Sunday, August 27, 2017

Good Shorebird Variety at W.W. Saturday


I tagged around the Wastewater properties with the Grand Rapids Audubon field trip yesterday morning until they headed west.  The previously-reported Hudsonian Godwit was in the center aeration lagoon early, but not when we left.


We counted 42 kinds of birds including 14 shorebird species:

Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)  
American Golden-Plover (Pluvialis dominica)  
Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus) 
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)  
Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica)     
Stilt Sandpiper (Calidris himantopus)  
Baird's Sandpiper (Calidris bairdii)  
Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)  
Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos)  
Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)  
Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus...)  
Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)  
Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)  
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)  

Semipalmated Sandpipers
One hanging on a rock reflected above the other.

Other birds of note included a Merlin eating prey on the appetizing dry sludge of a rapid-filtration cell, a young Red-headed Woodpecker, several Bonaparte's Gulls in the West Lagoon, and hordes of Tree Swallows catching midges over the center dike.

- Ric

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