Crossbills at Hoffmaster, 11-18

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As the banding at Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve winds down, I'm spending more time counting waterbirds from the shore of Lake Michigan. Yesterday (11-18), despite the wind, I did a short watch at Hoffmaster State Park. Afterwards, I encountered 15 White-winged Crossbills in the hemlocks at Gillette Nature Center. These were the first I have seen this fall.

For the most part, migrant passerines have passed later this year versus the last five years (especially last year). This has been true with both long-distance, warm-weather, early-season neotropical migrants and short-distance, cold-weather, late season, temperate migrants. Finches clearly fall into the latter category. At the banding station, both Purple Finches and Pine Siskins appeared several days later than normal. However, Purple Finches have since been common. On November 15, I caught a daily high record of five. While American Goldfinches continue to arrive, their numbers seem to be down from last year - 44 versus 157 by this date. House Finches have also been less numerous than last fall, and there has been a much higher proportion of adults.

At the Muskegon Wastewater System I also conducted the final Shorebird Survey of 2011 on November 17. No shorebirds were encountered, but I did record 254 Tundra Swans in the west lagoon (my first sighting this fall was 24 at on November 4 at MLNP). My count of 236 American Coots was surprisingly close to my count of 237 from October 22. Highlights from the previous visit were 206 Bonaparte's Gulls, 1 Glaucous Gull (also seen by Charlie DeWitt), and 1 Rusty Blackbird seen by Carolyn Weng and me on November 5. One Wilson's Snipe and 6 Dunlins from that visit were the last shorebirds from the 2011 surveys.
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Brian Johnson
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