A red-eyed vireo is shown. (Scot Stewart photo)

“Nature gives to every time and season unique beauty; from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it’s just a succession of changes so soft and comfortable that we hardly notice the progress.” — Charles Dickens

After a spectacular performance by Summer, it appears now to be ready to take its bows and begin packing. Cooler temperatures and the promise of even more of the same fall weather this coming week make the changes look irreversible. Red maples are already providing their warm, red, autumn glow along wetland edges and on some single branches stressed for insects, injuries or other maladies. Birds too are giving notice it is time to yield to the changes of the season.

Birders watching and feeding hummingbirds have noted the resident males have left. The few males still showing up may already be Canadian birds on the move to the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. Some feeders are seeing a spike in numbers as females and young begin trying to add more bulk to provide the energy they will need to fly south. Many flowers are finishing their blooms too, reducing the natural food available.

Insect numbers are also dropping. Fewer dragonflies, butterflies, caterpillars and flies force many bird species to begin switching over to fruits and other plant-based foods as they complete their summer stay. A pagoda dogwood tree growing in a front yard in Marquette provided an unusual parade of red-eyed vireos this past week. Vireos are usually high in the trees gleaning insects from the leaves of poplars, maples and other broadleaf trees. Many are surprised to find them eating small fruits. The small dogwood hosted as many as a dozen vireos feeding on the small fruits, looking much like waxwings, diving in for a berry or two, then scooting to the cover of larger nearby trees to consume their prizes.

The vireos were not alone either, in their foraging. Gray catbirds, robins, European starlings and at least one female scarlet tanager were also found in the tree looking for food. This summer also looks to have produced a spectacular mountain ash fruit crop. The orange berries have also ripened and changed with the season attracting cedar waxwings, robins, thrushes and scarlet tanagers. The tanagers seen in Marquette have all been young and female birds, bedecked in subtler yellow and olive plumage, allowing them to blend in better and feed without attracting much attention.  Looking more like a vireo or warbler, they can be distinguished by their slightly larger size and heavier bills. Females have a slight touch of white, creating faint wing bars.

The fall season also brings changes in the direction and intensity of some storms, changing the dynamics of Lake Superior’s effects on shorelines. One recent storm swept large waves over the sand bars at the mouth of the Dead River. The sandbars had been wide enough and high enough to produce long, narrow basins of water and great spots for sandpipers and plovers to rest and look for insects and other vertebrates. The storm left a single, dry strand of clean sand, a radically different look to the sand bar. Smaller numbers of shorebirds have been reported there, on the Lower Harbor breakwall in Marquette, at the AuTrain River mouth in Alger County and at Whitefish Point.

The storms have also left puddles of water in a variety of spots also attracting some birds. A long puddle between the bike path and the still unopened stretch of Lakeshore Boulevard north of Wright Street has attracted some shorebirds too. The early hours of morning have been the best time to see some shorebirds there too. A stilt sandpiper was noted in the area and a Wilson’s snipe was seen overhead there last Monday. Blue-winged and green-winged teals have also been noted in small retention ponds, backwaters and on Lake Superior. They are currently on the move and have been seen flying past Whitefish Point in Chippewa County.

Teals are the dabblers and they are usually found on ponds and small lakes with shallower waters. Mirroring the migration pattern in reverse, the diving ducks will be some of the last of the ducks to pass through the U.P., during fall migration, some even staying the winter on the open waters of Lake Superior and some rivers.

Whitefish Point saw another big bump of red-necked grebes last Tuesday too. 826 were seen that day, with a big wave of the blue-winged teals, 1,164, and a stunning 1,453 common terns, again confirming fall migration is well underway!  Fall migration is monitored at the point from Aug. 15 to Nov. 15 and can be followed on https://dunkadoo.org/explore/whitefish-point-bird-observatory/waterbirds-fall-2020. Horned and red-necked grebes are also late departures and may stay in the bays of Lake Superior well into November.

Bald eagles continue to maintain a high profile in Marquette. Their behavior seems to indicate a comfortable level with people as they have been seen perched regularly along the Lake Superior shoreline, from the riprap along the new Lakeshore Blvd., to Picnic Rocks, to general cruising over some of the streets in town.

Some individuals have had relatively close encounters with the adults.

Similarly, sandhill cranes continue to be seen regularly along the north side of town close to Lake Superior, showing up at the mouth of the Dead River and the neck of Presque Isle. Both the eagles and cranes are impressively large birds and usually quite shy, so getting up-close views of either is a special treat for those in Marquette lucky enough to catch up with them. Of course, the more time spent outside looking the greater the change of seeing great things!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is a teacher at Bothwell Middle School in Marquette and a freelance photographer.