August 7 Wastewater Shorebird Survey

.

On Sunday, August 7, I conducted our early August shorebird survey at Muskegon Wastewater. Although numbers and diversity were generally lower than on July 23, it still proved to be a productive outing. Ten species were encountered:

Semipalmated Plover 4

Killdeer 50

Spotted Sandpiper 18

Solitary Sandpiper 6

Lesser Yellowlegs 56

Upland Sandpiper 2

Semipalmated Sandpiper 12

Least Sandpiper 47

Pectoral Sandpiper 2

Short-billed Dowitcher 4

Other birds of note included a female Gadwall with 10 ducklings, 5 Great Egrets in the clay pond, 1 juvenile Bonaparte's Gull, 1 adult male and 4 juvenile Brewer's Blackbirds (probably recently hatched in one of the infiltration basins), and 2 Dickcissels still singing.

Afterwards I ran a couple nets and caught 5 more Grasshopper Sparrows, plus 2 Bank Swallows. I have now banded 90 Grasshopper Sparrows in the fields south of Apple this year.

.B

Brian Johnson

.