[Mich-listers] Pte Mouillee SGA, Sunday, August 15th, 2010

[Brad Murphy]

Greetings,
 
Today, Adam Byrne and I spent the day birding Pte Mouille SGA. It was again nothing short of spectacular. Cell 3 is loaded with birds and one could spend the bulk of a day on just that unit. There are shorebirds scattered throughout the SGA but the largest concentration and diversity is found in Cell 3. Within a couple of hours of surveying the unit, we had already totaled a very respectable 21 species of shorebird. Highlights are as follows:
 
Snowy Egret - 1 in Long Pond along the north dike. It is important to get here early if you want to see this bird.
 
Hudsonian Godwit - 1 continues in Cell 3 as previously reported
 
Marbled Godwit - 2 were present in Cell 3 early but left the unit and were not refound
 
American Avocet - 2 were present in the northwest corner of Cell 3
 
Long-billed Dowitcher - 3 adults were present in the northeast corner of Cell 3. These birds were in various stages of body and wing molt. The birds were hard to find and required walking into the weeds a bit to find an angle to see this corner of the unit
 
Wilson's Phalarope - 7 (!!) scattered throughout Cell 3 including one which we watched fly in off of Lake Erie
 
Red-necked Phalarope - 1 continues in the northern end of Cell 3
 
White-rumped Sandpiper - at least 3 bird were present in Cell 3. 1 at the north end and 2 right off the dike along the eastern edge of the unit
 
Baird's Sandpiper - a couple of birds were present on the flat that has formed along the eastern dike of Cell 3
 
Other shorebirds present included Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, Black-bellied Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Stilt Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, and Semipalmated Sandpiper
 
Terns - An extraordinary 550+ Common Terns were roosting in Cell 3 when we left!!!!! There were over 600 small terns (45 Forster's and 17 Black Terns) on the flats. This number continued to build throughout the day and terns were everywhere in the SGA. There were also more than 300 Caspian Terns present. It was quite amazing to see this many terns out there
 
Yellow-headed Blackbird - 1 very cooperative juvenile was working the edge of the eastern dike along the Vermet Unit
 
Possible Franklin's x Ring-billed Gull hybrid - this bird was present on the flat along the eastern edge of Cell 3. If anyone is interested in seeing photos of this bird, I would be happy to forward them along. The bird had a slightly darker mantle than the RBGU's, it was a little smaller, the bill base was red and the distal region black, and the legs were fleshy-colored. You could also see the eye crescents. 
 
The last thing I want to mention was the presence of an eclipse-plumaged teal that was possibly a/the Cinnamon Teal (an adult male was present back in May). We did not count this bird as a Cinnamon Teal and it will not be documented as such. We could see the reddish-brown breast and body, The head was also reddish-brown. It appeared as though the eye was red as well. All that being said, it was a long ways out and details were hard to discern. Due to heat haze and distance, the identity of the bird remains a question mark. 
 
All in all a great day!
 
Good Birding,
 
Brad Murphy 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/mich-listers/attachments/20100815/ba8b3cb5/attachment.html