Saginaw Bay AreaSummer '06 Bird Survey

[Joe Soehnel]

The Saginaw Bay Area Summer '06 Bird Survey is complete and can be viewed at the Saginaw Bay Birding website (http://www.saginawbaybirding.org).  
 
The clear birding highlight for the SBA this period was a confirmed nesting pair of Long-eared Owls in southwest Midland County.  Casey Ward reported them to me in June via e-mail/photos and was subsequently confirmed by Jerry Ziarno on June 29th.  This represented the first ever-confirmed nesting for this species in Midland County and the first in the SBA in many years.  
Consider this . . . In the original five-year field study in the 1980’s for the first Michigan Bird Breeding Atlas, there were only five confirmed nesters in the entire state for that time period.
 
Nearly as remarkable was the report sent to Karl Overman by John McCoy of a Snowy Owl that was spotted and photographed on June 10th & 11th.  This bird was observed on Attwater Rd, two miles west of Ruth, Huron County.  This sighting fell into line with numerous other sightings of Snowy Owls that lingered in the state this late spring and summer.  John McCoy called me on Aug 14th to report that he last observed the Snowy Owl on JULY 4TH!
 
Other notable species included:  American White Pelican @ Nayanquing Pt, BA on 6/17; Cattle Egret @ Bangor Twp, BA on 6/15; Piping Plover @ Tawas Point, IO on 6/24 & 7/21; American Avocet @ SNWR, SA on 7/25; Kirtland’s Warbler in north-central Iosco County, and two separate sightings of Dickcissel.  
 
Good Fall Birding!
 
Joe Soehnel
Saginaw Bay Birding
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