A common merganser female with her young. (Scot Stewart photo)

“An optimist is someone who figures that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s the bluebird of happiness.” — Robert Breault

Ducks and bluebirds have both been a hit in the Upper Peninsula as the place continues to ease into summer. The ducklings and swan cygnets are the easiest to find, especially on the Marshland Wildlife Drive around Seney National Wildlife Refuge in Schoolcraft County. Because of the protection offered to water fowl there and the generally quiet atmosphere it is sometimes possible to get a better view of young ducks and swans than at other ponds and lakes in the area. Recent reports from birders at Seney have reported young trumpeter swans, wood duck and ring-necked duck young.

The swam population is well established at Seney, for both immature swans and mated pair raising young there. In a recent eBird report online noted up to 38 swans including three cygnets. Immature swans can be up to three years of age before they begin nesting and often can be bunched up in one of the bigger pools at Seney. The mated pairs often find more secluded sites in the smaller pools or in weedy corners of larger bodies of water and may be difficult to find or see.

The ring-necked ducks are divers and are most often seen in the larger water bodies like C-Pool near the end of the drive. They may be difficult to find or even unrecognizable as they become stained in the pools with their reddish bottom sediment and blend in well with the exposed logs at the water’s edge. One family with eight young ring-necks was found there recently. Wood ducks are dabblers and prefer shallower weedier sections of wetlands at the west end of C-Pool and close to the end of the drive near M-77. Eight wood ducks were seen there recently too, but the ages of the birds were not included.

In Marquette the Lake Superior shoreline offers up opportunities to see young from a number of duck species. Mallards continue to be the dominant summer ducks in the Lower Harbor where several families with young can often be seen near the U.S. Coast Guard station. Three families were there last week. Common merganser families can occasionally be seen there too, but the mouth of the Dead River historically has been a more reliable place to find them, resting on the river edge near the mouth. With most of the river mouth still closed to the public, it is more difficult to get good looks at the area for ducklings. Most of the merganser young should be old enough now to swim and occasionally feed on their own — now too large to still ride on mothers’ backs.

There are always late nesters in the birding world. Near the beginning of July a wild turkey hen was seen at Presque Isle in the tall weeds near the old pool area with an unknown number of young hidden in the tall grass. It was the same area where a pair of eastern bluebirds raised a brood of young this spring. There were three or four young fledged by the parents there.

A few shorebirds are being reported across the area. At Whitefish Point a quartet of piping plovers was reported week and a half ago, including just one youngster from the nesting pair there. At the mouth of the AuTrain recently a single sandpiper, probably a least, was seen along with a single semipalmated. As has been stated here, shorebirds showing up on the beaches and breakwalls after July 1 are usually thought to be ones now southbound, following an unsuccessful breeding season for them.

This summer has seen a greater number of birders from the Marquette area really exploring most of the usual area hotspots in the county, like the Lake Superior shoreline, Presque Isle, the Gwinn Sewage lagoons, and the Peshekee Grade, but some new areas are also being explored, like the Clowry Truck Trail north of Champion. Two of the best birders in the area were back out there not long ago and found a couple notable birds there. They were a Virginia rail and a sedge wren. Both species are shy wetlands birds, more often heard than seen.

The rails typically prowl around the bases of cattails and thick, vegetated wetland areas, usually avoiding the more exposed edges. Once it is perfectly still, they may case the area out before stepping into the open if conditions are perfect. The sedge wrens, like marsh wrens. also prefer dense vegetation and have the uncanny ability to grab two separated blades of cattails or rushes and tightly hold on as they sing or watch the surrounding area.

This has been a decent summer for finding hawks in the U.P. too. Several red-tail hawks have been seen in the central and eastern U.P. They usually are more common in open fields in the Lower Peninsula and Wisconsin, but a few have been turning up here. A sharp-shinned hawk and two Cooper’s hawks have also been reported. Both of these most hunt birds are not easy to find in the woods. Peregrine falcons and American kestrels are also fairly visible in Marquette. Peregrines have been seen hunting in south Marquette, and one at Presque Isle was seen with a cedar waxwing it had caught to feed its young.

Mornings still boast a few singers, with northern cardinals and mourning doves still regulars in Marquette. Also celebrating the upcoming independence of young birds, all a part of the season.

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