[Mich-chat] large Avocet flock, Mason County

[Brian A]

This is from an email I received from David Dister in Ludington yesterday , he was unable to forward to Mich-chat..

Brian Allen

"
Dear Birders,

After work today I returned to Ludington State Park in the hopes of getting better photos of the ruddy turnstones seen there yesterday afternoon. Would the brief rainstorm in the afternoon bring in other birds ? No turnstones, but it looked like there were many large shorebirds in a shallow water area off Big Sable Point. Once I looked through my scope I was stunned-- 24 American avocets !!  The birds were about 1/4 mile north of the lighthouse and were initially seen resting and preening. I remained about 250 feet away but they appeared skittish and briefly flew off and then returned. Most were sleeping when I left.

Also seen were 8 piping plovers (5 banded), several semipalmated plovers, and perched further inland was a merlin.

This area is a long 40 minute walk (one-way) or a quicker bikeride from the tollbooth parking lot or beach house parking lot at the park.

Dave
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/mich-chat/attachments/20090819/e377803a/attachment.html