Maple River SGA report- Sat 19 Apr

[Caleb Putnam]

On Saturday, 19 Apr, I floated the Maple River State Game Area flooding by kayak during the late afternoon and the first couple hours of darkness (~1700-2200 hrs).  I checked the unit on the east side of US-127 and the unit to the east of this (the one accessed by foot from Taft & Baldwin Rds.  Here were the highlights of the visit (*= first of year):

*Sora- 6 (oddly, Virginia Rails were not encountered)
*American Bittern- 1
*Night-Heron spp.- 1 at dusk near north end of unit 1/3 mile east of 127
*Bank Swallow- 2 amongst hundreds of Tree Swallows
Barn Swallow- 5+
Rough-winged Swallow- 1
*Blue-winged Teal- 6
lingering dabblers: Ruddy Duck, American Wigeon, Gadwall
lingering divers: Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, Redhead, Bufflehead
*Caspian Tern- 2
Trumpeter Swan- 2
American Woodcock- 2 at Taft and Baldwin after dark
Bald Eagle- 1

This is always a fun float trip with great habitat- it was also interesting to note the growing numbers of carp archers, all four of which Saturday were teenage boys.  We even watched one successfully shoot and extract a rather large fish!

Good Birding,
Caleb Putnam

Caleb G Putnam 
Grand Rapids, MI
larus10 at hotmail.com
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