White-winged Scoters
Willets (click to see the larger version)
I went over to Montrose this evening to check the beach for shorebirds and found 8 Willets inside the protected area. They were very close to the fishhook pier. I also had an Olive-sided Flycatcher near the Magic Hedge, among many more common passerines.
White-rumped Sandpiper (click to see the larger version)
In addition to a Willet, there were a couple White-rumped Sandpipers on Montrose Beach on my May 8 Big Day. The shorebirds I saw in the afternoon pushed my total to 103. White-rumped Sandpipers are uncommon but regular, mostly spring visitors to Montrose Beach. This bird posed obligingly while I took its photo.
Willet at Montrose Beach (click to see the larger version)
I had 13 species of shorebirds on my May 8 Big Day, which helped bump my total to over 100. My 100th bird was this Willet, which I saw when I went back out in the afternoon. Willets are uncommon but regular spring and summer visitors to Montrose Beach.
Karen and I spent a couple hours at Montrose on October 26.
The highlight were a 100 or so Franklin’s Gulls. Most were flying over
and continuing south but a few spent some time on the beach. The largest
flock was about 50 birds, the smallest 4. This is one of my best counts
of Franklin’s Gulls at Montrose ever, a consequence no doubt of the
recent strong westerly winds. In addition to the Franklin’s we had a
number of other birds of interest, including:
American Bittern – 1 in the dunes
Bonaparte’s Gull – 6, all first cycle birds
Short-eared Owl – 2 flying around the dunes and over the lake
Greater Yellowlegs – 1 on the beach
Wilson’s Snipe – 1
American Woodcock – 1
Lapland Longspur – 1
Snow Bunting – 2
American Pipit – 1
West winds in late October do a birder good.
Two Whimbrels flew over the east end of Montrose Beach this morning. This was about 6:30. They continued southeast over Lake Michigan and didn’t act like they were going to stop or come back. This is prime time for Whimbrels along Lake Michigan.
Other birds seen at Montrose Beach this a.m. include 9 Semipalmated Plovers, 2 Baird’s Sandpipers, a Lesser Yellowlegs, 2 Sanderlings, single Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, and a group of about 8 Forster’s Terns.
I went back out in the afternoon and had a Lark Sparrow in the native planting area near the tower. This was most unexpected as Lark Sparrows are very rare at Montrose in the summer and fall.
Juvenile Herring Gull at Montrose Beach, one of three (click to see the larger version).
I had my first juvenile Herring Gulls (3) of the year on July 18. I usually start to see juvenile Herring Gulls about one month after the first juvenile Ring-billed Gulls show up, which is around the third week of June. There were also a couple of Semipalmated Sandpipers on the beach, a few Caspian Terns, including a whistling juvenile, and hundreds of dragonflies over the beach, dunes, and meadow.