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Our team (R-L - John Schaust, Brian Cunningham, Rob Ripma, Amy Hodson |
We started at Kingsbury FWA in Northwest Indiana in the middle of the night and got off to another quick start. by the time we left the area around 4 am, we already had nearly 25 species including a very surprising King Rail! We kept up our momentum as we crossed the Lake Michigan shoreline from east to west. Kankakee Sands and Willow Slough FWA were fantastic as always and Willow Slough produced a surprising Common Loon.
At this point, we had a decision to make. Due to the late date, we had missed some of the early migrants and our warbler total was not nearly as high as we needed to break out total from 2014. Since this was the case, we decided to modify our route and not push ourselves to make it all the way to Goose Pond FWA again this year.
After a few stops, we ended our day at a newly discovered shorebird spot in Noblesville. This was a fantastic decision and helped us add 8 species to our count including great looks at 3 Red-necked Phalaropes!
Our total of 164 for the day was enough to win the high count award of the Birdathon! We are still accepting donations for our team to support the wonderful work that is done through this event. You can donate by following this link. Thanks to everyone that has donated and we all look forward to doing another big day in 2016!