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.
 |
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
No comments:
Post a Comment