An indigo bunting is shown. (Scot Stewart photo)

“I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer — its dust and lowering skies.” — Toni Morrison

Summer has not produced the kind of season most have expected. In light of the stories the season has produced, it has come up a draw to many. While the temperature news stories have be extremely hot, record breaking hot, enough to melt asphalt, the Upper Peninsula stories almost need an ice scraper. Last summer has days like these — where the U.P. was the only place in the Lower 48, literally the only place, where the temperatures were not sky-high above the summer averages. Even Lake Superior checked in at 55F this week, a bit below recent summer averages, and well below the 87.6F temperature of the Atlantic at Miami and 90F at Key West! Beachcombers and gardeners with tomatoes and basil will complain the most, but seeing two solid weeks over 100F, like Phoenix, AZ has had, and not at Phoenix, Michigan, makes everything a little easier to take!

The rain has kept all things green, really green this summer too. Meanwhile summer life continues on in the U.P. Some mid-summer signs are beginning to pop up. On the Iron Ore Heritage Trail early goldenrod flowers are beginning to reach out with the first long sprigs of yellow. Goldenrods are tall wildflowers, often over three feet tall, often found along roads with large grouping of yellow flowers. They are important sources of food for pollinators like monarch butterflies in late summer and fall. Along with tall purple asters, they make up the color palette of flowers through September and October.

Walking the Iron Ore Heritage Trail from Marquette to Northland Lane is a great two and a half mile jaunt with chances to listen to indigo buntings, red-eyed vireos, and American redstarts in the middle of the day. A better variety of songs is still possible early in the day. The trail is paved and level making for easy hikes. In total it is 47 miles long in all and does make it all the way to the Carp River and on to Republic offering a large variety of habitats and plenty of variety of birds. Mushrooms are also starting to pop up with all the rain making for a nice mix of life along the way.

It does seem to be a good year for swallows in the Central U.P. Along the Lower Harbor breakwall barn and cliff swallows were cruising along the structure this week looking for midges, caddisflies, and other flying insects. It is also possible to enjoy a slightly smoother walk on the lower level as the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers has overseen some repair work pouring a new block of cement in where there has been some serious damage to the structure. There has also been some work rearranging large boulders on both sides of the concrete and large landmark boulder of limestone, complete with several fossils had been pulled down to a slightly lower level now where the concrete meets the rocky portion of the breakwall. The same two swallow species have also been regulars at the mouth of the Dead River and even a few tree swallows have been seen regularly in Marquette.

Back in the Lower Harbor gulls and double-crested cormorants have been the predominant species of waterbirds seen there recently, but a female red-breasted merganser with three young were spotted near Founders Landing and reported there on July 9. Common mergansers with young are usually more common along Lake Superior in Marquette during the summer months, but there have been fewer reports of them this year.

A hike around Echo Lake last Saturday found a really nice mixture of birds, including three warbler species, Nashville, pine, and black-throated green, a scarlet tanager, and a young northern goshawk. The hawk is a relatively rare species to find in the Upper Peninsula at just about any time, but coming across a juvenile is a great indicator that they could be breeding here.

The northern part of Marquette County is still producing red crossbill sightings and additional ones are now being reported in the cities of Marquette and Escanaba. With conifer cones, like spruces, just beginning to get close to ripening, there is a good chance the crossbills will stick around and possibly nest, relying on the seeds from the cones to supply them with food.

Things are picking up on the Peshekee Grade along the Marquette-Baraga County line too. A black-backed woodpecker was seen there again. Six species of warblers were also found, including one black-throated blue and an olive-sided flycatcher was also observed. The latter is also a bird of concern with only a few being reported in the U.P. each summer.

One very notable grassland find was reported on eBird in Chippewa County southwest of Rudyard last Tuesday on the Dryburg Road where 25 bobolinks were found in the open fields there. Bobolinks were once relatively common in the open areas of the U.P. with some even in places like Green Garden Road south of Marquette. But 25 is an impressive number for them these days.

With the cool conditions and a smaller number of mosquitoes out it does seem like a great time go and enjoy the increasing number of young birds out of the nest and trying to figure things out. Others seen in the Marquette area recently were northern cardinals, wild turkeys, white-throated sparrows, and others. So, get out and join them!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is naturalist at the MooseWood Nature Center, a writer and a photographer.