Tuesday, July 5, 2022
At 2 AM, I drove to Rick Wiltraut's house and the two of us headed for Michigan. After about an 8-hour drive, we stopped at the Point Mouillee State Game Area, located just north of the Ohio-Michigan line, where the Common Redshank had been seen on the 4th. It was reported that it had flown off that night right before dark. We walked the eight-tenths of a mile out to the spot where other birders with scopes were set up looking for the bird, hoping that it would return there to feed, but there was no sign of it. We spent about 2-1/4 hours there and, although we didn't see the Redshank, we did get to see some other interesting birds. These included Green-winged Teal, Pied-billed Grebe, Common Gallinule, Black-necked Stilt, Semipalmated Plover, Wilson's Snipe, Caspian and Forster's Tern, Double-crested Cormorant, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Osprey, and Purple Martin.
We left there and drove the remaining 3-1/2 hours up to Oscoda. After checking in at the Northern Traveler Motel, I took a short nap before we made the five-minute drive over to the airport. We did a reconnaissance mission of the spots where the bird had been seen in past days and then headed over to Gate 14 where the bird was often seen flying into the airport from an outside location late in the day. While there, Caspian Terns and Ring-billed Gulls flew in and out.
A Red-headed Woodpecker and Cedar Waxwings were seen in the trees along adjacent Van Etten Lake. We watched for the bird until near dark and came up empty-handed. We returned to the motel and hoped that the bird would show up in the morning.
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
We returned to the airport at first light. We stopped at Gate 14 and the bird wasn't there. We decided to check the other spots around the airport's southwest end, but again no bird. We stopped at Gate 11. The bird wasn't in view there, but as we were driving away, Rick thought he heard an odd call around the hangars. We searched but still couldn't see the bird. We returned to Gate 14 and discovered that the other birders had the bird in their scopes. Finally, we were looking at the Southern Lapwing at the far end of the hangars.
After seeing where the bird was, I was pretty sure that Gate 11 would be a much closer vantage point. I told Rick that I was going to go over there to see if that was the case. When I got there, the bird was indeed a lot closer than at Gate 14. I took a few photos with my camera through the fence and went back to get Rick.
Even there, the bird was still pretty distant, so I tried some digiscoping with my phone, which came out fairly well.
Next, we drove around the edges of the airport and saw or heard Eastern Bluebird, Grasshopper and Savannah Sparrow, and Eastern Meadowlark. Several Black Squirrels, melanistic versions of the Gray Squirrel, were present along the treelined perimeter of the airport.
On the northwest side of the airport, we saw two Sandhill Cranes near the runway.
We then headed for a Kirtland's Warbler site about a half-hour away. As we were driving past Foote Site Park, we saw sixteen Trumpeter Swans in addition to Belted Kingfisher, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Eastern Kingbird.
We went to Kobs Road where we heard several Kirtland's Warblers occasionally singing on both sides of the road. Unfortunately none of the birds were seen, probably because it was fairly late in the breeding season. It also didn't help that it was cloudy, a little windy, and fairly late in the morning. Other birds heard there included Brown Thrasher, Hermit Thrush, and Field Sparrow.
We headed back home in the late afternoon, stopping to have a rare sit-down dinner near Toledo, Ohio, before continuing across Ohio and back into PA.
Thursday, July 7, 2022
I dropped Rick off at his house and got back home at around 6:30 AM. We were very happy to get to see one of the two rarities. The trip odometer read 1582 miles as I backed into the garage.
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