“Yet my heart loves December’s smile as much as July’s golden beam; then let us sit and watch the while the blue ice curdling on the stream.” – Emily Jane Bronte

Frigid temperatures always bring out the best in the edges of creeks and brooks. Splashes and changes of current often leave a variety of beautiful crystalline sculptures along the shore, on overhanging branches, and around rocks and sticks protruding in mid-stream where birders have sought waterbirds this month. 

The 75th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in Marquette was a surprisingly good one this year. Ten counters recorded ebird summaries on the day. Thanks to two young birders who have only been on a couple previous counts, the results were remarkably close to the area’s record high species count with a count for the day currently at 51 with a few feeder counts still coming in to the coordinator.

There were some exciting, hoped for species sought in Marquette last Saturday, a lark sparrow and a tufted titmouse.  Both are species with winter (and summer ranges) that do not include the Upper Peninsula. These two were particularly exciting possibilities though because next had made it to a CBC Count, or even a secondary list, the CBC Count Week, where notable birds not normally seen are still noted as in the area, and possibly missed on the count day.

The lark sparrow is a western bird, with parts of its summer range extending into southwestern Wisconsin and across the lowest tier of counties in Lower Michigan to western Ohio. Their winter range stretches from southern Texas west to eastern Arizona and into Mexico, parts of California and a tiny part of southern Idaho! One had been seen recently for about a week at a feeder station in north Marquette.

The tufted titmouse is a perky, distant relative of the chickadees, with a crest and a melodic call that sounds a bit like a cardinal. Its year-round range reaches into central Wisconsin, where it is unusual and all of Lower Michigan. One has been seen around several feeding stations on the east side of Marquette over the past few months, but it has rarely stayed at a feeder for more than a few moments. They are seed hoarders and will grab a single seed at a time, remove the hull and stash it before coming back for more. Research has shown they usually store food in caches within 130 feed of feeders, according to notes on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on them.

So, on the count day homeowners at the feeding stations for both birds began watching for them, without any early success. Just before noon though, the lark sparrow appeared, to the delight of counters. It returned several times during the afternoon to feed under sunflower feeders. It made the count. Results for the titmouse were not as good though. It was seen on Friday, for the count week, but not spotted since.

There were plenty of other highlight on the day too. Two great horned owls were heard in the predawn darkness. Thirteen different species of ducks were found in the Lower Harbor of Marquette, the Dead River, and In the rerouted creek that runs across Hawley Street in north Marquette. Long-tailed ducks, American black ducks, mallards, red-breasted, hooded and common mergansers, buffleheads, common goldeneyes, greater and lesser scaup, an American wigeon, a northern pintail and a pair of white-winged scoters were found. The stealthy Cooper’s hawk that has been dining at local feeders was seen, as was a red-tailed hawk. Difficult to know how many different bald eagles were spotted, but seven were seen at the Marquette County Landfill, and single and pairs of sighting were made around town, mostly along Lake Superior, including a pair, an adult and juvenile at a favored perch at Lambros Park in north Marquette,

While there were not a lot of winter finches, there were two pine grosbeaks, a red crossbill, and tons of house finches seen. A fly-over snow bunting was seen too along with a song sparrow in Harvey. A swamp sparrow has been in the area too. One warbler, a common yellow-throat, was seen along the Dead River. Many of these stragglers have been seen and noted for some time, occasionally in wild spots, sometimes at feeders, but make the count mostly on the efforts of these young birders, out almost every day looking for them. Vagrant gulls were not found, so two or three species usually on the count did not make it.

Bohemian waxwings did make the count in a big way. Two flocks were seen, one in Harvey, and a larger group of over 70 at crab apple trees on Presque Isle. It took a couple of days, but they cleaned out two crab apple trees at the entrance to the park where a handful of pine grosbeaks had been feeding on for over a week. It is amazing how quickly a flock of waxwings can remove all the fruit from even a large tree. This flock seemed particularly jumpy, leaving the large maple tree nearby where they perched between feeding maneuvers at the smallest disturbance – a noise, a biker below, or any small thing.

Another big change from counts years ago was the number of northern cardinals and red-bellied woodpeckers on the count. Once rarely seen at all during the year, both are now regulars across the city. Watch eBird and Laughing Whitefish Audubon’s emails for all the latest sightings!