LAKE SAINT CLAIR METROPARK (previously METRO BEACH METROPARK) Take I-94 east, exit on Metropolitan Pkwy (16 Mile Rd.). Drive east into the park. Entrance fee required. ------------------------------------------------------------------ > And don't forget the jet training from Selfridge Field next door. > > Joseph E. Faggan > Birmingham, Michigan > ap607@detroit.freenet.org Date sent: Mon, 03 May 1999 13:38:21 -0400 From: Steve Santner To: Janet Hinshaw , birders@umich.edu Subject: Re: Metrobeach Metropark Metrobeach is very much a "multiuse" urban park. Birding can be done there on weekdays or before about 10 AM on warm weather weekends (anything from May to October, basically). On July and Aug weekends, the giant parking lot in the middle of the park fills up (unless there's an E coli alert!) and about 5000 people lie around on the beach. During those periods, this park is never quiet and I don't go there. However, there is a nature center and a small but reasonable woodland. There is a very large high quality marsh. And there is a lot of Lake St Clair shoreline. The year before last, I would go there early in the morming in August and find lots of shorebirds (including good ones like Willet) on the grass surrounding the beach. I'm afraid there's nothing anyone can do about the noise here but it is still the best area for wetland birding in Macomb Co. Steve Santner Janet Hinshaw wrote: > Steve Santner noted "You live very close to Metrobeach Metropark, a > terrific birding spot all year." I had a report from someone trying > to bird there a couple of weekends ago, and finding that there was a > walkathon in the park. They were broadcasting extremely loud music > all over the park so that you couldn't get away from it. Seems to me > that a walkathon could also be about enjoying the quiet solitude of > nature! Too bad a good thing turned out to be pretty bad for other > people trying to enjoy the park. > > Janet Hinshaw, Collection Manager Phone: 734-764-0457 > Bird Division FAX: 734-763-4080 Rm. > 3020 Museum of Zoology University of Michigan 1109 Geddes Ave. Ann > Arbor, MI 48109-1079 USA > > http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/birds/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- >I've got a meeting Friday morning in the area of Metro Beach Metropark >so I thought I'd go early and swing by there, as I hear it's a good >spot for birds. Does anybody have any personal knowledge of this site, >and suggestions on where exactly to bird there this time of year? >-dave Date sent: Thu, 04 May 2000 16:42:23 -0400 To: "Borneman, Dave" , "'Birders@umich.edu'" From: R&B Ward Subject: Re: Metro Beach Metropark As you enter the park, keep to the right and park on the side of the lot nearest the Nature Center (building with woods behind it)--this is on the West side of the park. Walk over to the Nature Center--if it's open, you can look at sightings posted on a whiteboard and more detailed listings in a notebook in the meeting room. They have checklists. Take a look out the windows at the bird feeders, or walk out on the deck and look. There've been Red-bellied woodpeckers and both White-crowns and White-throats there this week. Then walk the Nature Trail--the trees are mostly old cottonwoods and aspen, not many new trees coming up. Look for thrushes and sparrows alongside the path, warblers anywhere, Warbling vireos up high. There's a "meadow loop" which held a Kingbird on Wed. Swallows along the canal between the bridges. We haven't seen Gnatcatchers yet, but others have, and there's been a Carolina wren near the end of the trail. You can walk further out into the marsh (Marsh wren, Swamp sparrow) before crossing the 2nd bridge. While at the park, walk over to the day-sail ramp or the marina and look for terns. Barb Ward, Eastpointe (Macomb)