May 10, St. Clair county NAMC highlites

[Russell Emmons]

It was a beautiful day, clear sky, mild temp., almost no wind, clouding up some in late PM. Not the best weekend though this year for a count like this. Day before Mothers Day, nice weather, brought traffic everywhere.  Everyone cutting grass with noisy mowers, farmers busily plowing, small aircraft buzzing overhead continuously,  and of course 4 wheel ORVs, Very loud dirt bikes everywhere up & down seemed every out of the way country road. Many boats on Anchor Bay and the St. Clair River.  "Tis the season"!

Neotropicals, particularly warblers were scarce, --in the territory we did anyhow. Limited to Yellows, Common Yellowthroats plus 1 or 2 others. No wonder on one hand as the woods all around seemed to be overtaken by hordes of Blue Jays!  Reports in already from other participants also note high numbers of Blue Jays!  Ducks and other waterfowl were down also but a few highlites and bonuses were noted.

Highlites in the areas we did in the South end of the county >> Forsters Terns, BLACK TERNS,  Pied-billed Grebes, American Coots, Lesser Scaups (bonus),  PURPLE MARTINS, EASTERN SCREECH OWLS,
BOBOLINKS,  RED-breasted Nuthatches (bonus), a breeding pair of REDHEADS (bonus), Field Sparrows, Spotted Sandpipers, Green Heron. By far the best highlight of the day was while traveling up Mayer Rd. thru a mature wooded area a huge hawk sized or chicken sized black and white bird with a long beak and a red crest flew right across the road in front of us at windshield height!  (I Knew it was futile to try and make an Ivory Billed out of it! LOL!)  I slammed on the brakes and left the car as quick as I could leaving it parked in the middle of the (gravel) road in my excitement. I grabbed the camera and made it to the ditch which of course was filled with water. I watched in dismay as the huge beautiful PILEATED WOODPECKER went from tree to tree further back in the woods squawking all the way out of camera range. And to think in our own Casco Twp. and only one road over! Returning home then to find a tardy straggler YELLOW BELLIED SAPSUCKER hanging around the suet in our yard!
  Being short of participants this year we found 3 Townships a party is indeed still a bit much, even being done mostly by car and especially with an injured leg and hip!

Other highlites from reports already in include>>>  LONG-TAILED DUCKS,  Wild Turkeys, ORCHARD ORIOLE, CERULEAN WARBLER, PEREGRINE FALCONS, N. Harrier, Sora, Lesser Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, Caspian Tern, Marsh Wren, Canvasback, AMERICAN PIPITS, Horned Larks, Indigo Buntings, Nashville Warbler, Orange Crowned Warbler, Black Throated Green Warbler, Palm Warblers, Black & White Warblers etc.etc.

Russ Emmons, NAMC compiler St. Clair county
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