A dunlin looks on. (Scot Stewart photo)

“June is the pearl of summer, shining with warmth and joy.” — L.M. Montgomery

This past week or so has been just a phenomenal week for birding in the Central Upper Peninsula. Usually in mid-May there are many waves of migrants, late ducks, juncos and sparrows, blackbirds, warblers, and shorebirds being some of the big highlights. Neotropical songbirds, especially those of color are one of the big highlights – tanagers, orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks, indigo buntings and ruby-throated hummingbirds come in a huge wave. The last big May highlight is the unknown arrival of vagrants, mostly birds that should be heading north to the western states and provinces but end up here instead.

All of those happened to varying degrees in the past few weeks or so. Hundreds of ducks showed up on Lake Superior during the first week of May and the Neotropicals showed up shortly thereafter. Because spring has been on the cooler side for most of the season, migration has seemed a bit irregular, looking more like dribbles of some birds rather than waves.

Many species have been moving north through the Upper Peninsula at slower rates with smaller groups of birds of neotropicals and warblers seemingly still coming. Journey North has been publishing online news letters reporting on spring weather and migration https://journeynorth.org/weather-songbirds/resources/article/052224-spring-letter-4-weather-forecasts-migrating-songbirds-dr this year and has reported recent arrivals in the eastern U.S. of cuckoos, vireos, thrushes, and warblers, now helped by the arrival of recent high pressure systems. A look back at U. P.’s cooler weather this spring brings reminders of how few stretches there have been of sustained warm weather with southerly winds capable of providing a steady stream of northbound migrants. The story noted the larger amount of rain and stormy weather in the Midwest and its impact slowing migration.

So, migration continues. Birders at Peninsula Point in Delta County on Lake Michigan this spring have failed to create a report with more than 75 species this spring on eBird or a list with over 20 warbler species in a day. Most of the longer reports for many areas in the U.P. this spring only include eleven or twelve warbler species. Many specialty vagrants like summer and western tanager, orchard oriole, and blue-gray gnatcatcher were either present in lower numbers or completely absent from reports in May. As migration totals from other areas are compared a clearer picture should appear to hopefully chalk the U.P. observations up to mostly weather-related explanations and not more bad news about dwindling bird populations.

But as noted above, there were some great highlights recently. American white pelican observations have had many looking to the skies in Marquette lately. A flock of eleven circled over Picnic Rocks last week near sunset, landed briefly before heading back northwest. The next morning a flock, possibly the same group, was seen on the Dead River. Pelicans are often seen in the U.P. in spring. Immature birds from a colony in Green Bay often wander through the Central U.P. and migrants traveling between the Gulf and nesting colonies in the western states and provinces occasionally pass through.

Shorebirds hit their stride in the northern U.P. last week with many stopping on the Lower Harbor breakwall. Their feeding break coincided with the spring hatch of midges there as hoards are now hovering on and around the structure in breeding mode. An unusual flock of eleven ruddy turnstones there were joined by around ten dunlin, sanderlings, semipalmated plovers, spotted, semipalmated, and least sandpipers.

At the mouth of the Dead River, where work on reconstruction of the shoreline continues, a similar array of shorebirds appeared with the notable addition of a marbled godwit. This much larger shorebird appeared last Saturday morning and stuck around a couple of days. Marbled godwits do have two separate regions for their summer breeding, one small one area the southern tip of Hudson’s Bay and a much larger region across Minnesota to Montana up into the Canadian prairies. They winter on the Gulf and ocean coasts. Marble godwits do occasionally show up singly in Marquette, during both spring and fall. Ten years ago, a beautiful flock of around a dozen stopped at the Dead River for a day at May’s end.

Birders were also treated to a pair of Caspian terns, a Bonaparte’s gull, and a bevy of tree, barn, and cliff swallows this past weekend at the Dead River. New reports of rose-breasted grosbeaks and Baltimore orioles have also come in from the Marquette area. Apple blossom season has also generated some great sightings. As area trees bloom, they attract a variety of birds looking for nectar and flower petals. Orioles and hummingbirds have been seen working through the trees sampling nectar, leaving some hummingbird feeders with fewer visits from hummers. Cedar waxwings have been found in a number of those same trees feeding on new apple blossoms not quite open yet, joining house finches also looking for a change in their diet.

Two other birds getting a lot of notice were a black-headed gull in Baraga and a yellow-headed blackbird in Marquette. The black-headed gull was most notable — usually found only on the East Coast, it was the first ever in the U.P. It was seen with a flock of Bonaparte’s gulls making it somewhat difficult to pick out as they are similar looking species. On the Lower Harbor breakwall the young blackbird spent several days feeding on midges. Its yellow plumage was still emerging.

Most of this year’s migration should be wrapping up in the next two weeks, don’t miss it!

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