It takes a temperature of 356F to pop popcorn, it only took one day at 90F to pop the swelling buds of many of the area’s trees this week and turn many bare branches into pastel brushes of color. Quite amazing how quickly those branches started filling out! The afternoon air filled with the trills of eastern toads and the nights with spring peepers and the quack-like calls of wood frogs. The transition was truly breathtaking, dramatic, and welcome. Some patches of mottled-leaved, yellow trout lilies also have produced early timely yellow blossoms.

Several broods of bright, yellow Canada goose goslings also popped up on the Dead River and several small area ponds as the parents guided them from nests to water and nearby vegetation. One flock of geese was joined by a smaller cackling goose in Marquette. Just a bit larger than a mallard, it looks like a young Canada goose but is considered a separate species. The bill is also considerably smaller and helps with identification.

This past week has some monumental numbers of blue jays migrated through the Upper Peninsula. Dozens made short stops at many bird feeders through the area but at Whitefish Point the numbers have been insane. On Monday the raptor counter tallied 1020 during the eight-hour survey period. On Tuesday the number were nearly as good, with 1000 counted.

Tuesday was also a great day at Peninsula Point at the tip of the Stonington Peninsula in Delta County on Lake Michigan. During a three hour walk during the early hours of morning a staggering 83 species were seen! The day included eight species of ducks, six species of woodpeckers, including eight red-headed woodpeckers, seven species of sparrows, eleven Baltimore orioles, twelve species of warblers, a scarlet tanager, and an indigo bunting. Warm temperatures and south winds work wonders during this short window of migration, but there should be more good days like that in the near future.

SCOT STEWART

Whitefish Point had a few other great shows this past week. Over 2700 sharp-shinned were counted over the dunes from Sunday to Tuesday, with 1706 seen last Monday! Last Friday 60 bald eagles and 215 broad-winged hawks were also part of that day. On Monday the waterbird counter had 1086 white-winged scoters pass on their way north. Very few of these ducks stop in the U.P. on their way north so viewers need to hang out near the Lake Superior shoreline to see that show. The following day 60 common loons passed. There will still be some big days ahead at the Point for them.

The recent windy days have made waterbird watching on the harbors of Marquette a little more challenging. A pair of red-breasted mergansers have been cruising the shoreline of the Lower Harbor. Common and hooded mergansers and a few buffleheads round out the most common ducks being reported in the area. A couple ring-necked ducks have also been reported, including one on the backwater of the Dead River off Lakeshore Blvd.

Around yards, feeders, parks, and shorelines small numbers of the new migrants are the more common pattern. Small numbers of warblers, sparrows, blackbirds have been punctuated with dashes of Baltimore orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and just a touch of hummingbirds. There are plenty of appearances of common grackles and European starlings in most towns, capitalizing on suet and other offerings, both in feeders and on the ground. American goldfinches, cardinals, house finches, and a few song sparrows have had to wait their turns at most of these feeders.

With the leaves still relatively small it is a great time to find newly arrived warblers and vireos. A good number of them are singing so they are a little easier to locate and with a little patience can help birders, both old-timers rummaging through their brain for the memories of songs and new birders trying to learn new songs for the first time. There are a number of phone aps that can be a great help with identifying songs. Merlin is one of the most popular, but other include BirdNET, Chirp!, Song Sleuth, and Smart Bird ID. Merlin is free, makes recording of the sounds, prints up possible ID’s and highlights them as they are heard, so when there are several birds singing at the same time the recorder can see which bird is which. It may not identify faint calls and does occasionally make ID errors but often picks up songs really difficult to hear. It can be adjusted to more accurately identify birds of specific regions to reduce errors.

It truly helps to see a bird as it sings, making identification more accurately and learn them for future reference. The aps can be extra helpful with the songs of young birds still learning their tunes.

Learning some of the more unique and common songs is a great way to get started. Common loons are nearly unmistakable. In a recent podcast Laura Erickson noted robins are common, easy to watch birds and can help learn a series of others. Rose-breasted grosbeaks have similar songs with a slightly greater variety of notes to their songs. Going a bit farther, scarlet tanagers are also similar but have a raspy character to their songs. Catbirds, brown thrashers, and mockingbirds are mimics, and have similar songs, but brown thrashers frequently double their patterns, and mockingbirds often triple or have more often repeated runs. Migration offers a great opportunity to multiply the joy of birds in both sight and sound!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is a naturalist at the MooseWood Nature Center, a writer and photographer.