MWS Shorebird Survey, September 26

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Carolyn Weng, Kathryn Mork, and I conducted the latest International Shorebird Survey at Muskegon Wastewater last Sunday.  Numbers continue to drop, but we did encounter eight species:

Black-bellied Plover 5

Semipalmated Plover 1

Killdeer 27

Lesser Yellowlegs 6

Sanderling 5

Semipalmated Sandpiper 1

Least Sandpiper 9

Baird's Sandpiper 4

Notable is the general lack of Pectoral Sandpipers from the surveys this summer and fall.

Other items of interest included 11 Snow Goose, 2 Horned Grebe, 1 Eared Grebe, 1 Merlin, 3 Bonaparte's Gull, 33 American Pipit, 1 Tennessee Warbler, 13 Eastern Meadowlark at the model airfield, and 3 Dark-eyed Junco (my first of the fall).

- Brian Johnson
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