Middle of summer and birding is slow. In small numbers, shorebirds are starting to show up on their trip back down to the southern regions. We made a quick trip to Robert Long Park down in Oakland County to check out shorebird reports. Robert Long Park isn’t what I would call a ritzy park, but it did have wetlands and mud flats with sandpipers.
Facilities at Robert Long Park. I don’t care how you want to hide it, it’s a port-a-pot. One step up from a hole in the sand. Only the brave dare enter.
We got solitary and pectoral sandpipers for the year. And a surprise savannah sparrow too. Other interesting species include fox sparrow, song sparrow, pied-billed grebe, black-crowned night heron, wood duck, American egret, great blue heron, green heron, ring-billed gull, barn swallow, killdeer, and kingfisher. Probably some others I’m forgetting too.
Cooperative song sparrow at Robert Long Park
Today’s outing brings my count to 287, Lise’s count to 274, and a combined count of 290. We are at day 246 of the year. We are still beating the “bird a day metric” but old man time is starting to catch up. I have 82.0% of my goal for the year while the year is 67.2% over. Lise is at 78.3% of the goal. I thought a chart would be useful for the more graphically inclined. Please refer to figure 1.
Figure 1. Completion percentages for Ed and Lise compared to the percentage of the year already shot.
We’re going up to Marquette this coming week and hopefully get a couple of the boreal species we missed at the beginning of the year. But even if we don’t get any new ones, we will have some quality time on Sand River and get to see our friends Jean and Joanna. Probably have a couple pasties from Jean Kay’s too. Not quite scrapple but right up there on the good eating scale.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 