Pacific Loon, Red Knot - Marquette - 5/28

[theowlranch at aol.com]

 Howdy folks,

Here is an update on the Pacific Loon here in Marquette. I watched the bird this morning for while, sometimes at close range in the rock pools just north of the Coast Guard Station/Lighthouse in McCarty's Cove. The bird was observed catching fish, and I heard it give a short croaking growl- very cool!

Also cool was that there were both a couple of Common Loons as well as a Red-throated Loon all in McCarty's Cove which made for an excellent study of all 3 species. Good fun!
The bird drifted south to the lower harbor breakwall where I left it for the morning. When I rolled back into Marquette this evening, the bird was relocated in the Upper Harbor, north of the Picnic Rocks/Shiras Park. Lighting was excellent, and I was able to get a couple of semi-decent pictures of which I'll post tomorrow in the photo gallery of www.UPBirders.org 

I left the bird just a little south of the mouth of the Dead River around 730PM; I would think that there is a decent chance the bird might be around in the morning, but it obviously is moving around quite a bit along the Marquette waterfront. I actually think it is one of the most mobile birds I've seen in the Marquette harbors, save for the Gyrfalcon. When I relocated it last night the bird was in between the entryway of the lower harbor and the Harvey waterfront.

Finally, there was a great group of shorebirds including Turnstones, Dunlin & Sanderling around the rocky islets in McCarty's Cove. Sharp-eyed Ryne Rutherford spotted a calling RED KNOT flying in with a Dunlin past the Coast Guard Station. Red Knots are very rare in Marquette County and this actually is the first documented occurrence in over a decade of this species.

Good birding,

~Skye Haas




 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Kaplan <commoncoast at gmail.com>
To: UP Birders <Birdnet at upbirders.org>
Sent: Wed, 28 May 2008 7:25 am
Subject: Pacific Loon - McCarty's Cove Marquette - close to shore









Skye just called and asked me to pass this along:

The basic plumaged Pacific Loon is currently 40 ft.! offshore at McCarty's Cove which is located on the north side of the Coast Guard Station at the intersection of Michigan and Lakeshore Dr. in Marquette.? 


It is among the rocky islets and was even heard giving a call.

Joe Kaplan



 

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