Pictured is a black-throated blue warbler. (Scot Stewart photo)

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadows.” — Helen Keller

It is time to bask in summer sun. Just a week until the Fourth of July and what many consider the heart of the summer season. Seems like the fourth is also a marker for lots of other changes too. The length of the days seems to shorten just that little bit each day, not to a really noticeable change but a minute in the morning and a minute in the evening most days will begin to show soon. The days themselves seem to go just a little faster too after the fourth, hurtling all faster each day.

And for birders the early part of July marks the time when migrant birds seen passing through now the Upper Peninsula but don’t stay to nest in the summer are now southbound. This is particularly true for shorebirds — sandpipers and plovers. They travel some of the longest distances during migration and begin their southward move early if they reach the Arctic and due to a variety of conditions and situations are not able to complete a nesting cycle before the short summer ends there.

This past week saw some of the northbound birds or first southbound birds at Manistique where around half a dozen semipalmated and another half dozen least sandpipers were seen near the Lake Michigan boardwalk. An injured American golden-plover had also been there. But yet another amazing arrival there was found last Monday. A bar-tailed godwit was seen along the boardwalk several times. Godwits are larger, long-legged shorebirds with long sword-like bills. that are two-toned – pink with black tips and have bright chestnut-colored necks and chests in breeding plumage.

Normally bar-tailed godwits summer in Alaska and Scandinavia then make one of the longest flights to New Zealand and Australia for winter. All told, they have an 18,000 mile round trip for their yearly migration. In 2022 a male bar-tail was tracked by computer chip from Alaska to New South Wales on its 8430 mile fall non-stop trip, making it in just over 11 days! Their bodies have a rocket-shaped design for better aerodynamics, are light, and their brains are specially adapted to allow half sleep its brain to sleep at a time in flight. A sighting in the U.P. is phenomenal. Several birders were on the boardwalk early Wednesday morning looking again but at this writing the bird had not been relocated.

Elsewhere arounds the U.P. birding has been a little more routine, but still quite exciting. Whitefish Point is hosting spotted sandpipers, killdeer, and endangered piping plovers on the beaches, but little sign of other shorebirds. Most species of woodpeckers are now touring with fledged young. In Marquette, downy, hairy, red-bellied, and pileated woodpecker young are been spotted.

One of the U.P.’s biggest draws in summer for birders is its warblers. Across the northern tier of the Lower 48 it offers one of the greatest diversities of these beautifully colored birds. The central U.P. offers some of the best. Kirtland’s warbler, an endangered species is of course at the top of the list. Even around the city of Marquette more than a dozen can easily be found by birders getting out early in the morning most days.

American redstarts, common yellowthroats, ovenbirds, mourning, chestnut-sided, black-throated green, yellow, black-and-white, yellow-rumped, pine, blackburnian, Nashville, and northern parula warblers can usually be found, along with a few northern waterthrushes and black-throated blue warblers. Working from bogs, to conifer stands, through shrubby habitats, to mix woodlands can provide the greatest variety.

Unfortunately because warblers like working through treetops and leafy areas they are often hard top spot and more often are easier to find by song. Phone apps like “Merlin” can be exceptionally helpful in making initial identifications for the treetop songsters. Now that nesting is well underway, early mornings provide the best time to find them.

In many places including residential areas with a mix of trees American redstarts are one of the most common warblers in Marquette. Males are black with bright orange wings and rumps. Females are olive with yellow markings. Along Lake Shore Blvd. and along many lake edges yellow warblers are frequently heard. Their “Sweet, sweet, sweet, I’m so sweet’, as their call can be heard. At least four or five can be heard between Founders Landing and the U.S. Coast Guard Station. Males are solid lemon yellow with small bright red markings on their breasts.

In stands with larger white pine, like those along Lakeshore Blvd from McCarty Cove to its intersection with Pine Street pine warblers are frequent singers. They are also one of the most commonly heard warblers at Seney National Wildlife Refuge. They are also mostly yellow with olive-colored wings. In the shrubby drier areas, often at the edge of towns chestnut-sided warblers are frequently observed. Males are a bright mix of yellow, olive, black and white with chestnut flanks. In the shrubby edges of pond and wetlands common yellowthroat, with their black masks and yellow chests, and rarer northern waterthrushes in their brown stripes and brown caps can be found.

One of the brightest warblers, the blackburnian, with it orange head and throat, yellow, black, and white markings and the black-throated greens with their yellow heads can turn up on woodland edges of mixed forests. Northern parulas will be singing in hemlocks and other conifers with their distinguishing orangish upper back, chests and throats and grayish backs.

With the Upper Peninsula again having some of the mildest weather in the country so far this summer it is a great place, woods and shore alike to be out exploring.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is naturalist at the MooseWood Nature Center, a writer and photographer.