A family of trumpeter swans on the Dead River is pictured. (Scot Stewart photo)

“My beloved October has returned–with its brilliant colors, cool temperatures and sunny, cloudless, azure skies, and I must enjoy it before it escapes for another year.” — Peggy Toney Horton

Another week into the month of October and it really doesn’t feel a whole like autumn yet. Sure, there have been a couple of cool day, what with north winds and all, and true, there have also been some mentions of the white, stuff in the highlands where the temperatures have been the coldest. But with a few 70s days still popping, a few colder days have not wrung in the truth about the date.

As the temperatures continued to remain above normal some parts of bird migration slowed again. At Whitefish Point flocks of red-breasted mergansers and long-tailed ducks did drop off considerably, possibly due to the warm weather, but a number of really great birds did turn up there this past week. An immature red-headed woodpecker spent several days at the bird feeders. Young red-headeds don’t have their red heads yet but are mostly black with white wing patches like adults and have speckled breasts. Double digit numbers of pine siskins are being seen on many days. One eBird reports showed five blue-gray gnatcatchers during a short visit.

The best bird from this past week there though was an American barn owl seen between the parking lot and the tip of the point last Wednesday. Barn owls were thought to be extinct in Michigan with the last sighting in 1983, until another showed up in Lower Michigan in 2012. Today they are extremely rare, considered endangered in the state with only occasional sightings in two counties in the southeastern part of the L.P. They have been seen twice in the Marquette area in the past few years. Unfortunately, that area along the Lake Superior shoreline is now being developed and construction of condominiums is underway.

A boreal owl was also found at Whitefish Point this past week. This small handsome owl has a permanent range from north of Lake Superior across most of the southern part of Canada and interior Alaska in the boreal forests of aspen, birch, and spruce. Only occasionally are they reported in the U.P., usually during the early winter months.

Birding in Marquette has also offered some interesting species. A pair of trumpeter swans with their three young offspring spent nearly a week again in the Dead River Marshes upstream from the Lakeshore Blvd. bridge. American coots, a bufflehead, at least one black duck, and a great blue heron have also been found there.

On Monday the 21st a northern shrike was found near the entrance of the Bog Walk at Presque Isle perched on a telephone. In late fall these predaceous songbirds migrate south from the tundra and overwinter in open areas where small songbirds and rodents are abundant. The former city compost area and the closed Marquette landfill have been two areas in the past where they often spend extended periods in the city during the winter months after arriving in the area. They are also frequently found during winter months in the open fields of the eastern U.P. south of the Soo. Another northern shrike was found at the Portage Point this year, also on the 21st.

Their summer range runs across the tundra of Canada and Alaska and their winter range in the boreal forest of Canada. Their winter range often extends down into much of the northern tier of the U.S. They travel alone and are nearly always seen singly.

They are remarkable in that they do not have talons, only a hooked beak to secure and subdue their prey, eventually pinning it on thorns or in the forks of tree branches. Younger birds seem to be more prevalent, perhaps because prey may be more common where competition is less.

Near the ice cream stand at Presque Isle a flock of crows put up an incredible squawk this past Tuesday at dinnertime. Literally. A check of the area revealed a peregrine falcon with a fresh meal at hand. The falcon eventually moved off the road and back to the area near the band shell, carrying its prey. Peregrines have spent much of the summer in the area around Presque Isle. They will be heading southward to the middle states around the time of the first snows. Crows and jays are often a great way to find raptors like eagles, hawks and falcons, as well as owls and even foxes.

Some good news for birders in Marquette came when the north side of the Dead River mouth was reopened to the public with what appears to be the completion of most of the shore restructuring work near the river. While the beach there lacks the longer stretch of the river edge, and the wet beach areas, it does have a good stretch of sand along the lake edge currently lined with a large amount of aquatic plant bits.

Small groups of lapland longspurs have been seen foraging along the beach there when dog walkers are not present, and some American tree sparrows have been foraging in the beach grass nearby. American pipits, horned larks, and snow buntings are other bird species that may be seen there and elsewhere where there are good supplies of weed seeds and lingering insects. Through the middle of this past week there were still good numbers of grasshoppers, flies, dragonflies and other insects being found.

With the cooler weather to come more changes in much of the area’s wildlife will be coming during this great transition time.

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