Sunday, August 23

Lise is back from the family get together out in California. From all I can tell she had a great time. In addition to scoring some family time she scored sixteen new birds for the year including; Western Grebe, Black-crowned Night-Heron, White-tailed Kite, Black Oystercatcher, Wilson’s Phalarope, Heermann’s Gull, Western Gull, Pigeon Guillemot, Band-tailed Pigeon, Costa’s Hummingbird, Black Phoebe, Steller’s Jay, Bushtit, Canada Warbler, Western Tanager, Lesser Goldfinch. The black-crowned night heron and the Canada warbler can be found here but not the others. Not a bad little trip, complete with a legal family owned distillery tour. That’s different. A legal still.

Mike’s distillery. (Sue McCoy photo)

The shorebird migration is in process so I hit Pte. Mouillee State Game Area the day I picked her up at the Detroit airport. Pte. Moo, as it is known, is a about a 4,000 acre coastal marsh area, on the shores of Lake Erie at the Huron River mouth.

Pte. Moo is hardly a pristine area. It’s mostly diked wetlands and you either walk or cycle miles along the dikes. There’s always some kind of disturbance going on. The DNR loves doing stuff, like moving dirt around, or dredging, or pumping water from one place to another. Usually all three at once. With some pretty major boy toys. A thunderstorm blew in while I was a couple miles out on the dikes. The only cover was under one of the humongous dump trucks. I could stand upright under the back of it, and keep my bicycle dry. This, my friend, is a big truck. Only real men need apply and it probably helps to be an NRA member. I believe it eats Priuses for fuel.

Shelter from the storm.

Always doing something.

The birds don’t seem to mind the ongoing attempts to manipulate nature. Pte. Moo is a major shorebird and waterfowl migratory stopover site and lots of interesting things pop in there. For the year I got a stilt sandpiper, white pelicans, whimbrel, and Wilson’s phalarope. And, nice views of a truck underside.

Today Lise and I tried a quick run to Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. The trip didn’t quite work as planned. First, I forgot to put the scope in the car. Then we hit a pretty steady rain. At least we did get Lincoln’s sparrow. After all is said and done our yearly totals now stand at 279 for me and 254 for Lise.

You can tell there has been a seasonal shift. I hit a couple local restored prairies the past few days, hoping for some grassland bird pictures. Not to be. The birds are no longer territorial, sitting up on twigs, calling their hearts out to defend a territory. There’s some noise from fledglings, begging mom and dad to feed them. Mostly though, the bird calls have been replaced with a constant insect drone. It’s kind of nice to get lost in it. Unlike the constant drone from the Republican presidential hopefuls. I will be really glad when they finish slaughtering each other and offer the survivor up for the final sacrifice.