking through heavy clouds. The winds were picking up as storms were to move through the area this evening.

A relatively uneventful ride but still nice to get out as the temperature rises. 

Pte. Mouillee SGA (permit required Sep 1-Dec 31), Monroe, Michigan, US
Mar 30, 2026 4:13 PM - 5:39 PM
Protocol: Traveling
9.953 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Cloudy, mild, 68F, breezy S winds 10-15mph
41 species (+1 other taxa)

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  120
Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)  64
Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors)  2
Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata)  24
Gadwall (Mareca strepera)  26
American Wigeon (Mareca americana)  46
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)  120
American Black Duck (Anas rubripes)  6
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta)  6
Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca)  24
Canvasback (Aythya valisineria)  40
Redhead (Aythya americana)  26
Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris)  36
Greater Scaup (Aythya marila)  60
Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)  340
Greater/Lesser Scaup (Aythya marila/affinis)  2200
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)  18
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)  6
Common Merganser (Mergus merganser)  6
Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator)  2
Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis)  26
American Coot (Fulica americana)  440
Sandhill Crane (Antigone canadensis)  2
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)  4
Bonaparte's Gull (Chroicocephalus philadelphia)  10
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)  8
American Herring Gull (Larus smithsonianus)  2
Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)  2
Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus)  1
Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum)  4
Great Egret (Ardea alba)  4
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  1
American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)  250     Continuing in NE portion of Humphries Unit. Counted by 2s. Roosting birds on small islands.
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)  2
Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)  3
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)  1
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)  6
Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla)  1
American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea)  4
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)  6
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)  225
Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula)  4

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S314903324

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