Wastewater Shorebird Survey, May 25

On May 25, I completed another Shorebird Survey at Muskegon Wastewater. Since the census occurs once every 10 days from early April to mid June, we usually run eight spring sessions per year. As exemplified from the mean passage dates for the ten most abundant spring migrants at the Wastewater, peak numbers and diversity typically occur during late May.

Pectoral Sandpiper - April 20

Lesser Yellowlegs - May 1

Black-bellied Plover - May 19

Dunlin - May 20

Least Sandpiper - May 21

Ruddy Turnstone - May 22
Semipalmated Plover - May 23

Sanderling - May 25

Semipalmated Sandpiper - May 30

White-rumped Sandpiper - June 3

These are the numbers from this evening:

Semipalmated Plover - 24

Killdeer - 27

Spotted Sandpiper - 45

Lesser Yellowlegs - 2

Upland Sandpiper - 1

Ruddy Turnstone - 8

Dunlin - 11

Semipalmated Sandpiper - 56

Least Sandpiper - 5

White-rumped Sandpiper - 5

Red-necked Phalarope - 1

The 11 species and 185 individual birds compare favorably to a late May session average of 10 species and 161 individuals.

I also stopped to look at four Dickcissels. I only banded a few last year, but I was hoping at least one was wearing a band.

Unlike the songbird migration, which has been lackluster since a large fallout in early May, shorebird numbers have been fairly decent this spring. Below are the figures from the last few shorebird surveys (all done by Carolyn Weng and myself).

April 27 was our poorest session, though still respectable with 5 species (average 4) and 44 (average 27) individuals:

Killdeer - 11

Spotted Sandpiper - 1

Lesser Yellowlegs - 8

Pectoral Sandpiper - 17

Dunlin - 7

May 4 closely followed a major songbird fallout, so not surprisingly, this session proved to best surpass the historical average for the period, with 10 species (average 6) and 129 individuals (average 68):

Killdeer - 16

Spotted Sandpiper - 27

Solitary Sandpiper - 5

Greater Yellowlegs - 1

Lesser Yellowlegs - 33

Upland Sandpiper - 2

Pectoral Sandpiper - 7

Dunlin - 34

Short-billed Dowitcher - 3

Wilson's Snipe - 1

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May 17 had moderate diversity but nice totals, with 8 birds (average 9) and 189 individuals (average 102):

Black-bellied Plover - 4

Semipalmated Plover - 10

Killdeer - 13

Spotted Sandpiper - 35

Lesser Yellowlegs - 10

Dunlin - 84

Short-billed Dowitcher - 7

Least Sandpiper - 26
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Brian Johnson
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