Manistee State Game Area

[Brian A]

On Sunday evening Carl Freeman and I canoed out into the marshes of the Manistee State Game Area from the boat launch in Eastlake.  In general with the low water level all summer the vegetation has covered most of the mudflats and islands and shorebird habitat is hard to find.  Due to the narrow edge mudflats we saw mostly Lesser Yellowlegs (9), 2 Greater Yellowlegs, about 20 killdeer, 6 Least Sandpipers, 1 Snipe, 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, and 1 Baird's Sandpiper.
I was surprised to not see any Solitary Sandpipers.

More interesting was the largest number of Great Egrets I've ever seen in the county.  It was difficult to know for sure the total number as they were a bit skittish and flew from bay to bay but at one time we were able to see 9 in one spot.  This is highly unusual for NW Michigan.  There were also a dozen or so Great Blue Herons but no Roseate Spoonbills.  A flight of 24 Sandhill Cranes descended into the marsh at sunset to add to the big bird biomass.

BA 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/mich-chat/attachments/20070731/9ad240ef/attachment.html