Avis Farms technology park -- Ann Arbor (See BEST VIEWING AREA below.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Lesser Black-backed Gull was found at the Avis Farms technology park on March 18, 2004, by Mike Sefton. On October 3, 2004, Don Chalfant found a Long-billed Dowitcher at the same site. Allen Chartier calls this "an amazing piece of habitat." I don't know how amazing it is, but it certainly is interesting. To get to the Avis Farms technology park, take So. State St. in Ann Arbor south past the airport. You will come to Avis Drive (traffic light) one mile south of Ellsworth Rd. and 0.4 miles south of the airport. Turn right (west) onto Avis Drive. Continue as described below. My first visit there was for the dowitcher. I went to the west side of the pond to start with. I saw a dowitcher on the east side. Even at 60x it wasn't possible to ID the bird from across the pond even though the light was good and the sun at my back. I saw Wayne Fisher across the pond, and he was obviously getting a very good look from there. So I drove around and got a county lifer. To view birds on the west side of the pond, turn right off Avis onto Technology Drive; continue to Data Court and drive all the way to the back (south). = BEST VIEWING AREA = To view birds on the east side of the pond in the morning OR evening, you'll want to be where Wayne and I were. The Tetra- Tech parking lot won't work in the early evening in the fall because of the sun. Turn off Avis Drive at a building with a square sign "FRY" on the lawn in front. This is just before you get to Tetra-Tech and a very short distance (100 yards?) past Technology Drive. Drive back (west) to the parking lot nearest the water. Bruce ----------------------------------------------------------------- Pittsfield Township stream corridor From: Smileysmlc@aol.com Date sent: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 16:20:24 EDT Subject: [birders] Avis Farms To: birders@umich.edu Send reply to: Smileysmlc@aol.com FYI, the Avis Farms site is just to the north of a 26-acre floodplain habitat owned by the Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy. Although difficult to walk (we don't presently mow trails), our property stretches 1/2 mile south to Textile Road. We're hoping that our property can eventually be incorporated into a Greenway walking trail system in Pittsfield Township. Jack Smiley Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy www.landconservancy.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From: Smileysmlc@aol.com Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 13:35:51 EDT Subject: Re: Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy property To: bbowman@umich.edu Bruce, No one has birded there that I know of. It's okay to walk there, but as I mentioned, there are no trails so walking is difficult. There is a small park on the south side of Textile, just to the east of our property, but it may not always be open for parking (it looked like they were working on it last year). I haven't been down there in about a year, so maybe the park facilities are completed. [The park on Textile Rd., just west of the railroad tracks, is Centennial Neighborhood Park. It is a private park. It is gated and no parking is allowed there. The parking possibilities along Textile are very limited. There are a couple of fairly wide pulloffs on the north side of Textile between the park and the railroad tracks. One of these is probably too near the railroad tracks for parking. It might be possible to park 0.2 miles west of the railroad tracks near a farm road into a field on the south side of Textile.] I've receive a few other inquiries about the location of this property, so I'll paste one of my responses below. Jack - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Unfortunately, for our property in Pittsfield Township, we do not have a parking lot, signs, or trails. We did a walk there about a year ago, and it was very difficult walking up the west side of the drain/creek--very tall and thick grasses. Our property starts at Textile Road, about 1/2 mile west of State, and follows the drain north for 1/2 mile (with an irregular border). It ends just below the pond area. When Avis Farms was being planned, they basically gave us the 26 acres of wetlands and floodplain that they weren't going to build on. Eventually, it would be nice to have a trail along our property if we can link to other trails in Pittsfield Twp. The east side of the drain is very thick with shrubs and younger trees. When we did our walk, we just walked in the farm field which still borders the property. I understand that corn was grown there this year. We don't own any of the farm fields; they just plan to build on that eventually. I've only been to this site a few times, so I'm hoping that my descriptions are accurate enough.