After pulling into the Snug Harbor parking at 9:00 this morning I happened to meet Kay Kotzian and her husband, and then Steve Minard and Lizzy and Ethan Kibbey. We talked near the paviliion for ten minutes. They had already seen many of the species mentioned below plus a Marsh Wren (which I cannot find this week!).
I did find 30 species in my first 30 minutes, all within sight of my car, including Chipping Sparrow, Common Loon (2 in the harbor), Great Egret (3 in the harbor, but others saw more earlier), Northern Flicker, Red-breasted Merganser (36+), Brown Thrasher, Eastern Phoebe, Pileated Woodpecker, Wood Duck, Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Belted Kingfisher and Sandhill Crane (7 flying over loudly). Pine Siskin called near the fisherman's parking lot.
Kudos to Muskegon State Park for adding this third composite-topped bridge along the re-routed "Lost Lake Trail" between the fisherman's lot and the original trail.
Winter Wren and Red-breasted Nuthatch were near the bridge, but there were very few birds from here out to Lost Lake (which looks like a "lake" again with plenty of water).
John Walhout was birding near the harbor when I returned. The thrasher was still calling at the edge of the parking lot, but the loons and egrets had departed. John and I added Bonaparte's Gull, Northern Rough-winged Swallow and Ruby-crowned Kinglet before noon.
No White-breasted Nuthatch, no Red-bellied Woodpecker, no Marsh Wren, but 42 species nonetheless on a very cold late-April morning.
- Ric
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