A horned grebe wades. (Scot Stewart photo)

“Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” — Boris Pasternak

There are many gifts from nature at this time of year. The warm temperatures this week have been a welcome gift for many in the Upper Peninsula this fall following the relatively cool summer just ending. It was not that long ago a single day in early November with a temperature over 50 was special but now a week or more is not that surprising of a gift.

Immigrants continue to stream in from the north. It is amazing to see no one has suggested a wall be built between Canada and the U.S. On Tuesday another 1,270 pine siskins poured into the U.S. along with 1,310 American goldfinches. That adds up to 56,258 pine siskins entering the U.P. through the second to last day of the Waterbird Count there by Whitefish Point Bird Observatory.

Wednesday was the last official day for the Waterbird Census for the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory (WPBO) at the Point. With one day to go the species count for the fall season that started August 15 was at 230 species this year. During the count hours over 171,000 individual birds passed the point on their way south for the winter. 348 owls were also banded there also this fall, with the majority, 323, being northern saw-whet owls, along with 16 barred, six long-eared, and three boreal owls. Last year 219 species were recorded there with 119,427. In 2021, 236 species were seen, and 119,430 individuals counted. A number of factors affect the annual totals. This year’s conditions, with little snow and few all day rainy-storm days, may have made migrants easier to observe and may have improved the totals.

Moderate to poor spruce cone crops, important winter food for siskins, were noted this fall as a potential reason siskins had already begun heading south from Ontario into Minnesota and points farther east. These predictions were published in the Winter Finch Forecast for 2023 by Finch Research Network https://finchnetwork.org/winter-finch-forecast-2023-2024. Counts at Whitefish Point and from independent birders posted on ebird https://ebird.org/region/US-MI-033/activity have followed the massive irruption and the movement of other species this fall. One surprising bird continuing there has been a blue-gray gnatcatcher seen near bird feeders there.

Other surprising gifts of the season have continued in the Keweenaw County. A ruby-throated hummingbird was still coming to a feeder at Agate Harbor and a rare-to-the-area black-chinned hummingbird was maintaining its visits to a feeder in Copper Harbor. Several Townsend’s solitaires have also been showing up in the U.P. as they continue to wander eastward from the Front Range of the Rockies.

The Townsend’s solitaire is named for John Kirk Townsend, who collected the first solitaire in Oregon in 1835 to be studied by ornithologists. Over 80 species in North America are named for a variety of people. Some, like the solitaire are named for those in science who first collected them for study. Some are named for friends of ornithologists. Michigan’s most famous warbler, Kirtland’s, is named for the owner of the farm where the first one was shot to be studied by science. The American Ornithological Society is now beginning to rename all of these birds so named to remove any possible connection that may be “exclusionary or harmful” to their namesakes. Rather than examine each one for possible negative connections all will simply be renamed. Efforts will be made to create names that will enable birders to make more connections with the actual appearance and/or behavior of the birds.

This effort follows on the heals of some chapters of local Audubon Society groups who chose to separate themselves from their namesake. Audubon owned nine slaves and sold two more after escorting them to New Orleans. The local chapter in Marquette has been renamed the Laughing Whitefish Bird Alliance and chapters in Detroit, Chicago, and other cities have also been renamed. The state and national chapters have yet to make a change.

Predictions on the movements of pine grosbeaks and bohemian waxwings were best for areas west of Lake Superior and that has proven to be true as both species have begun to move into the western U.P. and even central counties. It was noted last week bohemian waxwings had been seen on Presque Isle and crab apple trees there were a prime attraction for them. There is however one mountain ash tree at Sunset Point on the north end of the park and that tree often sees waxwings visit even earlier than the crab apple trees because of the smaller size of the fruit and the easy at which the birds can swallow the fruits.

Waterbirds are lingering on in the Lower Harbor in Marquette and one of the best places to get close up looks at them is from the new pier south of the ore dock. This new gift to the city is a great place to literally walk out into the lake and see many of the ducks, grebes, and other birds on the water at close range. On Monday there was a nice diversity of birds, with a horned grebe, a handful of buffleheads, several long-tailed ducks and even an American coot in the harbor. Greater scaup, redheads, and common goldeneyes have also been seen there this week. It was a very different scene on Tuesday. Monday’s sunshine was gone, and the strong winds, with some gusts over 40 miles per hour and choppy water sent the birds elsewhere, with only a single, red-breasted merganser near the pier at midday. With the continuing gifts of the season birding has been wonderful.

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