The Silversides and ducklings....

While in Muskegon, we went to the Great Lakes Naval Memorial Museum and toured a submarine.

Very long....

 The USS Silversides was one of the most decorated subs of World War II.

30 boats sunk, 14 damaged, 2 airmen rescued, and I forget how many mines blown up.

 Mike was enjoying himself :-)  He took photos inside the sub, but I didn't.  I was too busy concentrating on climbing through all those doorways.  Subs are NOT as big as they always look on TV and movies. I don't normally have claustrophobia, but I would if I was living on a sub!

As we were climbing off the back of the sub, a mother duck and her two babes were climbing onto this floating piece of wood.

Everyone dried off well.....

 I'd say that Mom is a "manky" Mallard mix.

Double dry, double the fun

Aren't they cute?  They snuggled up together and took a nap.

 There is also an LST in Muskegon down by the Visitor's Center in town.  This was interesting to us because LST's were built in Evansville during the war and we also have an LST docked at our city.  I posted photos of it a couple years ago.  Ours is fully operational and cruises the Ohio River on occasion to visit other river ports.

 The Muskegon light.  

This may just be an inner light and not their main light.  We didn't see any really big ones at the cities we stopped at.

A large ship that was right behind the LST.

Best birding day ever part #3.......

(Be sure to check out the sandpipers in post #1)

These are the last of the birding shots from the waster water treatment place in Muskegon, Michigan.  It was a fabulous place to visit and I would love to go back in the spring or fall when there might be even more variety of birds.

Another Red-tailed Hawk on a pole.  We saw at least 4 the day we were there.  I imagine it is good feeding grounds with all the other birds and the rodents that would be attracted by the landfill and water treatment.

 The landfill at the end of the lagoons was attracting a lot of vultures and gulls.  Both seem to like what they find there....yuck.

 Not an attractive bird, but I'm always fascinated by them.  

I think if I was drawing "the Grim Reaper" I would give it this face.

 Three deer that spotted us about the same time we spotted them.

 A Painted Turtle.  I never get to see them this close at home.  This one was crossing our road, so I got out to help him out of the way.  I like the red designs you can see around the edge of the shell.  It looks like someone took a paint brush and put them there.....no wonder they call it a Painted Turtle!

A woodpecker way up on one of the poles.

 This is the area where they add chemicals and aerate the water to remove solids.....don't think about that too closely.  We actually saw a guy empty his truck at one spot....yuck, and double yuck.

The gulls don't seem to mind the filthy water or the aeration process.  Sort of like a storm at sea.

The next area had low water and an island had formed where some ducks and sandpipers were sitting.

Next to all of this is an area of rectangular low areas that sometimes have water in them.  They were dry while we were there and you could see the white minerals that had leeched out of the water all over the dry ground.  This is where they see herons and egrets when there is water.  We saw one at a great distance and one fly overhead.

A nice little water hole, but no birds today.

Since this wasn't very long, I added this video I took of the waders.

Best Birding ever part #2

(click any photo to see larger) The only other place I have seen such large numbers of birds at one time, would be when the Snow Geese come to our area.  If I had been able to count the ducks, geese, gulls, swallows, sandpipers it would have been in the hundreds or thousands.

 The ducks were harder to take photos of or to identify.  Lots of Mallards, I am sure, but I also saw Shovelers and I think teal.

 The one on the right lifting its wing....a green patch shows....Green Teal?

 They mixed with the sandpipers along the shore, but were very nervous and swam out into deep water whenever our car got near.  They allow hunting in this area at certain times, so that might explain their nervousness.

 One of my closer shots

 A few flying away

This Wood Duck female was in the deep ditch along the side of the road.  

 These two shots of the road are to give you an idea of the length of these two lagoons we were driving along, but also to show the swallows.  There were thousands of bugs....midges?.....flying around and an equal number of Swallows swooping back and forth across the road eating them!  There were more swallows sitting on the wire resting between flying and eating.  100's easily!  I could not figure out how to take photos of them, but these two shots give a little bit of an idea.  Should have shot a video.  Our car was full of the bugs by the time we left the area.

A couple of the swallows on the wire.

Across from the lagoons were large fields of crops and Canada Geese were eating there.  If you were looking from the air, these fields would look like huge green circles with irrigation running across them.  This is where they pipe some of the treated water.  I'm sure if we had driven around the fields, there would have been even more birds and animals.  Too much to do and too little time to do it!  This place would takes weeks and months to explore and really appreciate at all seasons.

 Gulls nest at this site and there were a lot of both adults and juveniles sitting around on the rocks, swimming in the lagoons and the pits where they were treating and aerating the water.

 There were the common Ring-billed Gulls that we see everywhere in the states, but I believe a lot of these were Herring Gulls.  Not sure about that, but definitely not Ring-bills.....yellow bills with a red spot, pinkish legs, light eyes.

 A juvenile spreading his wings to land.

 Another distant look at the water.  That gull in the lower right looks odd, but don't know if it is different or just a different phase.  That distant shore is where we were driving before being swooped by swallows.

 More juveniles

 I enjoyed getting a close-up look at them as we drove along.

 The color varied from dark gray to a light gray.

 The adults

 Dark and light.....different kinds

Sometimes the high weeds were a problem for taking photos.  At times like this I wish we had a truck or a high SUV!  I'm always trying to shoot over stuff that is taller than where I am.  I was able to get out of the car a few times, but mostly the birds were too nervous for that.

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More stuff to post next time.  

The US Tennis Open starts this week, so I am glad I have some stuff to post without having to go out looking for something :-)

Best birding place I've ever been, part #1......

(click on any photo to see larger)
One of our stops in Michigan was at Muskegon.  We liked the town so much, we stayed an extra night there.  A very helpful lady at the visitor's center (see below) gave me a brochure for a "birding" place.....the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System.  You have to call ahead and go by the office to get a pass, so we didn't go until the next day.  This was truly the best place I have ever birded as far as the most birds seen in one short part of the day!  I could bird here forever, if I lived close.

The Muskegon Visitor's Center.

Now for some of the birds.  This facility covers 11,000 acres!  Lagoons, dikes, fields and more.  It attracts all sorts of birds.  We were not there at the very best time of year to see it all, but certainly saw plenty while there.  We actually drove out to locate the place late the day we arrived, before we knew we needed a pass.  Just driving into the area, we spotted either a hawk or harrier hunting.

He was swooping overhead and then started "hanging" in one place, obviously eyeing something on the ground.  After he dove I couldn't see him any more.  But I left in a very excited frame of mind for what we might see the next day.

 Driving in the next morning the very first thing we saw was this Red-tailed hawk sitting on a sign.  

I think he sees us.  Better move on.

After getting our pass and map we were told we could drive anywhere there was an open road.

The first road leads along the top edge of two huge lagoons.....looked like lakes....with rocky shores.  There were ducks out on the lagoons and any place that the shore was sort of beach-like, there were sandpipers, plovers, and such.  I've looked up a list someone made of what has been seen here, and apparently just about every kind of sandpiper there is has been sighted here at one time or another.  I'm not good at identifying sandpipers and am trying to get some help, but will just post the best photos I have of the birds and you can give them whatever name you think is correct :-)  Sandpipers are difficult to name.

 A mix of sandpipers

 The one in the middle is a new bird for me....a Semipalmated Plover.

 Semipalmated Plover on the left, sandpiper in middle, Killdeer in the right.

 There were both big and little sandpipers.

 Pretty sure this guy is a Yellowlegs, but not sure whether greater or lesser.  It was much taller than anything else out there.  It's reflection makes me think of a funhouse mirror.....you know the one that make you look really fat and short :-)

 The ones on the left were some of the smaller ones.

Little ones (Sanderlings?)and Killdeer

 Plover and sandpipers

 Killdeer flying away and below one posing on a rock.

There were ducks mixed in part of the time, but as I got closer the ducks all swam out into the deep waters.

 The one on the left is something different, but I haven't decided what yet.  It reminded me of the snipes I have seen here.  Maybe a Dowitcher?

 Yellowlegs

 That odd one again behind the Killdeer.

OK....you are probably sick of sandpipers by now.  I really loved seeing all these waders!  More stuff in my next post.