A Townsend’s solitaire is shown. (Scot Stewart photo)

“The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul.” – Shanna Rodriguez

“Some souls just understand each other upon meeting.” – N.R. Hart

Winter in Marquette creates plenty of opportunities to make new friends. It is the time when most all the summer resident birds have migrated south, or have just given up on the idea, but migration does continue through most of the winter. Called longitudinal migration, it is the movement of birds east and west, rather than north and south, although there is some of that going on here too. The result is a chance to make some new friends with birds who may be seeing humans for the very first time and are still trying to figure them out. They can become close friends quickly!

Here in the Upper Peninsula, crab apple tree watching season during the winter, is in full gear. They offer lots of opportunities to find new friends as there are hundreds of pine grosbeaks current feeding in the U.P. in them and mountain ash. Bohemian waxwings are about as well, some in some large flocks of over 100 birds. That is why birders have cruised through parts of area in towns where the trees are, looking for these species and others.,

There has been another bird, a longitudinal migrator, in Marquette that has drawn lots of attention too. A Townsend’s solitaire continued to appear in two pairs of crab apple trees at the edge of the cemetery near the Dead River over the past two weeks drawing dozens of birders interested in seeing it and adding it to their year’s bird list. Townsend’s solitaires are thrushes of the western states with a winter range rarely reaching past the western border of Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri. They have a history of wandering into the Midwest during the winter months and have been reported in the U.P. fairly regularly over the past ten years.

This individual has been hunkered down in two pairs of trees in the cemetery for most days over the past two weeks, flushing to large oaks across the street on occasion, and off far to the north at night. It has quietly shared the trees with several pine grosbeaks, including a pair and at least one other, but has given way briefly on occasion to a large flock of over 100 bohemian waxwings. There are several small ornamental conifers that may provide shelter for the solitaire during the day.

Solitaires may feed exclusively on fleshy juniper cones back in their usual winter range and can aggressively defend a winter territory against other solitaires. In previous years solitaires visiting Marquette have been seen in crab apple and mountain ash trees feeding but long-term feeding sites have usually been in junipers like the ones near the breakwall at Presque Isle and several juniper clusters around W. Fair and Harden Circle. This bird’s tolerance of the slightly larger pine grosbeaks is interesting. The small-billed solitaire may be feeding on partially eaten larger crab apples left by the grosbeaks, picking at the remains, rather than trying to attack intact fruits. Two of the trees at this current site are virtually devoid of fruit.

The waxwings and grosbeaks have helped strip much of the fruit from the other two trees also. While there are other crab apples in the opening, they are basically stand-alone trees. It will be interesting to see where the solitaire turns next for feeding. There are dozens, if not hundreds of crab apple and mountain ash trees on the nearby streets just south of Wright Street but the junipers previous mentioned off W. Fair Avenue are close too. Unfortunately, the junipers require three years for their cones to mature to the nearly black ripeness, and many off Fair look to be at least year away from being mature. Fruited mountain ash and crabs trees are nearby, but a hungry male robin has already found one of the best mountain ash trees and was seen there last weekend.

With the other frugivores – fruit eaters clamoring for food in the frigid weather, many of the prime trees, especially those away from traffic are being stripped quickly. There frequently seems to be an order to the way birds go through the fruit trees in Marquette. Safety is definitely a priority. Trees away from busy roads, especially ones not travelled by trucks, buses and poorly mufflered vehicles are attractive, and ones with taller trees nearby with safer perches and conifers with cover from the wind are also very desirable. But there are also strong preferences for certain sizes of fruits, smaller ones for waxwings, robins and even other birds like starlings, cardinals and house finches and some larger crab apples the grosbeaks attack. It is difficult to find research with studies of other factors like taste, carbohydrate, water, and other nutrient content preferences.

Elsewhere, Chippewa County continues to provide excellent birding opportunities. Snowy owls are still being found in the open species in the Rudyard-Pickford area, along with northern shrikes, rough-legged hawks, snow buntings and pine grosbeaks all seen in a variety of areas. Another golden eagle was located last Tuesday over the Dunbar Forest. This is a great winter birding area near the Charlotte River northeast of the town of Barbeau. Feeding stations in the area regularly attract a great variety of winter finches like redpolls, plus plenty of permanent birds like chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers, including red-bellies. Plenty of great places around to meet new friends!

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