A long-tailed duck is shown. (Scot Stewart photo)

“The clear light that belongs to October was making the landscape radiant.” — Florence Bone

Clearing the dust and smoke from the air, washing down a summer’s worth of dirt on leaves, this week’s rain has brought a brief resurgence of new life and brightness to the Upper Peninsula landscape. Mushrooms and other fungi had already made a mad dash to show themselves before freezing temperatures set in and now they are really popping up. Some late asters and other flowers also burst into late bloom making the still very active yellow jacket wasps happy to find more food. It seems as though the area wanted to leave a good impression on all the migrant birds still headed south, reminding them of the wonder of this place and to come back soon. 

While migration has definitely wound down, there are still lots of interesting birds in the area and moving through. A nice wave of sparrows has begun to pick up.

Many birds, live sparrows and geese seem to have been slowed by the mild weather.

Dark-eyed juncos have been showing up in small flock, with half a dozen flitting around at the top of Mount Marquette last Sunday. Individuals have been seen with flocks of white-throated sparrows a many sites in the central U.P. too. 26 juncos were seen at Whitefish Point Oct. 12 along with white-throated, song, Lincoln’s and white-crowned sparrows. A single Harris’s sparrow was seen at Portage Point on Oct. 11.

There have not been many ducks stopping at the Dead River in Marquette yet, but there has been lots of activity there, especially in the wide waters just above the river mouth. Several lesser scaup have been there, with continuing wood ducks and hooded mergansers and the ubiquitous Canada geese and mallards. What has made the birding there a bit more interesting is the supporting cast. A pair of sandhill cranes there have been joined by a sora, a pair of American coots and a pied-billed grebe.

Pied-belled grebes, small waterbirds, are occasionally seen in the U.P. during summer, usually on small lakes and large ponds, but for the coots, all black waterbirds with white bills, birders usually have to get closer to Wisconsin to find them. The sora was the toughest to find. It is a very secretive rail, more often seen than heard Some nest in the area but they prefer to stay in thick water-edge vegetation like cattails.

Some sandhill cranes are hanging around, possibly due to the milder weather and the ability to forage with no snow or freezing temperatures. This past week ten were caught still hanging around Lake Independence near Big Bay. In times past cranes seemed to clear out of most of the central U.P. around September 15, when the small game hunting season started, so it is great to see some of them still here during this warm October.

As is often the case, the birding at Whitefish Point in the eastern U.P. is among the best. On Wednesday there were close to 40 species seen. Highlights for the week have included 54 horned larks Oct. 12, 15 species of ducks, including all three species of scoters, lots of red-throated and common loons, 45 purple finches in a day and a handful of peregrine falcons.

Turkey vultures have been prolific in the U.P. this year. On Oct. 10, 21 were seen taking off from the Lake Superior shore near Deer Lake in Alger County. This area, near Christmas, has been a favored vulture hangout since they started being regularly seen in the U.P. They have probably been able to stick around a bit longer this fall because of that warmer weather too.

Both ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets still seem to be out in bigger numbers with nearly 30 seen at Portage Point in the Stonington Peninsula this week. There still traces of warblers about too. Palm, yellow-rumped and even a Tennessee were seen in Delta County near at the points on Lake Michigan.

In north Marquette County a flock of 20 yellow-rumps were seen on Oct. 13 near Halfway Location.

The yellow-rumps are among the hardiest of the warblers and have appeared on several Marquette Christmas Bird Counts. They are adaptable and can forage for suet and smaller berries to feed through places where insects are limited or absent.

Shorebirds seem to keep coming too. Flocks of half a dozen have been seen at the mouth of the AuTrain River in Alger County and at Whitefish Point. In the mix with them have been dunlin, semipalmated and black-bellied plovers.

Merlins and peregrines seem to pop up wherever the shorebirds are found, keeping most of them on the move, but raising the possibility of watchable encounters. Usually shorebirds flushed from beaches head out over open water where they may blend in better to escape falcons.

Northern cardinals have made some impressive visits to Marquette areas feeders as it appears a new batch of young may be just fledging.

It has been an impressive sight to find males still molting into new winter plumage, joined by some older male youngsters, possibly from an earlier clutch just starting to get some adult red feathers and very new young looking much like their mother, excepting their brown bills instead of the bright orange ones.

It has been a real treat for birders to see cardinals doing so well in various U.P. towns! They just add to all the bright colors of fall.

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