June 3 Field Trip to Allegan County

Our monthly field trip is scheduled for this Saturday, June 3.  We will bird the Allegan State Game Area in the morning and enjoy lunch at the Crane’s Pie Pantry Restaurant west of Fennville at midday.

Allow about an hour of travel time from Muskegon to the US-31 / M-89 interchange south of Holland.  We we will meet at 8:30 in the parking lot of the Shell gas station a half mile east of the interchange where M-89 crosses the Blue Star Highway.  From there we will drive to various places on the nearby farm properties of the Allegan State Game Area to look for whatever birds we can find.  Having a walkie-talkie in your vehicle tuned to Channel 11, Subchannel 0 can be helpful, but is not necessary.

Around noon we’ll drive to the Crane’s Orchard Pie Pantry Restaurant, 6054 124th Ave. (M-89), Fennville, MI. for lunch.  Some of us may return to Muskegon with a stop at New Richmond Bridge Park along the north side of the Kalamazoo River .  

This trip is open to the public.  Hope to see you there. 

Report: Big Day Count May 20, 2023

Six people started Saturday morning's Big Day Count at 5:00 by the outer gate of Lane's Landing.  Our goal was to find as many bird species as possible in one day.  At one time or another eleven people participated as the group birded the State Game Area, the Muskegon Resource Recovery (Wastewater) properties, Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve, and Muskegon State Park's Snug Harbor, Lost Lake Trail, and Muskegon Channel northside.  Two people finished at 9:15 p.m.  (Photos by Glen Miller.)

Lane's Landing and SGA provided 75 species.  Besides the usual suspects these included Trumpeter Swan, American Bittern, Yellow-billed and Black-billed Cuckoos, Common Gallinule, Yellow-throated Vireo, Brown Creeper, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Veery, Prothonotary, Blue-winged, Black-and-White, Cerulean and Wilson's Warblers, Acadian Flycatcher, Cedar Waxwing, Eastern Towhee and Scarlet Tanager.

The Wastewater properties gave us 42 more including Red-tailed Hawk, Horned Lark, Lapland Longspur, Wilson's Phalarope, American Pipit, Baird's and White-rumped Sandpipers, Sanderling, Orchard Oriole, Lesser and Greater Scaup, Redhead, Canvasback, American Coot and Kestrel, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Vesper, Savannah and Grasshopper Sparrows, Bald Eagle and Common Raven.

After supper we added Mute Swan and Blackpoll Warbler at the nature preserve, Winter Wren on the Lost Lake Trail, and Purple Martin at the channel.  We had no great misses today but were disappointed at finding no Bonaparte's Gull or Black-throated Green Warbler along our way.

The grand total was a very respectable 121 species for the day.  Thanks to all who participated!

May Events

May 18, 2023

Potluck Picnic Meeting

Our annual membership potluck supper, meeting, and bird walk will be at Snug Harbor, May 18, 2023.  See your newsletter for details.  

We've had two M.C.N.C. meetings this season: Sept. 15, 2022 at the Roosevelt Park Community Building and Jan. 26, 2023 at the Norton Shores branch library.  Our final meeting will follow this evening's supper and will include an election of officers for 2023-2024.  Anyone interested in being next year's president, vice-president, secretary or treasurer should let Beth know sometime before the meeting.

May 20, 2023

Big Day Count

Diehards will meet at 5:00 a.m. at the outer gate to Lane's Landing just beyond where Maple Island Road crosses Mosquito Creek a mile north of the entrance to the Muskegon County Resource Recovery Center (MCRRC).  Be careful pulling into and out of this driveway as traffic on Maple Island Road can be fast.

Shortly after five we will drive a mile to the inner gate, stopping occasionally to listen for night birds.  When it's light enough to see, we will walk the mile north to the Muskegon River and back.  Then we'll drive up Maple Island Road less than two miles to the MDNR headquarters for birding along the Maple River.

Lunch as usual will be brown-bag on the porch of the headquarters building.  During the afternoon we'll bird the MCRRC properties and perhaps Patterson County Park (depending on what species we still need).

After an optional supper at the North Muskegon McDonald's, we'll bird the nearby Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve before driving west to Snug Harbor at Muskegon State Park and concluding our day along the north wall of the Muskegon Channel.

Our "purpose" is to have our group count as many bird species in the county as possible in one day.  Anyone is welcome to join our group anytime along the way.