There is an unreasonable joy to be had from the observation of small birds going about their bright, oblivious business.” — Grant Hutchison
Just a little more than a week until a whole bunch of Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) start across the Upper Peninsula. It brings an energizing jolt to birders and really a lot of casual bird watchers because of the results. Because of the timing – the week before Christmas until the week after New Year’s, most of the area’s summer-only birds and most migrants traveling from Canada and Alaska to warmer spots are gone. The species still here are usually well-known but may include wonder surprises.
Birds in the area usually fall into three groups. The first is the main set – the Upper Peninsula’s year-round residents. Chickadees, nuthatches, ravens, goldfinches, starlings, mallards, great horned and barred owls, and if Lake Superior is open, some herring gulls. Only a few of these have shown up on every count but most are fairly frequently seen.
The second group of birds often seen in the U.P. during the winter are the birds of the far north migrating moving enough south to find food during the cold, challenging months. They include some owls, gyrfalcons, rough-legged hawks, winter finches, pine grosbeaks, and bohemian waxwings. Their appearances over the years have been erratic and are often unpredictable until very late in the fall or early winter.
The third group is the most enigmatic and those are the vagrants. They can include some warblers, like yellow-rumped, orange-crowned and even yellow-breasted chat, tanagers like western, summer, and hepatic, Townsend’s solitaire, sage thrasher, and others, often one-timers like some of these. These vagrants can really spice up a day for CBC counters and cause a short rush during a count so everyone close can dash over for a glimpse. That is what makes the CBC’s so exciting. Birders can go an entire month in winter and only see thirty species. But on a CBC count day as many as 56 species can be found by a team.
Over the years, poor weather conditions, small counting parties and other factors have led to low counts, especially during years when the Audubon Society group here has not been active. During the past twenty years or so, the CBC participants have included a number of very accomplished birders, including those involved professionally as seasonal counters at Whitefish Point and other crucial migration sites helping to find many great birds.
These counts involve a circle with a 7 1/2-mile diameter. Marquette’s set up 75 years ago set the Old City Hall on Washington Street next to the Post Office as the center. This circle includes the entire Marquette shore of Lake Superior and extend north to Harlow Lake, south to the Sands Plains and west to Negaunee Township. This year it will be held on Dec. 17 and start at Mattson Park at 8 a.m. AuTrain’s will be the following day, and Gwinn’s will be Jan. 3. For more information on the Marquette CBC contact Melinda Stamp, [email protected], and for others check the Audubon website. https://www.audubon.org/conservation/join-christmas-bird-count .
Snowy owls have arrived in the U.P. Two were seen last Saturday east of Rudyard and I-75 in Chippewa County. This area, often referred to as the Pickford-Rudyard Loop is probably the best place in the U.P. to find rough-legged hawks, gyrfalcons, snowy owls, and frankly, most U.P. owls during the winter months. Birds moving south during challenging winter conditions often hit the east side of Lake Superior and follow the shoreline through the Sault Ste. Marie area into the open agricultural lands down to the Straits where the raptors find rodents and rabbits. Rodents are drawn to the seeds from the feed. In good winters, snowy, northern hawk, great gray, great horned and barred owls are possible, but all are rarely seen in the same winter there.
In Mackinac County, on Beavertail Point, about halfway between St. Ignace and Detour four boreal chickadees were seen. Also found on and from the point, were three mute swans, a rusty black birds, three ruffed grouse, four horned grebes, a bald eagle, four evening grosbeaks and a pair of pine grosbeaks. Birders don’t hear that much from this much of the U.P. so this report may send more birders that way when they are in the east end looking for owls, rough-legged hawks and other eastern U.P. specialties.
In Marquette several more late migrants were seen last week. Over Presque Isle Park a turkey vulture was seen soaring last Friday afternoon. As none have been seen recently it is likely the vulture was recently arrived from Canada, migrating south at a much later date than other vultures that have spent the summer to the north.
On the Dead River, west of the Lakeshore Blvd. bridge a female American wigeon has been seen, often in the company of mallards. In recent years single wigeons have spent early parts, or most of the winters in Marquette, mostly on the Dead River and occasionally on Lake Superior off Hawley Street. Wigeons spend their winters across most of the southern U.S.
Last week pine grosbeaks made it to Marquette, with a handful showing up at Presque Isle to feed in a crab apple tree near the entrance to the park. This week the bohemian waxwings arrived in town. Flocks of 20 – 30 or so were seen on 7th Street and in Harvey on the Chocolay River on Tuesday, Dec. 6. Other flocks have continued to pop up in Chippewa County this week. Find out what birds are out in your area!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is a teacher at Bothwell Middle School in Marquette and a freelance photographer.
