October 19, 2013 Lake Michigan Lakefront
The Stockbridge field trip left Ft Wayne in rain and dark. When we arrived at Michigan City Harbor, it was still cool, but the sky was clear. We started with six people, but picked up seven more on the way, for 13 total.
- - These will be presented in "4 Stops Harmony"
Stop 1 - at Michigan City Harbor gave us the bird of the day, a Lesser Black-backed Gull. With no gull experts along, we spent some time studying and discussing the bird before reaching a consensus, fortunately before it flew away. There was also another dark-backed gull, probably the hybrid that has been mentioned in recent posts. It was definitely a different bird -- larger, wings did not extend beyond the tail, greenish rather than yellow legs.
Michigan City Harbor, LaPorte, US-IN - 6 species
Canada Goose 23
Double-crested Cormorant 5
Ring-billed Gull 100
Herring Gull 15
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Stop 2 - drove Beverly Drive & out to the Lakeview site of IDNL. 20 species
Canada Goose 6
Gadwall 2
Mallard 5
Pied-billed Grebe 5
Turkey Vulture 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Mourning Dove 1
Red-headed Woodpecker 3
Blue Jay 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 10
American Robin 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 1
Northern Cardinal 1
American Goldfinch 2
Stop 3 - On to Indiana Dunes -- West Beach. Water on Long Lake is extremely low. No sign of the ibises reported earlier. - - 15 species
Wood Duck 16
American Black Duck 2
Mallard 50
Blue-winged Teal 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 2
Killdeer 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Ring-billed Gull 6
American Crow 1
Brown Creeper 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
European Starling 100
Dark-eyed Junco 50
Red-winged Blackbird X
Stop 4 - A stop at Miller Beach produced little of interest. There we ran out of time and were unable to visit other planned sites. We didn't see anything on or over the lake (other than gulls) from any of our viewpoints. None of us had great lakewatch skills, but there should have been something close enough for us to see. - - Ed Powers
The Stockbridge field trip left Ft Wayne in rain and dark. When we arrived at Michigan City Harbor, it was still cool, but the sky was clear. We started with six people, but picked up seven more on the way, for 13 total.
- - These will be presented in "4 Stops Harmony"
Stop 1 - at Michigan City Harbor gave us the bird of the day, a Lesser Black-backed Gull. With no gull experts along, we spent some time studying and discussing the bird before reaching a consensus, fortunately before it flew away. There was also another dark-backed gull, probably the hybrid that has been mentioned in recent posts. It was definitely a different bird -- larger, wings did not extend beyond the tail, greenish rather than yellow legs.
Michigan City Harbor, LaPorte, US-IN - 6 species
Canada Goose 23
Double-crested Cormorant 5
Ring-billed Gull 100
Herring Gull 15
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Stop 2 - drove Beverly Drive & out to the Lakeview site of IDNL. 20 species
Canada Goose 6
Gadwall 2
Mallard 5
Pied-billed Grebe 5
Turkey Vulture 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Mourning Dove 1
Red-headed Woodpecker 3
Blue Jay 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 10
American Robin 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 1
Northern Cardinal 1
American Goldfinch 2
Stop 3 - On to Indiana Dunes -- West Beach. Water on Long Lake is extremely low. No sign of the ibises reported earlier. - - 15 species
Wood Duck 16
American Black Duck 2
Mallard 50
Blue-winged Teal 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 2
Killdeer 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Ring-billed Gull 6
American Crow 1
Brown Creeper 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
European Starling 100
Dark-eyed Junco 50
Red-winged Blackbird X
Stop 4 - A stop at Miller Beach produced little of interest. There we ran out of time and were unable to visit other planned sites. We didn't see anything on or over the lake (other than gulls) from any of our viewpoints. None of us had great lakewatch skills, but there should have been something close enough for us to see. - - Ed Powers
