Winter Birds at Two Locations Tuesday

 Rough-legged Hawk

On White Road at the Wastewater by the rocket field

 Rough-legged Hawk

 Snow Geese

In Wastewater Field 19 on the NW corner of White and Swanson I counted 20 Snow Geese
15 white morph and 5 blue morph.

 Canada Geese

I spent 45 minutes watching geese come into Field 19.
The geese were packed in too tight to try to count.
My guess is well over 1,000 on that field.

After the Wastewater I took a trip to downtown Muskegon to look for the Snowy Owl.  No Luck!  Then I went to the Muskegon Channel to look for waterfowl.  There were a few ducks flying,  If you look closely, you can see a merganser (species) flying over the north break wall.

- Charlie DeWitt

Snowy Owl in Downtown Muskegon

Snowy Owl
near Fourth and Western
by the Lakeshore Museum Center

cell phone photo by

Wendy VanWoerkom

Mystery Thanksgiving Duck

Mike Boston sent a picture and asked about this weird-looking duck he photographed at the Wastewater on Thanksgiving Day:

I had no idea what it was and sent the photo to Charlie DeWitt who replied: 

This is a picture I took on 11-15-2013 at the Wastewater.  It looks a lot like the duck Mike photographed. White-cheeked Pintail face and Wigeon butt.

If anyone else has thoughts about these ducks, we'd like to hear them.  Thanks!

- Ric

Mystery Thanksgiving Duck

Mike Boston sent a picture and asked about this weird-looking duck he photographed at the Wastewater on Thanksgiving Day:

I had no idea what it was and sent the photo to Charlie DeWitt who replied: 

This is a picture I took on 11-15-2013 at the Wastewater.  It looks a lot like the duck Mike photographed. White-cheeked Pintail face and Wigeon butt.

If anyone else has thoughts about this duck, we'd like to hear them.  Thanks!

- Ric

Tundra Swans and Long-tailed Ducks

Hi Ric,

We had about 145 Tundra Swans at the Wastewater Sunday, counting by fives. I had never seen so many together in one group.  It was neat listening to them. They were in the large eastern lagoon.  My far away pictures aren't worth posting.

I did get a pretty good shot of a male Long-tailed Duck off of the south pier at Pere Marquette Park.  The female of the pair that was out there was a little more shy.

No luck on our Purple Sandpiper quest. We'll keep trying.

- Bob Kingsbury

Short-eared Owl and Northern Shrike

Short-eared Owl

spotted on the Wastewater center dike
photo by Carol DeWitt

Northern Shrike

 by the model airplane field, first seen at Seba and Laketon

Photo by Charlie DeWitt

Northern Shrike

Photo by Charlie DeWitt

Eastern Screech-Owl on Sunday

November 20 Email:

Eastern Screech Owl tonight from Muskegon.  - Dan Lockard

Another Weekend Report from Lizzy

Good morning Ric! Hope you're doing well since the last time we talked. :)

We did our rounds on Saturday. We've been in Muskegon a lot lately, so we've got a typical schedule.

There was some good stuff, but we also made stops in Ottawa Co. I'll just include highlights for those.

We first headed over to Coopersville, as there is a goose field that contains both Cackling Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese in it. The goose field is in front of the car dealership on O'Malley Dr, but also contains the field on the opposite side, found on Conran Dr. We dipped on finding any Greater White-fronted Goose, but I took pictures of the flock of Canada's and found a goose that we thought resembled a Cackler.

Pere Marquette was the next stop. Since we didn't have a spotting scope handy (it's in California being repaired), we decided to check what was close enough to tell. Nothing super unnatural, but we did find some Red-breasted Mergansers, a few Bonaparte's Gulls, and a Great Black-backed Gull bobbing in the water.

The channel was nearby, and we did stop, but there wasn't much excitement stirring in the murky water.

We hit the Waste Water after a few other minor stops. I'll include highlights and pics.

Muskegon WW highlights:

Blue-winged Teal - 4
Savannah Sparrow - 1
Canvasback - 1

Eared Grebe - 1
Great Black-backed Gull - 2
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1
Common Raven - 2

​

Wood Duck - 1
Pied-billed Grebe - 1

Ducks are still in fairly strong numbers. Ruddies are seeming to dissipate in numbers, while Buffleheads are starting to show signs of steady increase, plus the males have made an appearance! 

​
Still waiting for a glimpse of a Goldeneye, since I haven't seen one this fall yet. Snow Buntings are still present on the center dike, with fairly large numbers, but Pipits seemed to have disappeared, as we only had two, and these were ones that we heard. We missed the chance of an Eastern Bluebird, American Kestrel, Dunlin, or Peregrine Falcon.

We then made a stop again by the goose field and got lucky this time on the Greater-white Fronted.

We also were able to relocate our Cackler from the morning, with the possibility of a few other candidates.

​Lastly, we had a Lesser Black-backed Gull at the Coopersville Wastewater Treatment Plant. 

That's all for now. Thanks!

Lizzy Kibbey (Duck Wizard)

Windy Walk North of the Channel Today

Strong westerly winds didn't help the birding at Muskegon State Park this morning.  Otherwise it was a beautiful, chilly, autumn walk from the barrier at the parking lot, up and around Jeff's Dune, through the campgrounds, and back.

Nothing unusual in the 12 species which included Golden-crowned Kinglets, a Belted Kingfisher, and this migrating Bald Eagle.

- Ric

"Carol's Plover" Returns to The Bahamas

November 9 Email:

I just got word that Bahama Mama has been sighted at Long Beach on Abaco (The Bahamas) on November 5, 2016.  She returned to the same beach as last year.  - Carol Cooper

Piping Plover with chick at Muskegon State Park, June 21, 2015.

Harlequin Duck at the Breakwater Sunday

November 6 Email:

Hi Ric,

I saw this female Harlequin Duck at Pere Marquette Park Sunday morning.  I had to ignore the warning sign to see it though.

Thanks, Mike.  Anyone looking for her, please heed Mike's warning.  - Ric

The Usual Suspects on Saturday Morning

Fifteen everyday species at the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve yesterday including American Tree Sparrow at the entrance gate and American Goldfinch along the River Walk.

.

- Ric