Ten of us began Saturday morning's field trip to the Muskegon County Resource Recovery Center and were joined along our way by four others. Thanks to the birding skills of Chip Francke, we found an excellent number of shorebird species: Semipalmated Plover; Killdeer; Stilt, Least, White-rumped, Baird's, Pectoral Semipalmated and Spotted Sandpipers; Red-necked Phalarope (15 in the northeast corner of the West Lagoon) and Lesser Yellowlegs.
Among the 47 other identifiable species were Blue-winged Teal, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Sandhill Crane, Bonaparte's Gull, Green Heron, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Northern Harrier, American Kestrel, Merlin, Horned Lark, Tree, Cliff and Barn Swallows, Cedar Waxwing and Eastern Meadowlark.
A trip highlight was the Merlin seen first eating small prey on the wall of the aeration lagoons and later zipping over a rapid filtration cell scaring all the birds and tail-chasing some shorebirds.
Thankfully, very little of the predicted rain materialized. All photos by Glen and Beth Miller.
