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 Jackson Audubon Society

 The Audubon Society of Jackson County, Michigan

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Tuesday Group Early Waterfowl Tour

Tuesday, April 02, 2019 8:26 PM | Steve Jerant (Administrator)

Eighteen JAS members participated in a tour of Jackson county lakes to view waterfowl. Due to some scheduling and extended cold we moved the date out a bit this year for our tour of the lakes.  (The Saturday tour is April 13th).

The weather was nice: we had partial to full sun, a bit of wind but not too cold.  The eastern sun on Watkins was not brutal so we were able to see activity on that side of the lake.

We started at Watkins Lake SP where the highlight was a loon and the DNR's scaup trap.  Later some folks who stayed behind reported Bonaparte's gull and cackling goose. From there we found some shovelers at Norvell Lake where the Raisin river crosses Austin Rd.  Then up to Little Wolf Lake where we did not see much but the Eastern Phoebe reminded us about perhaps taking the "Early" out of the name of this tour.  We visited Grass Lake county park next where we saw some more mergansers and our first Horned Grebe.  The tour finished at Gilletts Lake with more Horned Grebes and a bunch of Red-breasted Mergansers.  After the flyover of the sharpie and Osprey some of us had lunch at Knights in Jackson.

eBird Checklist Summary for: Apr 2, 2019

Number of Checklists: 5
Number of Taxa: 33

Checklists included in this summary:
(1): Watkins Lake SP
Date: Apr 2, 2019 at 09:36
(2): Norvell Lake (west)
Date: Apr 2, 2019 at 10:26
(3): Little Wolf Lake County Park
Date: Apr 2, 2019 at 10:49
(4): Grass Lake
Date: Apr 2, 2019 at 11:29
(5): Gilletts Lake
Date: Apr 2, 2019 at 11:53

2 Cackling Goose -- (1)
162 Canada Goose -- (1),(2),(4)
10 Mute Swan -- (1),(2),(4)
4 Northern Shoveler -- (2)
3 Mallard -- (2),(5)
22 Canvasback -- (1),(2)
10 Redhead -- (1),(2)
30 Ring-necked Duck -- (1),(2)
4 Lesser Scaup -- (1)
74 Bufflehead -- (1),(3),(4),(5)
4 Hooded Merganser -- (1)
41 Common Merganser -- (1),(3),(4)
17 Red-breasted Merganser -- (5)
2 Wild Turkey -- (1)
5 Horned Grebe -- (4),(5)
2 Mourning Dove -- (1)
3 Sandhill Crane -- (1),(3)
4 Bonaparte's Gull -- (1)
2 Ring-billed Gull -- (1)
1 Common Loon -- (1)
2 Great Blue Heron -- (1)
8 Turkey Vulture -- (1),(2),(3)
1 Osprey -- (5)
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk -- (5)
1 Red-tailed Hawk -- (1)
1 Eastern Phoebe -- (3)
2 Blue Jay -- (1)
2 Tree Swallow -- (1),(4)
2 Eastern Bluebird -- (1),(5)
8 American Robin -- (1),(3),(4),(5)
34 Red-winged Blackbird -- (1),(2)
6 Common Grackle -- (1)
1 Northern Cardinal -- (5)

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