It was a bit surprising to some residents in the area the official snowfall total from the National Weather Service earlier this week was above average for the year. It was about 10 inches above the average, catching some off guard, considering the relatively low amount the area has received recently. The freeze-thaw fluctuations have left the snow on the ground fairly crusty on the surface, but surprisingly friable and granular below the surface when that crust is broken in some places, but snow levels are definitely dropping.

Birding has seemed to be fairly slow in many areas recently. In Marquette, there have been a few interesting gulls along the Lake Superior shoreline mingling with the 300+ herring gulls also here. A greater black-backed gull was seen at Picnic Rocks this past week and three glaucous gulls were spotted near the old Shiras Steam Plant in south Marquette. There have been no reports yet of ring-billed gulls, the small gulls that nest on the Picnic Rocks each summer. Their arrival should begin happening very soon, probably by this weekend when the temperatures are supposed to soar.

A flock of cedar waxwings continues to feed in crab apple trees in Marquette. About 15 have been seen in the southwest part of town sporadically and smaller groups have also been seen. In Chippewa County, seven were seen Saturday in Sault Ste. Marie. The waxwings seek out mountain ash trees and crab apple trees with smaller apples still on the branches. Because they will nest here in summer, some of the waxwings may remain here into the spring, but some or all of these may simply be wintering here where is still some food available before heading back north to their summer homes across Lake Superior in Canada.

South of the Sault, at the Dafter Landfill, there was plenty of activity with large numbers continuing with the birds there. Last Sunday birders found 30 common ravens, 50 crows, seven bald eagles and even one great horned owl present during the daytime, sitting out in the sun! While many birds like eagles crows, ravens and gulls have developed a reliance on discarded food at landfills to sustain them in winter, the owl would have been looking for animals like mice and even raccoons foraging in the landfill to eat.

Scot Stewart

Back in Marquette, there also have been multiple eagle sightings, but of a slightly different sort — out on the ice of Lake Superior. The lake ice has been ephemeral this winter, appearing during the extreme cold snaps, but disappearing as soon as the temperatures rise back up to the 30s and there is a bit of wind. In Marquette’s Lower Harbor the ice edge has been located out between the end of the concrete portion of the breakwall and Shiras Steam Plant. On several occasions a group of six bald eagles has been seen sitting there, and on at least one occasion seven were reported. The group may have been an adult pair and young from the past two or three years.

Eagles need four years to full mature into adults with their white heads and tails. A single immature eagle has been observed sitting in a large tree on the ridge across Lakeshore Blvd, from Mattson Park on the lake. Single eagles have also been seen this past week at the Republic Mine and Deer Lake, both in Marquette County.

On the east side of Marquette, pileated woodpeckers have been busy seeking out carpenter ants and wood boring beetles and wasps this winter. A large number of older sugar maples have been the targets of the insects, seeking out dying branches, and the woodpeckers, working through the softer, dead wood where the insects live. In the early 1980s, a similar development occurred involving red maple trees in the same neighborhood. The insects seek out the dying wood, where the trees no longer are able to produce chemicals to fend off the insects, usually following the declining health or actual death of branches and occasionally portions of trunks. The large oval openings in the trunks and branches, and the piles of wood chips below them are the easy to find clues of where these large woodpeckers have been foraging.

Birds will definitely be on the move in the coming weeks. No reports of Marquette’s northern hawk owl have appeared on birding websites this week, and if it is still here, it will probably be heading north soon. The aforementioned ring-billed gulls are usually one of the first migrant species noticed in Marquette, but peregrine falcons and other early birds are sure to be right behind. A northern saw-whet owl was heard singing in the area this week and a female rose-breasted grosbeak was seen on the Dead River Basin, an early migrant for sure! Mourning doves, chickadees and house finches are singing up an early morning storm in Marquette and woodpeckers are being heard more every day. The maple sap is running and the snow that is falling is melting fast. Spring is on its way.

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