Lizzy Reports the Migration is On!

Friday, May 12 Email:

😂Ric,

This morning Steve Minard, David Cross and I got together to do the annual Birdathon for the GRAC.  Our route was Lane's Landing, Muskegon State Game Area Headquarters and the Muskegon Wastewater System. 

Lane's Landing

Rails are still calling at the marsh, but no luck with bitterns of any sort. It didn't matter how early we got there, it seems as if the bitterns either left or were mute today. Either way, what we lacked in bitterns we made up for in warblers and other passerines - a Ruby-throated Hummingbird was doing his U display, but no females in sight. A Blackbird got tired of the Hummer and decided enough was enough and gave him the ticket off his turf with an angry scolding. A Willow Flycatcher fitz-bewed multiple times in small bundles of willows (who knew...?) and a couple Least Flycatchers che-becked. Great Crested Flycatchers were persistent, and I actually have their piercing call stuck in my head like a bad song you wish you hadn't listened to. Four species of vireos were present today at the marsh: Red-eyed, Warbling, Yellow-throated, and Blue-headed. Both Yellow-throated and Blue-headed were year birds. Multiple different Wood Thrushes sang throughout the woods. Warblers of interest (and new to my year list) were a pair of Prothonotary Warblers, and a pair of Cerulean Warblers. 

Muskegon SGA -- HQ

Not much was buzzy around that hadn't already been seen or heard except for the following:

A supposed male Ruffed Grouse drummed a good distance away. He drummed about four times for the remainder of our stay. This would be my first Muskegon Ruffed Grouse.

The Blue-winged Warblers are back! We had at least three, and that's being conservative. We heard all of them and actually saw one. 

The Indigo Buntings are also back, but to an extent. We thought we were onto an Indigo Bunting because we heard something that sounded like one, but it turned out to be two Yellow Warblers. We started walking again only to find one perched in a tree top singing his little blue heart out. He then took chase with another, and then we found yet another, summing it up to three in one spot. It's only a matter of time before we get to the point where everywhere we turn, we have an Indigo in a tree singing "what! what! where! where! see it! see it!". 

MWW

Quite a lot was bustling at the Waste Water today! This by far was our most productive stop, and we ended up with 76 species in a little over 2 and a half hours. Is spring migration exciting or what?!

Notables sightings are as follows:

While scanning a grassy cell full of vegatation and even more full of shorebirds, a pair of birders alerted us to the presence to two Black-crowned Night-Herons in a ditch, right from where he'd come from. Of course, that was a very tempting sounding sighting, so there was NO way we were gonna pass up that opportunity. We drove in the direction he'd just came from, and sure enough, in on small little circular ditch, there sat two BEAUTIFUL adult Black-crowned Night-Herons. Sadly, I didn't have a camera on me, or I would've taken pictures. Not only were they there in the ditch, but they were pretty close to us, and not at all shy. They didn't mind us watching them. My first BCNHs for MWW.

Let me just say this - Shorebird migration has started to accelerate at a very rapid pace, because today, the amount of shorebirds present was just MIND-BLOWING! Two grassy cells FULL of small energetic Least Sandpipers, picky dowitchers, and stumbling yellowlegs. And that's not even the best part!

We zoned out a seemingly lone Semipalmated Plover, only for me to realize a couple minutes later that there was a cluster of them to the right of the lone bird. I counted the one cluster and got 18 out of it.

A lone Ruddy Turnstone in breeding plumage almost made me melt. Ha-ha, just kidding. They sure are pretty though, which is why they are my favorite shorebird. 

We also had five Stilt Sandpipers, and although it might be early, they were definitely not PESAs, as they had a long neck, long black bill, barring on the undersides, and a rusty cap and auricular patch. They also had a very slim appearance, nothing like the chunky body-builder look that you'd find on a Pectoral. I know I've seen these in the fall, but I'm not sure if I've seen them in the spring, so this might be something new for me for the season!

We picked out 4 White-rumped Sandpipers within a large flock of Leasts. Black legs with the obvious v scaling down the chest and flanks, especially visible if you put a scope on them. Wingstips extending past the tail gave it the obvious stand-out look, which lead me to believe that they weren't Leasts at all.

We also picked out a lone Semipalmated Sandpiper, who (to no surprise) was associating closely with the Leasts and White-rumps.

A shorebird I've been looking for a few times this year without luck popped out of thin air today. A female Wilson's Phalarope was associating with two Lesser Yellowlegs, right near a huge flock of Dunlin. 

Although we had Dowitchers, we sadly couldn't make them into anything other than Short-billed. Darn....

Shorebirds were good this time around, but they can't be the spotlight hogs! We also had a Black-billed Cuckoo (which we actually got to come out and view which was neat. I've heard them before but never actually seen them), a Cape May Warbler, three Grasshopper Sparrows on the south end right by the airport, a Clay-colored Sparrow, and a PAIR of Orchard Orioles over by the Kingbird Tree. The kingbirds didn't take lightly to the orioles being there, and they flushed the male out to another tree, but the determined female lasted a little longer than her safer partner. This is the first time I've ever seen a female Orchard Oriole. 

Well, that about sums it up. We end up with over 100 species after six hours. The limit is six hours max, so we had to end the count even though we were still technically on WW property. Luckily, we didn't see anything else that would have been needed on the count other than stuff we'd already counted before. Hopefully, team Waka Waka Waka wins some trophies! 😂

Good birding!

Lizzy Kibbey (Duck Wizard)