Six members of Jackson Audubon drove into Gratiot County Tuesday for an August tour of the Maple River SGA.  This was the first trip JAS sponsored for this area.  Water levels in the units were low and there was only one area on our journey that had any water that might provide some shorebird viewing.  But between low water and high grass, we saw no shorebirds in that area.  The grasslands were a bit kinder to us, yielding Field Sparrow, Indig Bunting, Eastern Meadowlark, Horned Lark and Sedge Wren.

(Steve Jerant)

We recorded 33 species for the morning.  A  eBird trip report is available at https://ebird.org/tripreport/150290

We lunched at Ryan's Roadhouse in St. Johns on the way down south.  Great choice!  Food and service was wonderful.