The expectations of coming attractions in Spring is perhaps as good as the actual arrival of spring migrants, blooming flowers, and warm southerly breezes. Past memories of Spring’s beauty and previous experiences watching them unfold are powerful, and are sometimes as important than new experiences.They are particularly crucial on those days when the forecast calls for more freezing temperatures and “wintry mixes.”

Such are the days for early May in the Upper Peninsula. Most of the trees are still bare, not too many flowers out yet except skunk cabbage, out in the woods, and a few garden flowers like daffodils and hyacinths. Tree flowers, for the most part are just starting to open.

There are special days, especially at Whitefish Point. Some, crazy good, like March 18 this year when 14, yes, fourteen, golden eagle flew over the point on their trip northward for the summer. There have been other spectacular days like April 11 when 904 redpolls crossed the Point. On April 13 1,228 sandhill cranes, in a number of large flocks, shadowed the Point as they flew overhead on their way to Canada. On Wednesday, April 23 1,995 sharp-shinned stretched their wings over Whitefish Point as the prepared to cross the edge of Lake Superior, then last Saturday 1,169 sharp-shinned hawks swept by, followed by another great day Monday when 1665 sharp-shins zoomed past the point, some barely skimming the dunes in search of food, like tired small birds resting up before they too attempted to head across the edge of Lake Superior to Canada.

Peregrine falcons, and eagles, both bald and golden, contribute many of the days in March and early April. But after that, except for snowy days, mixed precipitation days, or times when there are strong north winds, there is always a chance to see some amazing events at the Point in late April or early May. Imagining the chance to see one of those huge events, continues to draw birders and non-birders alike to Whitefish Point during the spring months.

Three more big waves of birds are yet to come this spring and imagining any of them is enough to get just about any one out, especially on a warm, sunny spring day to see them. Starting now is the beginning of the big push of sparrows northward through the U.P. A few species, like song and fox sparrows, and dark-eye juncos have joined the American tree sparrows already here. This past week or so swamp, savannah, chipping, and white-throated sparrows began to swarm into the central U.P. Larger numbers of all of them will be joined soon by Lincoln, vesper, white-crowned, and possibly vagrant Harris’s sparrow, a western species that summers only in central Canada.

Two other species with the sparrow name have also been spotted this spring in the U.P. Although both carry the name sparrow, they are not closely related to North American sparrows and are called Old World sparrows in the family Passerellidae. One, really unusual Eurasian tree sparrows, are rare, introduced species first introduced in a small area near St. Louis, Missouri area plus parts of Illinois and Iowa when 12 were released there remind German immigrants of their home. They have been seen recently in Alger and Marquette County. From time to time some wander out into other parts of the country but rarely stay long.

The other is the house sparrow. They were first introduced in the Brooklyn, NY in 1851 and is now established across the entire Lower 48 and much of Canada. They are aggressive birds and have been seen defending their cavity nests from at least 70 other songbird species, including bluebirds, swallows and other desirable insect eaters. The Marquette population have wavered up and down for many years as they have competed with house finches in some places in town.

The second remaining wave has also just begun, with the shorebirds, plovers and sandpipers. Killdeers are the first plovers to arrive and one of two nesting in the U.P. during the summer. Piping plovers, the other summer residents here are still a few weeks away. Killdeer are amazingly well adapted to busy places close to people during the summer often nest in parking lots, athletic fields, and other busy spots where bare areas with small gravel are found. Some greater yellowlegs and solitary sandpipers have arrived, but many will come later. A large number of both plovers and sandpipers will come near the end of May when midge and mayfly hatches along the Great Lakes shorelines provide plenty of food for tired hungry birds making long flights from the southern parts of South America to Arctic Alaska and Canada.

The last really big wave of songbirds to come is the warblers. Just a few have made it here so far. Hardy yellow-rumped warblers, have come in some numbers already, along with a few pine and palm warblers. But because they rely almost entirely on insects and spiders most will not arrive until there is a steady supply of both. Many travelling through the Great Lakes will also rely on big hatches of midges, some clinging to the cedars and spruces along the lakes’ shorelines to fatten up as they head north. Close to 30 species can be seen in May as they move through and a good number of different species stay here all summer.

Neotropical songbirds like orioles, tanagers, and rose-breasted grosbeaks are here or nearly here and hummingbirds, now as far north as central Wisconsin should be here within a week or so. Imagine!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is a