The connections between environment and the lives of plants and animals continue to become a bit more complex and occasionally a little clearer. The latest example has been a variety of large wading birds wander north into the Upper Midwest this summer. A number of birds found more commonly along the Gulf Coast has wandered around the Lower Great Lakes and Pennsylvania recently. The sightings have included a roseate spoonbill in Pennsylvania, first in the state since 1968, a white ibis in Illinois, two wood storks, one in Illinois and one near Jackson, Michigan, and several new sightings of neotropical cormorants after several earlier this spring. Yellow-crowned nightherons, relatively rare herons with a range extending farther north to the middle of the eastern states have also appeared in Pennsylvania and Lower Michigan.

At least one suggested explanation for this movement is the extreme southern states had a dry spring, followed by heavy rains in some areas, making feeding for wading birds like herons, ibises and stocks difficult. Earlier this summer extreme heat in the southwest was blamed for the northward forays of some bird species too.

Flycatchers have been another group with wanderers this summer. A fork-tailed flycatcher popped up earlier this month in Delta County, just seven months after only the second Michigan sighting ever was reported. This came just ten days before another a scissor-tailed flycatcher was reported in Alger County. On June 6, one was seen in Chatham near the MSU farm. The second sighting was not far off, along M-94 about six miles west of Munising. Little research has been done on the travels of vagrant birds to know how they fare once they get so far off course. Some do perish, especially in winter, like a vermillion flycatcher that ended up in Big Bay, in northern Marquette County, a few years back, and a black-throated gray warbler near Stephenson in Menominee County two winters back.

For most other birds, their ultimate success, destination, and outcome are rarely known. Theories for vagrancy include misdirection by storms and other climatic conditions, poor navigational skills and natural dispersion from large populations or from territories with poor conditions. Several recent studies though are now pointing to changes in climate as a cause for vagrancy. In Europe and Asia scientists have noted the expanded range of common cuckoos into Alaska and brown-headed cowbirds from North America into Europe. In the U.S., a Cornell Lab of Ornithology study focused on purple gallinules. In both cases, researchers pointed to warmer temperatures and drier conditions as possible explanations for the birds’ increased movements. When populations increase the number of vagrants also increases. Birders will definitely watch continued research to learn more.

Scot Stewart

While the reports birders are sharing around the Upper Peninsula has slowed down, some good birds are being seen. At Sugar Island ferry docks two black-crowned nightherons were seen recently and there are other reports of more along the St. Mary’s River between Michigan and Ontario. They are found across the Upper Peninsula, but their numbers have dwindled over the years here for unknown reasons.

At Whitefish Point in Chippewa County this week three new piping plover chicks were seen on the beach July 18. Part of the beach there is made of wonderfully round pebbles worn down by the water. It is precisely this part of the shoreline the plovers seek, as they create shallow depressions in the pebbles to make their primitive nests. Two willets and two American kestrels were also found at the point that day, a prelude to the upcoming fall migration.

In Marquette, a quartet of adult evening grosbeaks made a surprise appearance at feeders on the east side of town near McCarty Cove. The three males and a female spent most of the morning in the area feeding on black oil sunflower seeds. No juveniles were seen with them.

Young birds are making news south of Marquette along the Mangum Road-County Road BH-Green Garden Road loop. A number of years ago turkeys were released on Mangum Road. With feeding stations at several residences to help them through the winter, the flocks thrived and spread out from the release point. Recently two all-white poults, young turkeys, were seen along the loop. It is not known if the released birds were pure-bred wild turkeys.

Today the most common domestic turkey is the broad breasted white, a breed developed for its small breast bone and large breasts, providing more meat. These turkeys are white, lacking pigmentation in their feathers. Aztec Indians selectively bred albino turkeys from wild and early Europeans took these birds back to them back to Austria and Holland where they were favored. A number of different varieties have been developed from these early strains, as consumer preference was for larger amounts of meat and lighter, cleaner looking meat. Today nearly all the domestic turkeys in this country are related to the broad breasted white variety. Somewhere in the past these wild poults had white turkeys in their family tree, but where?

Science continues to play an important role in our pastimes and makes attempts to explain better what we see. And what we see is often amazing.

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