“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.” –Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

Red suns at noon have begun appearing as the winds from the west have shifted yet again to bring the smoke from devasting Canadian fires back again. Tuesday’s sun sat bright as a ruby in the sky until eight in the morning before it finally made it through the smoke and clouds enough to take on a bright yellow-orange hue.

The skies have continued on the same track as the wind, rain, and temperatures with both unusual occurrences and see-saw patterns to shape an amazing and new look at summer in the Upper Peninsula. Wild berries have seen a relatively bountiful crop for some, like serviceberries (sugar plums) and raspberries, but definitely late as many raspberries and blueberries are still working on ripening under the colder-than-normal conditions this summer.

Cedar waxwings have taken advantage of the serviceberries and pin cherries that have been a big plus for woodpeckers, including pileated woodpeckers, robins, and thrushes too. Mountain ash berries in town are transitioning toward their bright, deep orange hue, but their yellowish-orange color is drawing some attention already from robins and some warblers.

There has been a large number of warblers flocks seen in Marquette this past week. In a number of places in the U.S., birders have noted changes in the birds seen this summer, like warblers and crossbills. Part of these changes may be due to the forest fires in Canada this summer. In some of the latest data released, 11.5 million hectares, or 44,400 square miles of forest have already burned. Foresters are now saying some fires will not be extinguished until winter.

It will take some time to determine the long-term effects of this change to habitat for the summer residents of boreal forest birds like blackpoll, blackburnian, and Cape May warblers. The effects will last for years. Many warblers appear to have reversed course and have slowly headed back south. Crossbills have more flexibility in their nesting and may seek out other areas with good spruce cone crops to nest later in the year.

Larger than normal warbler flocks have been seen here – some young locally produced, but some adults may be already heading south from Quebec and other forests to the north that have already burned. Fall warblers seek out moths, caterpillars, and other insects in the canopy, but may also feed on berries of mountain ash and other fall crops. While they do not usually visit bird feeders, except occasionally suet baskets, they will stop at bird baths to drink and bathe and can be great places to SIT and watch warblers!

One of the great spectacles of mid-summer is the evening roosting activities of chimney swifts in the Midwest. After swift young have fledged groups gather in at dusk to roost in brick chimneys. Many towns in the U.P. featured these chimneys – in Marquette, the old auto dealership turned old vocational skill center at the corner of Rock and Front Street and the Landmark Hotel during a quieter time had these tall chimneys.

The Landmark Hotel was closed for a time in the 1980’s and hosted up to 400 swifts some nights during the summer. Small flocks would begin circling the chimney around 9:30 at night and would be joined by more and more until it became a huge cloud. Just after sundown it seemed like someone turned on a vacuum cleaner inside and the swifts were slowly pulled in, some diving straight down. That was when they could be counted and when counters now track current numbers.

Now, most of those chimneys have been torn down or capped and it has become more and more difficult to find roosting sites. One was located in Big Bay recently though, and 110 were counted!

As the nesting season winds down, there will be an uptick in the birds wandering here that are unusual and not normally found here at any time. On Tuesday a birder located five Eurasian tree sparrows in Copper Harbor in the Keweenaw. These birds do show up in the U.P. during migrations but are rarely seen here in summer. Twelve were introduced into Missouri from Germany in 1870, but most have remained in a small area there since. One of the sparrows seen in Copper Harbor appears to be a juvenile, indicating breeding may have occurred for the first time in Michigan.

A new bird species wandered into Delta County, a roseate spoonbill, last Thursday, July 27. It stopped off briefly at a backyard pond before flying off. There was another sighting of a spoonbill in Lower Michigan July 21 in Jackson County that could have been the same bird. Another was seen near Buffalo, New York on July 23. Slightly smaller than great blue herons spoonbills are one of the most unique looking species of wading birds in the U.S. with bright pink breeding plumage, red wing patches, and broad, flat bills for straining the water for small invertebrates and plant material. It is yet another reason to get out and see what’s flying.

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