A brown thrasher sits on a branch. (Scot Stewart photo)

“Warm summer sun, shine kindly here, warm southern wind, blow softly here.” — Mark Twain

Summer has left a mysterious memory on the Upper Peninsula. Were Mark Twain here now, he would certainly reiterate this wish and wonder how the news from the world could be true after spending some time here. Marquette is full of visitors successfully escaping what has been told over and over — this may be the hottest summer ever on the planet. Some have confessed to being ready to get back home, that the weather here is like “October and November back in Kentucky.”

There have been some warm days in the Marquette area this summer, including a 88F day, the hottest, on July 28, but officially only nine days above 80 all summer as of last Wednesday. Now, it does like with a few more, warmer days this week it will continue to look like summer, but the migration of fall birds is speeding up a bit.

The Fall Waterbird Count at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory (WPBO) began on Tuesday, Aug. 15 and is seeing the expected late summer migrants, but some may be a little ahead of schedule. Shorebirds, including semipalmated, solitary, and least sandpipers, semipalmated plovers and semipalmated plovers have been followed passing the point and have been seen on the Dead River in Marquette and on the beach at the mouth of the AuTrain River on several days recently. These small shorebirds are often in what appear to be family groups and are frequently fairly tame. Greater yellowlegs, Baird’s sandpipers, and sanderlings are also on their way south. These too often travel in small groups, except for the yellowlegs.

Dabbling ducks are starting as well. Mallards, northern shovelers, green and blue-winged teals have been passing Whitefish Point in small numbers. Bonaparte’s gulls are also on the move, ahead of most of the other gulls. These gulls have black heads during the breeding season, but molt to a plainer look in fall with just a streak of black on the sides of their heads. Common in large flocks in the spring, especially at places like the islands on the tip of the Stonington Peninsula, they are often seen in smaller groups in the fall.

The most prominent migrants in the first few days at Whitefish Point though have been terns and red-necked grebes. Common terns have been the most numerous, but over 400 red-necked grebes were seen in the first two days of the count. Red-necked grebes are the largest of the grebes seen regularly in the Upper Great Lakes. Smaller horned grebes are common in the harbors of Lake Superior and some ponds and lakes in spring and fall migrations, and eared grebes show up occasionally too as one did last fall in Marquette’s Lower Harbor. Western grebes are larger and common from the Great Plains to the Pacific but only rarely show up on Superior, usually in fall.

A good diversity of warblers has also been seen at Whitefish Point, as they have across the area, but are continuing in small numbers. Many are tough to identify in the fall and the third largest wedge in the Whitefish Point pie graph so far is unidentified warblers. Seven different species of warblers were recorded at Peninsula Point on the Stonington last Tuesday too, but all were single individuals except one, the black and white warbler. Purple finches and white-winged crossbills, two other species being seen with some regularity throughout the region have been seen. Nearly all songbirds seen at the tip of Whitefish Point, where the waterbird count is conducted are fly-bys, but some do stop in the jack pines to rest and feed usually after crossing Lake Superior from Canada.

During the fall as these small birds come off the Lake, they may be escorted in or greeted by merlins and accipiter hawks, like sharp-shins. Because they often weary, they can offer easier targets for these hunters. Broad-winged hawks are also on the move, but they rarely chase other birds while hunting but usually look for small mammals like mice, frogs, and insects. Their migration is legendary, with thousands migrating around Lake Superior and all meeting up on the east side of Mexico on their way to South America. Live reports for fall migration at WPBO can be viewed between sunrise and end of each day’s count eight hour later at https://dunkadoo.org/explore/whitefish-point-bird-observatory/wpbo-waterbirds-fall-2023, the fall 2023 Dunkadoo waterbird count. This site offers a great view of migration across the eastern Upper Peninsula for most groups of birds, mostly from Canada, heading south.

Back in the central U.P. families continue to show up across the region, mourning doves and brown thrashers are two of the more conspicuous species being found at feeders where sunflower seeds and suet are being provided. The doves will mostly stay in the area, but nearly all the thrashers will eventually head out. Northern flickers are continuing to appear in yards together as they feed on ants.

Some of those ant hills are now releasing elates, winged adults heading out to start new colonies. The best afternoons to see them are warm, sunny days after a rain when they can fly off, mate, and dig into new sites to start hills and underground nests. Those days can be very entertaining as flickers and pileated woodpeckers will catch them on the ground as they leave their first home, and flying birds, even ring-billed gulls that grab them on the wing. Take a kindly sunny day and catch some of the latest!

Scot Stewart is naturalist at the MooseWood Nature Center, a writer and photographer.