Mott Lake

[Luke Redmond]

I've received a couple of questions asking where Mott Lake is so here are 
directions.
Mott Lake is in Genessee county, about 10 miles northeast of Flint.  
Genessee Rd is the best starting place to check it out.  Genessee parallels 
Irish and Belsay Rds which both have exits off of I-69.  Get of at either 
one and go east from Belsay or west from Irish to get to Genessee.  Once on 
Genessee go north for about 7 miles.  There are several places to check out 
the lake.  Genessee goes over the lake, before the bridge you will see the 
main office for Genessee County Parks and Recreation on the east side of the 
road.  The parking lot there has a good vantage point and there is another 
small fishing parking lot that affords good looks of the other side of the 
bridge.  If you continue on the road that you have to turn on to get to the 
parks and rec office there will be a boat ramp sign with a driveway on the 
left.  You can see parts of the lake that you couldn't from the previous two 
spots.  Backtracking on Genessee you'll see a sign for Bluegill Boat Ramp.  
Turn in here and follow the road to the boat launch, although on Wednesday 
this part of the lake was almost completely iced over, but there were some 
Tundra Swans sitting on the ice.  Keep going the same way and this road will 
come out to Carpenter Road.  Go right and after a mile or so Carpenter will 
run along the lake.  There were lots of birds in this part of the lake.  
There will be a big paddlewheeler boat on the north shore and you should see 
a maintenance garage on the left hand side of the road.  If you park in here 
you can get out and scan almost the entire west end of the lake.  There were 
lots of gulls at the east end of the lake but getting close enough would 
require parking at the Genessee county fairgrounds and walking to it, unless 
there is another way that I don't know about.  However, this area is good in 
the spring for migrants as there is a pretty nice woods and the wildflowers 
are usually pretty nice as well.  Hope this helps.  Good birding.
Luke Redmond