This winter has been filled with ironies. This past week saw a delightful string of beautiful, sunny, unseasonably warm days. Snow melted, lake ice gleamed, and fresh, spring-like sounds of birds filled the air. Herring gulls have continued in Marquette through the winter, with the help of open Lake Superior waters through most of this time and a friendly buffet at the local landfill. They have been joined this week by visitors from around the Great Lakes, including a glaucous and a greater black gull.

The afternoons have seen over 300 gulls resting and bathing on and around Picnic Rocks. The Rocks themselves are a bit too far out for easy identification, especially now while still covered in snow. While a great set of binoculars can help, a spotting scope, a lower power telescope, is really better to distinguish the different species as they turn to different angles, making some of the key features, especially wing markings difficult to see. During this time of year, floating ice, and short-term skims of ice formed overnight closer to the shore, can provide the gulls with more space to rest. These sites often bring the gulls closer and provide better looks. During recent clear, warm mornings the calls of the gulls have been quite noticeable along the east side shoreline.

During the winter many gulls move south from the northern latitudes in search of open water. Many drift south to the eastern Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Niagara Falls is often a hotspot for some of the more unusual species often stay. As the winter begins to warm, some of these more northerly gulls wander through the Great Lakes and occasionally stop in Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette. Usually there are only small numbers here at any one time, but on occasion, they can be found in Marquette in surprising numbers.

Around 10 years ago the channel between Picnic Rocks and the parking lot there filled with masses of floating ice. More than a dozen Iceland and glaucous gulls settled in for several days with the herring gulls. Birds from across the area stopped to enjoy the close-up views. Glaucous gulls and Iceland gulls breed on the coasts of parts of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Great black-backed gulls summer along the Atlantic Coast of the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Other gulls seen less frequently include lesser black-backed gulls and rare slaty-backed gulls. One ivory gull made it to Marquette during a Christmas Bird Count more than 30 years ago. A number of small gulls, Frankli, Bonaparte’s, little, Sabine’s gulls and black-legged kittiwakes are other gulls seen in the area during spring and fall migration between breeding areas and wintering ranges farther south of Michigan.

STEWART

Soon the small ring-billed gulls will be returning to the south shore of Lake Superior. They will set up housekeeping on the Picnic Rocks, and the herring gulls will move to Ripley’s Rock downtown and Gull and Granite Islands north of town to nest.

Large congregations of gulls have also been noted at Dafter Landfill in Chippewa County and the Wood Island landfill in Munising. 200 herring gulls and one glaucous gull were found recently at Dafter and 240 were seen in Munising. Bald eagles and ravens are also commonly seen at all three landfills, and red-tailed hawks can be seen in Dafter.

Other sounds of spring were also heard on those recent warm mornings as at least four male northern cardinals were proving their “cheer’ cheer, cheer” songs from the U.S. Coast Guard station area back a few blocks into the east side. There is nothing quite like a few early morning songs to start the day in mid-February. Accompanying them were the staccato drummings of several hairy and downy woodpeckers in the same area. On Presque Isle two pileated woodpeckers were also heard dueling with their deep drumming near the ice cream shop. House finches will be heard soon to as they join the early spring chorus.

With the warmer weather and high winds some opening have appeared on the lower part of the Dead River in Marquette providing for the return of mallards there during the daytime. They have been joined by the American black ducks, common goldeneyes, and hooded mergansers.

Perhaps the best signs of the season have come from the shore of Lake Superior between the Coast Guard Station and the start of the Lower Harbor Breakwall. As spring winds stir up, they begin to push sheet ice around, sometime out into the middle of the lake and then back to shore.

With strong winds, pieces of clear sheet ice get stacked along the shore. A recent accumulation appeared in the small bay there this past week, creating stacks looking like library books ready to be turned to their places on the shelves. As the sun rose each morning the reflected light from both blue skies and coral-orange skies reflected from the beautiful uneven jigsaw puzzled of ice.

The still morning provided a feast for the eyes, only enhanced by pairs of common mergansers fishing and flying over the open waters. Better still, are the passes by the bald eagles on their morning runs as they search for the first meals of the day. There are few greater morning scenes to start a day with than those along the Lake Superior shore punctuated by a few graceful ducks and a bald eagle! It’s been a brief respite before bouncing back to WINTER!