Marquette Park Lakeshore – September 6, 2025
A great time was had by all eight participants on the fall lake watch field trip at Marquette Park on Saturday, September 6th. The weather was cool in the morning with westerly winds but turned northwesterly later, which is ideal for a possible jaeger sighting. We did not get a jaeger that day but there were plenty of birds to keep the group busy searching the skies and the shore.
Our leader, Bill Sharkey, helped to educate the group on the workings of a lake watch and the excitement built as he pointed out some migrant ducks and shorebirds. John Cassidy, who lives in Michigan, was gracious enough to come and join us to add to the camaraderie, and the group benefited from his outstanding expertise at identifying little dark specks on the horizon as a particular species of duck or other waterfowl.
The group did very well with a nice variety of shorebirds that included Sanderling, Baird’s Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, American Golden-Plover, and a nice look at a Ruddy Turnstone. The evening before had a Lesser Yellowlegs land a few feet from a couple of us.
A Lesser Black-backed Gull gave us quite the show right in front of us and was very photogenic. Besides him we also had Bonaparte’s, Ring-billed, and American Herring Gulls, along with a Caspian and Common Tern.
We identified, or I should say that John identified and we observed, five species of ducks. They included quite a few Blue-winged Teal, along with Northern Shovelers, Gadwall, Northern Pintail, and Green-winged Teal.
With other passerines, raptors, and waterfowl, we had 36 species in all. Other lake watchers joined in the fun and excitement; that is the best way to describe a lake watch— fun and exciting.
I want to thank Bill Sharkey for leading our group and taking the time to educate all of us on how to do a lake watch. Not only that but he helped to get us excited about the possibilities. Thanks goes out to John as well for joining us and sharing his expertise and good humor.