Muskegon Lakefront

Caleb and I went over to the Muskegon lakefront on Tuesday in search of a reported Mew Gull. We spent about 4 hours on the lakefront and came away with probably 300 Ring-billed and maybe 40 Herring Gulls but nothing else. There were some ducks moving around out there - notably at least 1200 Long-tailed Ducks flying around off the mouth of the river. Hooded Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, and Greater Scaup were the only other species we observed in the river and along Lake Michigan. We went inland and searched for a Varied Thrush that was staked out and came up empty on that bird. We checked North Muskegon's Custer Park on Muskegon Lake and found a nice diversity of waterfowl on there. At least 120 Scaup, 2 Redhead, 35+ Common Merganser, and 47 Mute Swans were present.
We stopped at the Muskegon Wastewater facility on the way back and among the 100 or so Herring Gulls at the dump was a beautiful adult Glaucous Gull. A Bald Eagle flushed off the breakwall and flushed many of the gulls. The Central dike had a fairly light streaked Snowy Owl which we watched fly along the dike in front of us. Several Snow Buntings flushed and towards the end of the dike there were 5 Green-winged Teal along with Gadwall and American Black Ducks. White Road had several Rough-legged Hawks, a Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, and the below Golden Eagle which allowed us to drive right up to it. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and the Glaucous Gull and Golden Eagle were both Michigan birds for me. Muskegon Wastewater continues to amaze me...