Waterfowl touching down at Six Mile Lake recently included a pair of Canada geese, above, and a hooded merganser couple. These waterfowl were in Six Mile Creek, which is ice-free, but this week’s expected warmup should open pools where creeks feed into and out of the lake, along with around the edges. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — The pace of spring migration has already picked up and likely will kick into overdrive with the jump in temperatures in the region this week.

The first few red-winged blackbirds and common grackles have become the usual noisy horde, dominating the bird feeder and loudly announcing their presence. American robins, too, have been easy to hear and see in number, although they probably don’t like the deep blanket of snow that got thrown over the formerly fairly bare hillsides and yards last weekend.

Canada geese, mallard ducks and now hooded mergansers are back at Six Mile Lake as well. Though mostly on the creek for now, they should see the pool on the other side of the lake outlet open up substantially. As the lake ice cap shrinks, it also creates a lane along the shoreline where the waterfowl can paddle around the perimeter.

With temperatures expected to soar into the 70s by Tuesday and remain there for much of the week — Wednesday should be upper 70s — the resulting runoff should extend the wedge of open water where Solberg Creek enters, further drawing in waterfowl.

Sandhill cranes again are calling from a nearby marsh. A male northern harrier — a large, slender hawk in which the males have a distinctive gray and white plumage that earns them the nickname “the gray ghost” — was cruising with V-shaped wings over a field at Six Mile Lake on Friday.

It is most owl-like of the native hawks, with facial disks that function much like owls, to channel that sounds of rodents in grass or under snow. Like most of the early migrants, harriers don’t go far to winter, only to the southern or lower Plains states and central America.

Recent arrivals at the backyard feeders include dark-eyed juncos and pine siskins, both drawn to the thistle seed put out earlier for the American goldfinches, which are turning yellow again after the drab olive and grays of winter. Evening grosbeaks, too, made a brief return to the yard, after showing up in good numbers in the region earlier in the winter, then disappearing.

Unexpectedly absent so far are any of the sparrow species but that figures to change in the next week.

The Upper Peninsula Birding Facebook page had reports of northern flickers and yellow-bellied sapsuckers, both migratory woodpeckers. The past week also saw some of the year’s first images of yellow-rumped warblers posted on the Facebook page, including a nice photo Thursday from Penny Bruce in Crystal Falls.

The small, plump yellow-rumped warblers are always fun to see, but especially in spring, when the males sport bright yellow patches and streaks of black and white against gray.

Though warblers as a family tend to migrate later, the yellow-rumped is well-known for following the “first back, last to leave” pattern. That’s due to the bird having a unique adaptation among its kind.

According to Cornell University’s All About Birds website, www.allaboutbirds.org, “The Yellow-rumped Warbler is the only warbler able to digest the waxes found in bayberries and wax myrtles. Its ability to use these fruits allows it to winter farther north than other warblers, sometimes as far north as Newfoundland.”

The warblers posted on Facebook both were feeding on suet, which can be an important food source for early migrating birds that are not seed eaters. So make sure the suet baskets are well stocked, though it’s also the time of year to bring them indoors in the evening and re-hang them in the morning. We’ve already had suet raids by raccoons when they were mistakenly left out overnight.

It’s anticipated eastern phoebes could be back in the next week, if not sooner.