Early Waterfowl Tour by Don Henise

We had 10 birders on the JAS Waterfowl Trip this morning. We started at  Watkins Lake State Park walking the road and recording any bird species we saw or heard. Next, we drove to Palmer Road to view the River Raisin, then a short stop at Little Wolf Lake County Park, a scan of Portage Lake up in the Waterloo State Rec. Area and finally ended at the Cutler and Dunn Road Wetlands.

(Don Henise)

A total of 23 waterfowl species were tallied during the trip.  All nine of the regular dabbling duck species were observed with good numbers of most species including over 300 Northern Pintails. An Adult Bald Eagle had flushed the ducks as we arrived at the Cutler and Dunn Wetland and it was an amazing sight to see so many pintails in flight. Other dabblers were Wood Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard, American Black Duck and Green-winged Teal.

Most of these species, with the exception of Black Duck, were seen at multiple locations.

(Don Henise)

We saw 8 species of diving ducks: Ring-necked Duck, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Mergansers, Common Mergansers, and Ruddy Ducks. Portage Lake gave us 3 Horned Grebes and a close Common Loon.

(Don Henise)

Other highlights of the trip were an Osprey spotted over Little Wolf Lake, Tree Swallows at several locations and an early Barn Swallow over the River Raisin, several Eastern Phoebes and a Swamp Sparrow singing at Watkins Lake.

(Don Henise)

An eBird trip report that lists all species recorded can be found here:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/345877