Porcupine Mountain

   It is important to avoid crowds of people and noisy activity while birding, so country roads, on the way to someplace else, are great birding locations. We were driving down a country road through the forest and stopped the car and listened. Deep in the underbrush, we heard the flute-like tones of the Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus). It's not chirping, chipping, clucking or peeping, but pure flutey musical notes. It is magical to hear. We heard two of them in the underbrush. You can hear what it sounded like by playing this excellent youtube video by Garth McElroy. It was magical.

   Again we left the highway and drove a short way on a small dirt road. To the left was a Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) perched on a short branch. We usually see him hovering in place like a helicopter. We were just about to turn the car around to leave. On the side of an oak tree, a Ladder Backed Woodpecker (Picoides scalaris) was making holes in the trunk with its beak. These fine birds have black and white stripes in a ladder pattern on the back. Couldn't have been better.

Ladder Backed Woodpecker

   In the small coastal city of Ontonagon, there was a Lapland Longspur (Calcarius lapponicus) perched and singing in a tree next to where we had stopped. We got supplies for a picnic and headed to Porcupine Mountain for the afternoon. That longspur was a "Life Bird" for us. Pretty nice bird for such a short stop like that.

Lapland Longspur

   There were metals signs warning of "High Bear Activity" on Porcupine Mountain, but we saw no bears. We had a wonderful picnic next to an abandoned mine on the side of Porcupine Mountain. Bats live in the mine now. The ancient mine went bust, but the toiling miner piled the residual stone removed from his mine on the side of the mountain. This hillock of stone made a terrific platform for us to get eye-to-eye even with the warblers in the top most branches of the trees. Warblers inhabit the highest most branches in the trees. So this pile of stone solved Berry's "warbler's neck", a neck ache due to craning your head looking up all day at the tops of trees.

The Abandoned Mine

   Berry saw it fly into the bush. Robert identified it. About twelve feet away, a female Black Throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens) was needing to be identified. Another "Life Bird" for us. This I would describe as a yellow headed warbler with black stripes on his body. Berry and I make a great team. We have never seen and identified so many warblers as during this birding trip.

Black Throated Green Warbler

   We hiked to the summit of Porcupine Mountain. The hike started as a dirt incline, then became a steep climb, and near the summit were wooden steps and then a boardwalk. With my injured foot, making this voyage was quite difficult.

Berry on the Boardwalk

   When we got to the boardwalk, we zoomed in on a female Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea) in the canopy above us. We got a visual and an auditory identification on this bird. We climbed the tower at the top, just in time to see a raptor soaring past the tower. Exhausted then we descended the mountain and ate dinner in Ironwood, Michigan, on the Wisconsin border, having identified four "Life Birds" today.

Cerulean Warbler

Robert

photos courtesy of lstokes, bshelton, gvyn, heskin and tgrey

Waterfalls and Lighthouses

   Breakfast today was different from yesterday. We thought the waitress in Marquette was absolutely chirpy. At one point she even said the word, "sure" (shr) so quickly that it sounded like the word "chirp". It was funny. But the waitress today was born with a pickle in her mouth. She was ill-tempered and rather unpleasant. Big difference.

   We drove back 14 miles to the Canyon Falls. It was a 10 minute march down a forest path to reach the falls. The moisture in the undergrowth covered the boardwalk and the stones in the path. There were ferns growing beside the trail under pine and cherry trees. We were surrounded on our walk by the call of the Northern Parula (Parula americana), a liquidy ascending zipper sound. We never saw the bird, but identification, hearing that ascending zipper, was definitive.

Canyon Falls

   Then we drove back onto the Keweenaw Peninsula and north along the highway. Inside the Sturgeon River Slough we found a delightful family of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis). We saw a male and female and four large nestlings about the size of Canada Geese. Berry found two Green Winged Teals (Anas crecca) in a small canal. There I saw a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) among other birds. I climbed an observation tower in the rain.

Sandhill Cranes

   For lunch in the town of Hancock (next to the bigger town, Houghton) I had a miner's dish called a "pastie". Berry had one, too. Cornish miners came here from England and brought with them this miner's dish. Potatos, onions, carrots and rutabaga, chopped and made into a hash with ground beef. And all that tucked inside a segment of pastry.

Pastie

   Today we stopped at a lot of waterfalls and a lot of lighthouses. The rocky texture of the geography here lends itself to waterfalls and lighthouses. When we stopped at the Eagle River Falls, a Common Redpoll(Carduelis flammea) flitted into view. We came back to Houghton for the night.

Common Redpoll

Robert

photos courtesy of rfowler, wikipedia, navaho and gtepke

Ruffed Grouse

   While we ate breakfast, we saw two baby rabbits just outside the window. At the Olympic winter training camp, Berry found a huge turtle. Its shell was 20 inches across. It was burying eggs in the mud next to Teal Lake. Heedless deer leaped across the road when we were deep in the forest. There was a lot going on.

   It rained off and on all day. Rain does not ruin birding at all; it does drive human beings indoors... which leaves municipal parks, wildlife nature centers and public boat ramps empty for us. Here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan there are cattails everywhere. There are small ponds and bogs all over the place. The whole peninsula is like a giant sponge. The receptionist at the hotel denied that it rains all the time here. "It's just Spring," she said.

   We spotted a Common Raven (Corvus corax) in a small town called Champion. The raven looks like an American Crow, but its beak is larger. Nice addition to our list. Then we got lost in the woods. Next to a stream, there were Yellow Rumped Warblers (Dendroica coronata) which we also had seen in Mexico. Then, we asked directions on how to get back to the highway.

Common Raven

   Driving through the rain, we saw a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) making circles in the sky. We bought Nancy a gift for her helping us during our vacation. Then we ate lunch in the car during the pouring rain: ham and cheese on crackers with a squirt of mustard. This kept us from having to leave the forest and drive around to find a town with a diner just to eat lunch.

Bald Eagle

   Amazing! Incredible! We found a Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) strutting proudly in his ruffled finery. This is something even most serious birders have never seen. An adult male Ruffed Grouse, displaying his neck feathers in a ceremonial courtship display. It looks like he has a large feather boa around his neck.

My photo of the Ruffed Grouse

   Down the road from him, I spotted an Olive-Sided Flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), perched on the top-most branches of a tree. Its olive colored "vest" and the white stripe down the front of this bird are diagnostic. Unlike most other flycatchers, the Olive Sided Flycatcher is not in the genus Empidonax, but in the genus Contopus... it is a pewee, not a flycatcher.

Olive-Sided Flycatcher

   We made over it to the Keweenaw Peninsula in the northwest corner of the Upper Peninsula and added two more birds to our "Life List". Nice day of birding.

Robert

photos courtesy of tmunson, rfowler, tsohl and trdavis

Birding around Marquette

   In Marquette harbor we saw two Red Breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator) male and female, and several Double Crested Cormorants (Phalcrocorax auritus).

Red Breasted Merganser

   The Presque Isle Bog was a special treat. There is a wooden boardwalk into the middle of a reed filled bog. The place was buzzing with birds. Some of these were "life birds" for us.

   There are three ways to bird in a bog. 1. Tree-topping - scanning the tops of bushes and trees to spot flycatchers and other air-bourne scavengers. 2. Probing - aiming the scope or your bins at the middle of a tangle of bushes and search for movement. and 3. Watching the edge of the water - birds search here for insects or to drink water.

   The American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) was creeping through the inner branches of a bush in the bog. The Black and White Warbler (Mniotilta baria) was inches away from the edge of the water. There was a pair, male and female, of Hooded Warblers (Wilsonia citrina) hiding in a small tree next to the path. And one bird that needs to be added to our Life List. The Black Billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus) was flitting from the top of one small tree to the top of another in the bog.

American Redstart

   We went to the Lighthouse on Big Bay Point and ate a warm lunch there at Thunderbay Inn. My GPS device failed in the woods. It could not see many roads and no towns at all once we got deep in the woods. We relied on our Atlas map. We plucked up our courage and climbed out onto the giant breakwater in the rain. There we spotted Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser) to go along with the Red Breasted Mergansers which we saw at the pier.

Hooded Warbler

   Right after a tremendous dinner at the Landmark Hotel in downtown Marquette, we drove along the shore. We spotted a Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) at some lady's feeder. Not bad for the first day. We really enjoyed birding around Marquette.

Robert

photo courtesy of wikipedia and bnielsen

We Made It Safe

   Two plane flights, from Memphis to Chicago, then Chicago to Marquette, and we ate dinner and are safe in our hotel room. Our luggage made it through fine, unlike the musical chairs during our Iceland birding trip.

   Not surprisingly, everyone here speaks with a yankee accent, a midwestern accent, almost a Minnesota accent. But they are very nic. It is heavily forested here. From the airport to the hotel we saw birch trees, cedar trees and pine trees. We spotted some indeterminant gulls circling in the sky as we approached Marquette.

Map of the Upper Peninsula

   Marquette is a port city on Lake Superior. It is the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. The locals call themselves "yoopers" derived from the expression "the U.P.", the shortened version of "the Upper Peninsula". The weatherman announced "the weather in the U.P. will be blah, blah, blah..."

   We will report on bird activity tomorrow. We got here late and just settled in. Until then, happy birding.

Robert

Birding Trip to the Upper Peninsula

   We are preparing our luggage lists and gathering our birding equipment, getting ready for this year's birding vacation. Berry chose the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, near Wisconsin. Nice choice. The locals call it the U.P. (which I shall not do). It was a huge mining area. The city of Marquette is the busiest thing on the peninsula. There are lots and lots of trees there.

   They have birds there in the summer which we have never seen. We want to place them on our Life List. Spotting the Spruce Grouse would let me catch up with Berry; she saw one of these amazing birds when we went to Acadia National Forest in Maine. The Kirtland's Warbler which moved from the southern part of Michigan is endangered; might be our last chance there.

   The Upper Peninsula is heavily forested. They are battling a gigantic forest fire there now. They also have several interesting Woodpeckers and Owls for us to see. The place is situated between two of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan to the southeast and Lake Superior along the north. We will look for nesting gulls and ducks in the Great Lakes.

Map of the Upper Peninsula

   We bought an Atlas map of Michigan, with all of the side roads marked on the map. Berry bought a new summer wardrobe. We downloaded information about birding in Michigan, lists of possible birds and descriptions and hints of particularly good birding places. Bins, scope, Sibley's bird guide and a tube of Bengay. I sprained my ankle recently, so I'll need that.

   Berry says that she is shocked (sic) that Michigan is in the "eastern time zone", but that fair state really hasn't moved much since the Ice Age. Detroit is going through a man-made disaster. The Auto Industry left and the city government is bankrupt. The governor had to appoint overseers to manage the city. 40% of the streetlights have been turned off. You can imagine the chaos and crime. This is well to the south of where we are going in Michigan.

   Our itinerary is to fly out of Memphis on Sunday afternoon. We will change planes in Chicago. Touching down in Marquette late Sunday night, we have a car and hotel waiting for us. Then we will drive around birding the Upper Peninsula for the next two weeks. Follow our adventures here on the Painted Bunting Bird Club website.

Robert

map courtesy of weatherchannel

Tying Up Loose Ends

   Before our vacation to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we need to mention the birding that we have done in the yard this spring. I saw the Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) again, poking around our bird bath and looking for things underneath the monkeygrass in our backyard. Berry has never seen it; at this point, I have seen it twice.

   We have offspring of several species. The two juvenile Bluejays (Cyanocitta cristata) are the noisiest. There are juvenile Downy Woodpeckers (Picoides pubescens) at our suet. The orange crest on the Red Bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) does not meet yet on the juvenile. The Brown Thrashers (Toxostoma rufum) are nesting in the holly bushes at the end of the yard. Our Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) occupies the birdhouse in the magnolia tree. There are English Sparrows (Passer domesticus) in the birdhouse in the sideyard.

Raccoon

   In other animal news, we have a Raccoon (Procyon lotor) residing in our neighbor's tree. It uses our powerline as a high-wire highway to avoid our dog while moving around the neighborhood.

Robert

photo courtesy of mwanner

Murder Most Fowl

   Berry and I have seen raptors attack and kill small mammals. This is natural and not vicious behavior. Waterbirds snag fish out of the water and fly away, and herons patiently wade in the water while fishing. Hawks snatch mice and rabbits. All natural. But we have also seen murder, plain and simple.

   Several years ago we were looking out of a window at several birds enjoying our birdbath. English Sparrows and a Common Grackle enjoying the water on a hot day. Then suddenly the grackle reached toward a "pesky" Passer Domesticus and killed it with a sharp stab of its beak. The grackle just pecked at the head of the sparrow. I saw it with my own eyes. The little sparrow dropped to the ground and never moved again.

Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula)

   Last year I was filling the birdbath and found featherless hatchlings already dead laying inside the birdbath. I was certain they had not flown to the birdbath. They were featherless nestlings with bulging eyeballs. They had either been transported to the birdbath and then drowned in the water, or they had died in the nest and were transported to the birdbath and disposed of there.

   Again this year I have seen two dead chicks in the birdbath. Are they being culled from an overcrowded nest situation ? Are they victims of parasitic behavior by nest robbers ? It was difficult to determine what species of nestling these were. We have American Robins, Brown Thrashers, Common Grackles, Bluejays, English Sparrows, Northern Mockingbirds, Pine Warblers and Northern Flickers regularly in our yard. Who is the culprit ? Please share below, if you have seen anything like this before.

Robert photo courtesy of wikipedia