Two Tuesday Sandpiper Reports - Wastewater

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#1 - Email from Jonathan Lautenbach:

Hey Ric,

This morning (August 3) my brother Joseph and I went to Muskegon WW to check on the shorebird numbers.  We were able to find decent numbers of shorebirds on the floating trash in the aerator cells.  Some of these include 60 Least, 30 Semipalmated, and a couple Baird's Sandpipers, both yellowleg species and 3 Semipalmated Plovers.  Also of note was an albino Bank Swallow among the 38,000+ swallows present around the lagoons.

Thanks,

- Jonathan Lautenbach

#2 - From Ric to eBird:

Location:    Muskegon Wastewater System
Observation date:    8/3/10

Notes:    The Common Raven was perched on the rocks along the east side of the East Lagoon at 14:25.  At 15:20 it flew to the trees southeast of Apple Ave. and Swanson Rd. (the same trees where 3 Ravens were reported July 14).

Red-tailed Hawk    4
Peregrine Falcon    1    Immature harrassed shorebirds twice near north end of main dike.
Killdeer    43
Spotted Sandpiper    17
Lesser Yellowlegs    3
Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs    1
Least Sandpiper    14
peep sp.    5
Common Raven    1
European Starling    1500    Conservative estimate - approx. 1,300 perched on power lines along north side of East Lagoon plus several hundred elsewhere around the lagoons.

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)


Thanks to the Lautenbach's for their report.  I birded around the two big lagoons.  I didn't look into the aeration cells (but I knew they were there; they were delightfully malodorous yesterday).  The only small concentration of shorebirds I found were in the northwest corner of the West Lagoon (~20) approximately where the DeBruine's reported shorebirds on July 31.  - Ric
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