“Then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer, with never a thought of sorrow. The old goes out, but the young year, Comes merrily in tomorrow.” — Emily Miller

It is with mixed feelings 2022 comes to a quiet, snowy end in the Upper Peninsula. It was a chance for the matters that count, family and friends, to get back closer to what was known before COVID-19. The world continues to struggle with global warming and its effects — stronger storms, seesaw temperatures in the U.P. more tropical storms, more melting glaciers, so challenges continue.

Surprises in the natural world continue in the U.P. as these new conditions continue to shape the World and bring new events to dissect, study and contemplate. The year’s weather continued to provide unusual conditions to go with some amazing birding events this year.

Marquette had a vagrant in for the start of winter as a Townsend’s solitaire turned up in the Holy Cross Cemetery in north Marquette at the first of the year. It is a member of the thrush family with a normal winter range extending to the east side of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas. They do have a reputation for wandering farther east and have made it to Marquette and other places in the U.P. in the past fairly.

This one found a small set of crab apple trees and settled in for a stay of over two months. It was joined from time to time by a small flock of pine grosbeaks, another out-of-town species making irregular winter visits to the U.P. Birders from across wide area headed into the cemetery for a glimpse of the solitaire and most days, especially in late January and early February, it was there. When the crab apples ran out at the end of February it moved on, but one was seen for a day near Presque Isle on March 14.

Dozens of pine grosbeaks took advantage of the vast number of crab apple trees in town to keep at least some of the grosbeaks here until early March. Pine grosbeaks are basically Canadian birds with some summering up the Rockies north to Alaska and south to Colorado. The grosbeaks and the solitaire weren’t the only ones interested in the bounty of winter food available. Right after the solitaire and grosbeaks arrived, a third species, the bohemian waxwing, arrived.

Bohemians were seen in the central U.P the second week of January and remained until early March.

They are another fruit eater dropping southward from the middle of Canada where they summer. That range does extend westward into Alaska too and southward into Alberta and British Columbia. They are sometimes called lateral migrators because of their west to east migration, although some do move southward from Hudson Bay.

The waxwing population in the central U.P. built-up throughout January. On Feb. 3, a flock of over 1,000 arrived in south Marquette moving through crab trees, quickly stripping most in a matter of 15 minutes or so. They did split into smaller flocks most of the time to reduce congestion in the trees they visited. Some were seen in Marquette through the start of March.

The winter months of 2022 also saw a large number white-winged crossbills. Even greater numbers of common redpolls descended into the Marquette where a good number of feeding stations that each drew 100+ birds daily. These “winter finches” are boreal birds dropping down to the south when conifer and birch crops are small, and they search out better food sources. To the east, in Chippewa County, snowy owls were the big story. Dozens were seen in the Pickford-Rudyard Loop. This has long been a great spot for owls in winter as they move southward along the east side of Lake Superior and find happy hunting grounds in the open fields south of the Soo.

Marquette had its own snowy owl last winter when one arrived just before Thanksgiving near Harlow Park. It wandered along the Washington Street corridor for a week or so before settling in just south of the business district and the park. It disappeared in January and may have been the one seen again in mid-March in the same area.

March also saw several visits by trumpeter swans on the Dead River in west Marquette. Two, and occasionally three visited a number of times and seemed quite tame. They appeared to be familiar with feeding practices and came right up to individuals if they thought they might be fed.

Spring was ushered in by a very special bird seen on a small lake in northern Marquette County. A nearly all white bald eagle showed up on the frozen lake where a deer carcass had been attracting several other eagles. It was not a true albino – but was a leucistic bird with slightly brown wings. Quite shy, it only offered a few close-up looks. After several visits to the lake, it was not seen again there, but did appear on another lake for a short time later in the month.

Spring got underway as the ice began melting off the lakes. One of the best shows was not on a lake but mitigation pond at the Lakeshore Blvd. roundabout near Wright Street. A frequent stop for mallards, it drew a changing number of northern shovelers, beautiful dabbling ducks, rare here during migration, but similar to the mallards in their looks. It was the start of a great spring!

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