Nine of us in eight vehicles drove 18 miles around the Muskegon County Resource Recovery Center properties this morning. Thanks to Glen Miller for snapping the photo above.
Things didn't seem particularly birdy, but we still found 31 species in our 3 1/2 hours. Of note were two Rough-legged Hawks (a dark morph north of the East Lagoon and a light morph south of Apple Ave.), Snow Buntings on the Center Dike, a Sandhill Crane south of White Rd., and a pair of Hooded Mergansers in the Clay Pond.
Best birds of the day were 17 Cackling Geese on the far side of the Clay Pond. Fortunately two people noticed their short necks, small bills, and size (just a bit larger than a nearby Mallard) or we would have overlooked them as Canadas. The latter were the most numerous species today with multi-hundreds here and there on the properties. There were also hundreds of gulls at the landfill.
