We saw 40+ species but three sightings were especially memorable and all were at the Wastewater.
The first was the Ruddy Ducks. There were hundreds that day and we saw them on the far east side of the east lagoon. Ruddies are small ducks with bright baby blue bills and white cheeks in breeding plumage. This day there were several distinct rafts of them, probably 20 to 30 in each group, and they were in wild water with significant waves that were splashing and crashing against the rocky bank along the perimeter road. The ducks mostly had their heads and bills turned and tucked into their backs, and they roller-coastered up and down and into the wild waves with ease, very visible with the strong sun throwing light over the birds and the unruly water.
We then came to the protected northwest corner of the same lagoon and saw a grebe, which in grebe fashion was repeatedly ducking its head under water for several seconds while searching for food. I first thought it was a pied-billed but the bill was thin, not fat. It was underwater so much that we had to watch for several minutes and Deborah suddenly noticed its eye was red and then she suggested that the "golden ears" might be waterlogged which is exactly what was happening. We were close enough to see this once we figured it out. So we added Eared Grebe to our day list. This is a bird that is usually seen west of the Mississippi and "rare in most of the east" so that was another birding moment to be remembered.
And then, our favorite: We had driven slowly west and had seen a pair of terns out on the west lagoon, but they were too far to ID. Still, I had black heads on my mind and as we were coming around the bubbling ponds, I saw a tern...for a second, but then realized it wasn't a tern but a black-headed gull. Most of the gulls in Michigan are either the large Herring gull or the similar but smaller Ring-billed gull. We had had good looks at both earlier in the day.
Bonaparte's migrate through Michigan to breed in Canada. And, along the way, they stop for a bit on shorelines, lakes and sewage lagoons. We watched and were absolutely giddy as we saw them dip down toward the water and literally run across the surface on their red feet. Several times. Like dancing ON the water. I called them Jesus birds. They are beautiful gulls, with all black heads, black bills, grey wings, white bodies and red-orange feet. They are graceful, smaller than the Herrings and Ring-bills, even smaller than a crow. We were exclaiming with delight as we watched them repeatedly touch down, never settling on the water with their bodies, but always just pattering along the top for a few seconds. Like who WOULD want to settle into a sewage lagoon?
Our last bird of the day was a Great Blue Heron flying over US31 just north of Holland...always stately as they flap across the sky with trailing legs, great wings and S-shaped neck.
The next morning, we had planned to go to Warren Dunes as Deborah was headed back to Indianapolis but it was snowing! Instead we went out for coffee and happened on Dave, to whom we told our mink/weasel story. This was a strange brown critter, acting goofy, that we had seen on one of the gravel roads from yesterday. It would run along the shoulder seemingly oblivious of our presence and then stop and start, finally crossing in front of us and then burrowing (we guessed, although it was hard to figure out what was happening) into a hole right at the road edge. We could almost have touched it. Dave thought it might be a mink. A few days later, I saw what looked liked a similar animal scurrying through the water and reeds near the "waterfall" bridge on the Stu Visser trail. This one had something in its mouth and was moving fast and with purpose. Two mink in a week?
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