By SCOT STEWART

“Spring won’t let me stay in the house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.” – Gustav Mahler

There have been some days in the Upper Peninsula to assure all Spring has come. Nothing like a 70o+ day to make it feel like spring. It is the occasional snow flurries that cast a bit of doubt on how quickly it continues to roll in. The crocuses and daffodils are going well but much of the landscape is still struggling to break out. A few spring peepers started calling last Tuesday afternoon as the temperature soared in many areas.

But spring bird migration is still moving a little slowly. There have been some good signs. More than 30 ruby-throated hummingbird sightings had been reported on the Hummingbird Central 2025 Migration Map https://www.hummingbirdcentral.com/hummingbird-migration-spring-2025-map.htm as of Tuesday in the Upper Peninsula with the Lake Superior Regions coming in on May 5 at many locations. Several reports stated this was a day or two earlier than last year.

The hummingbirds nearly always come back to a near-barren land with few flowers opening. Some returning birds seem to remember the locations of hummingbird sugar water feeders from the previous summer and may suddenly show up in a yard or at a window looking for one, so birders should get them up if they are there already.

Hummingbirds may be on the lookout for sap wells made by yellow-bellied sapsuckers on willow and birch trees. They can provide a good source of sugars. Willows are currently blooming with their bright yellow anthers and pollen and will attract hummingbirds. Willows have both female and male flowers and both produce nectar. The flowers also attract early pollinators and nectar feeding insects. These insects will supply valuable protein for the birds as they replenish energy levels after migration and start to get ready for all the activities with territorial defense, mating, nest building, and reproduction.

Warblers are moving slowly, but yellow-rumps are moving along. At Whitefish Point there has been an impressive movement of yellow-rumped warblers moving through. On Sunday May 4th 37 were counted at the hawk platform by the raptor counter. On Monday 305 were seen there. The following day 129 more were counted during the eight -hour period the counter was there. Pine, palm, Cape May, black-throated blue, and Nashville are the other warblers starting to appear there. It was notable to see that on Wednesday the coolest day in the last few saw a sharp decrease in the warblers there.

Sandpipers are also arriving very slowly. Two of the early arrivals have been plovers. Killdeers arrived in mid-April and piping plovers on April 27 at Whitefish Point. Most all of the piping plovers seen at the Point will remain on the eastern end of Lake Superior or possibly head back south to the northern part of the Lower Peninsula. There have only been a few sightings of them on the northern shore of the Lake on the west end but no signs of nesting there. Killdeers are far more common and will be nesting soon. A pair was seen nesting in Chocolay Township last Tuesday. Other shorebirds seen in very low numbers in the U.P. so far are greater and lesser yellowlegs, solitary and spotted sandpipers, dunlin, and a willet at Whitefish Point.

Ducks continue to move through the area. Last weekend a large flock of over 80 redheads and scaup were seen in the Lower Harbor of Marquette. Smaller flocks of bufflehead have been seen on Lake Superior and smaller lakes and ponds too.

May is always a good time to look for vagrant migrators too. At the mouth of the Anna River an eared grebe was seen last Monday. Very similar in appearance to horned grebes seen during both spring and fall migration here, eared grebes have prominent tufts of black feathers sticking nearly straight up from the heads to help distinguish them from horned grebes, even at distance. Usually eared grebes appear singly here, despite the large flocks they often fly in. Harbors om Lake Superior are the best places to look for them.

Another vagrant seen this week has been a northern mockingbird at the old city compost area in Marquette off Lakeshore Blvd. Usually a few, again singly appear in the central and eastern U.P. each spring, stay a few days then probably head back south. This behavior is not easily understood, but it may simply be birds attempting to extend their range into areas with less competition. It may be the same behavior employed by red-bellied woodpeckers and other birds with more southerly ranges that have expanded them northward.

At Peninsula Point at the tip of the Stonington Peninsula on Lake Michigan, a loggerhead shrike was seen photographed May 6. 55 other species were reported by the observer getting great looks at this vagrant, also with a more southerly range. During the winter months northern shrikes migrate south from northern Canada and Alaska but they are nearly all moving back to their summer range and are larger than the loggerheads.

Some local birds are already preparing nests. Robins, gulls, cardinals, and house finches are constructing nests and all the songbirds are singing on territories on warm days. A walk on any day now will provide some really fresh air and great sights!