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What’s flying: Annual Christmas bird count showcased area’s diversity, unusual species

A young snowy owl is shown. (Photo courtesy of Scot Stewart)

EDITOR’S NOTE: “What’s Flying” is appearing in today’s edition instead of Friday’s edition, as no paper will be printed on Friday due to the Christmas holiday.

“They who sing through the summer must dance in the winter.” — Italian Proverb

Most of the singing in the Upper Peninsula Woods recently has been coming not from birds, but from the wind and its choruses in the pines. The songsters are trying to conserve their energy on these colder days and tare attempting to keep a low profile as the last of the merlins continue to cruise through the trees looking for unsuspecting prey. There has been dancing though, from those trees bouncing in the wind and birders reveling in their recent sightings.

Some of that dancing was led by calls, if not song. One exception to the “noise rule” has been the crows. Last Saturday a murder of more than 40 crows raised a ruckus in Marquette near the Sandy Knoll Elementary School. Birders out for the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) were curious to see if the crows might be mobbing a predator and investigating, they were surprised to find the crows harassing a snowy owl perches high up in a large white spruce tree.

The noise eventually attracted and drew out a large number of residents to watch the activity. There were even a few blue jays divebombing the owl occasionally pecking it in the head. Birders, photographers and neighbors lined the streets to watch and one resident even got a photograph that seemed to show a blue jay tail laying on a branch near the owl. Eventually the young, heavily marked owl had enough and left the area and was not seen again by the CBC counters.

This year’s Marquette CBC was a highly successful event. More than a dozen counters and a number of feeder counters divided the count circle up to locate, identify and count all the birds they could find. While some tally sheets are still being submitted, it appears to have been one of the best Marquette CBC’s for diversity, with more than 50 species found and for more unusual birds found here during the count.

The counters who first saw the snowy owl were attempting to locate a tanager reported at a home nearby. Eventually they made it to the site two blocks from the owl’s location and found an extremely rare for the area summer tanager. The irony is noticeable. This female should not be in the U.P. in summer, let alone winter. Its range gently stretches northward as far as northern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. While it was not a spectacular all red male, this female has an olive back, yellow breast and hints of orange on its rump. It had been coming to tube feeders with millet and sunflower seeds and visiting a bird bath for water. Birders were surprised to find several other rarities, at least for the season in the neighborhood there, including a late white-throated sparrow and a late, orange-crowned warbler. There have been sightings of the tanager and warbler since last Saturday bringing dancing to birders not able to get to the area on Saturday.

A number of unusual birds seen in the weeks leading up to the Marquette CBC managed to remain in the area through Saturday to be added to the count including a Townsend’s solitaire feeding frequently on winterberry – Michigan holly, on the city’s east side, a harlequin duck seen regularly foraging in the rapids of the Carp River in south Marquette and an American wigeon hanging out with mallards in north Marquette near Hawley Street.

Several other late birds were also seen in north Marquette, A common yellowthroat, another warbler was found in the cattails along the Dead River near the end of Sawmill Court and nearby at a feeding station five late red-winged blackbirds were also seen. On the Dead River, a trio of river otters was also spotted, feeding on fish on the ice near the mallards.

The Lower Harbor in Marquette was also filled with great birds, especially gulls. Because it had been snowy and windy Friday night into Saturday morning the wander gull numbers may have been higher than on normal days, as can be the case in town in winter. Glaucous, iceland, greater black-backed and lesser black gulls were all spotted in the waters off Gaines Rock. The latter may be a first for the Marquette count. A common loon, horned grebe and a male hooded merganser were other unusual birds seen in the open water. In many past counts, the Lower Harbor has been frozen over making this sighting impossible. In the Upper Harbor and the lower end of the Dead River another common loon and a ring-necked duck were also found.

Most winter finches were also found for the Marquette count. Several small groups of pine grosbeaks, pine siskins and a scattering of common redpolls were also found. With another blast of colder air that came this week and a little more snow, some of these rarities may drift away, especially the warblers and ducks. It may just be too difficult for some of them to find enough to eat unless they can adapt to food at area feeding stations. None-the-less it is a great time to get out and look for the winter residents and the rarities hanging out with them to find a few of Nature’s winter presents. It could definitely be something to dance about.

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

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