The end of August draws closer, hinting, if only with its slightly shorter days that summer inches closer to its end. All the back-to-school news and talk about the end of the season seem so premature. Most milkweed plants are now developing seed pods, the large-leaf asters are in full bloom and nearly all the young Canada geese look like miniature adults, so summer is moving on. This week also saw a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the early morning sky, punctuated with some shots from the Perseid meteor shower. Most of these Upper Peninsula days have been hot with some thunderheads and a bit of rain and thunder mixed in so it still feels like the season has legs.

With that all said, fall migration is underway, at least for shorebirds. The mouth of the Dead River in Marquette is beginning to regain its prominence as a great place to see sandpipers and plovers during fall migration. The southern edge of the river is beginning to develop a curved point with edges able to collect insects and other invertebrates that have washed down the river or up from waves in the lake onto the sand. In recent days semipalmated plovers, killdeer, a buff-breasted sandpiper, and a willet have all been seen foraging during times when the beachgoers have been scarce there.

The Gwinn Sewage Lagoons have provided a good bit of diversity with their shorebirds. Last Sunday a short-billed dowitcher highlight a group including least, spotted, and solitary sandpipers plus lesser yellowlegs. A migrating flock of 30 chimney swifts was also watched. Swift are massing and leaving at many site.

Alger County has provided some great selections of shorebirds too. At the Michigan State Upper Peninsula Research Center south of Chatham solitary, semipalmated, and Baird’s sandpipers were seen along with some great looks at a sora feeding young in a wetland. Two American kestrels and red-tailed hawk were also see. At the AuTrain River mouth five semipalmated plovers were seen Wednesday, and Baird’s and semipalmated sandpipers were present last Monday along with a flock of Bonaparte’s gulls, one Forster’s tern, and a Franklin’s gull. The latter two are both great finds.

SCOT STEWART

Although Forster’s terns summer at the south ends of both Lakes Michigan Huron, the major spend their summers from Minnesota up into the Canadian Prairie Provinces and a few smaller area in the U.S. farther west. Their bills are more orange compared to reddish bills of common terns, helping to distinguish between them.

Franklin’s gull, like Bonaparte’s gull is a black-headed gull in breeding plumage. They too are birds more likely to be seen farther west during summer months in North Dakota and Montana northward into three adjacent Canadian provinces.

There are also signs other birds are beginning to show their preparations may be underway. Female ruby-throated hummingbirds are back at area feeders, alternating between hostas, bellflowers, and cardinal flowers and a quick fill at the manmade stations. Local males should be heading south soon, but Canadian migrants will be moving through for a little longer. A quick look at their range map has a few surprises. Straight north of the U.P. their range ends along the north edge of Lake Superior. It moves near the same latitude to the east but extend slightly northward all the way to western Alberta. As some of these Canadian migrants head south they do make it into the U.P. sometimes much later in the fall after the locals are gone.

A few birds are still tending very young offspring. A hen mallard was seen along Lake Superior this week with two very young ducklings. A northern house wren just came off her eggs at the beginning of the week to begin feeding hatchlings on Marquette’s East Side.

Many area songbirds are moving through the extended spaces teaching their young skills to survive the winter or the migration trip ahead. Northern flicker, blue jay, eastern phoebe, and house finch families have been seen figuring out how to find food and taking care of themselves. Flickers, one of the area’s more unique woodpeckers are spending most of their foraging time on the ground hunting ants. An entire family can often be seen in many towns right along roadside curbs pounding the ground for ants. Their brown, buff, and black plumage helps them blend in extremely well on the ground.

Blue jays and house finches are in-town residents familiar with feeders and are willing to contend not only with people but also feeder congestion with squirrels, grackles, and others. The recent find of the phoebe family with young fledglings is more unusual. They are among the first flycatchers to return in springtime, nesting under building eves and bridges so this could be a second clutch.

One of the best recent finds was a trio of red-headed woodpeckers in Marquette Township last Wednesday. An adult pair with a begging juvenile were seen just off Commerce Drive behind the Westwood Mall. Red-headed woodpeckers have not been reported there this summer but have been making a tiny bit of a resurgence in the U.P., possibly due to the tremendous losses of ash trees across the entire are due to emerald ash borer and several other insect and fungus issues with area trees. These woodpeckers are stunning with solid red heads, black bodies, and white wing patches. They are migratory so it will interesting to see if they are refound in the near future. Time to catch August’s curtain calls.