An American wigeon is shown. (Scot Stewart photo)

“How did it get so late so soon?” — Dr. Seuss

It is that time of year when it seems to get dark so early in the afternoon! Next Monday is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The sun will rise at 8:30 a.m. and sent at 5:05 p.m. with 8 hours, 34 minutes, and 11 seconds of daylight.

The 20th is a second longer, and the 22nd is 4 seconds longer. Subtle differences, but the important one is that second longer, at least in everyone’s minds.

After next Monday, the days start getting longer again!

The short days make bird watching all the more challenging. Not only are the days short, but with the low angle of the sun, the light levels are definitely lower.

Visibility is lower, but on the sunny days, the photography can be great.

Tomorrow will be the Christmas Bird Count — the 121st national count, and about the 75th for Marquette. Birders can still contact Melinda Stamp, mstamp@mstamp.net to get field count information or use this form, form, http://www.upbirders.org/cbc_mqt_feeder_form_10.pdf to record stationary feeder sightings for the count and forward them to Stamp.

The Marquette CB will count all the birds seen and heard during the 24-hour period of Dec. 19, in a circle with a 7.5-mile radius of the old City Hall building in downtown Marquette.

A count will also include birds seen during the week around Saturday to include rarities and local species known to be in the area, but not seen that day for the “Count Week.”

Occasionally the Count Day falls on a day with extremely increment weather and some birds get missed due to poor conditions or limited numbers of counters able to make it out into the field.

This year stands a good chance to include some rarer birds on the Marquette County not usually seen in December. Two are ducks.The harlequin duck found on the Carp River last month was relocated this week, still foraging in the rapids about a quarter mile upstream from the mouth. This female is considerable far from her normal winter range on the northern Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. These ducks do occasionally pass through the area in migration, but rarely stay more than a week or so, and not usually this late into winter.

An American wigeon, a dabbling duck found in shallower waters of the southern half of the U.S. and the West Coast, has also remained in the area for an extended stay. It has been feeding with mallards near the mouth of the Dead River, in a small pond and creek, and occasionally the river itself.

With the temperatures now dropping the way they are, ducks will be more limited in their feeding sites and may be forced to start heading farther south. A redhead duck seen in the Escanaba area may face a similar fate in the coming day.

Those participating in local CBC’s will hope these birds hang on for at least a few more days so they may be added to their counts.

Another out-of-towner currently in the Marquette area is a Townsend’s solitaire. This grayish relative of the robin has white eye-rings, small bill and buffy marking under the wings. Normally found in the Rocky Mountains region of the western states, their winter range can extend eastward into the western portions of the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas.

Winter vagrants are known to make semiregular excursions into the Great Lakes Region in winter. They usually feed on fruity cones of juniper, crab apples, mountain ash and winterberry. One has been seen several times on the east side of Marquette feeding in a winterberry (Michigan holly, Ilex).

Snowy owls have been showing up occasionally in the Marquette area too. There have been two reports of one on the Lower Harbor Breakwall this winter, and a new report was made on Tuesday of one flying over U.S. 41 in Marquette Township.

The diet of snowy owls in Marquette can include cottontail rabbits, mice, pigeons, small ducks and even other owls. Along the bypass in Marquette rabbits make up a surprising part of their diet.

Unfortunately working along the highway catching rabbits and rodents as they run across an open highway can come at a cost as they always lose their battles with vehicles on the same path.

There are still plenty of winter finches and grosbeaks in the area, although flocks are generally smaller with 2-9 more common sizes of groups. In places like the PEIF parking lot near the corner of Third and Fair pine grosbeaks have appeared nearly every day for the past two weeks feeding on crab apples along the parking area.

No grosbeaks were present there last Sunday.

Birders are not the only ones noticing their regular presence there. A merlin swept under the row of trees at in a flash looking for possible prey, they flew into the same cedar hedge where robins and grosbeaks have gone to digest their fruity meals.

Definitely making birding there far more interesting.

Birders at Presque Isle will have another active site to watch for merlins as the feeders at the MooseWood Nature Center have been returned to action this past week. It is a popular spots for chickadees, blue jays woodpeckers and winter finches during the cold weather months.

So, don’t let the early darkness keep be deterrent get out early and look for all the current avian guests in the area.

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