An American pipit perches. (Scot Stewart photo)

“Just when I thought it was over, the second act began, Boy, I wish I had gotten a program.” — Anonymous

Autumn has turned into a month of all kinds of surprises. While the wet season has been gloomy at times, the fall colors have been spectacular across the Upper Peninsula. October is rushing quickly to the interface between fall and the quirky time before winter when the trees are bare, and the temperature oscillates between the fifties and teens and snow sneaks in, then quickly melts, not sure if it is supposed to be here or not. Migration for many birds seemed to be a bit of a surprise, with light numbers of many birds, especially shorebirds and some songbirds.

A white-faced ibis found at the Chatham sewage lagoon last week continued feeding there over this past week. It has been a huge surprise for birders see, continuing on there, despite the colder weather and the occasional snow. Perhaps even more surprising has been the shorebirds there too to share the lagoons with the ibis. Normally most shorebirds, except for an occasional black-bellied or American golden-plover, are long gone by the middle of October. The ibis has shared the nutrient rich waters with dunlin, greater yellowlegs, pectoral and white-rumped sandpipers. Birders have continued to trickle down to Chatham as their schedules have allowed to see this great vagrant.

The fall has also developed into a great fall for snow buntings too. There were some early reports on Monday for a huge flock of 300+ buntings on the fields near the Superior Dome. The same day 220 were counted at Whitefish Point in Chippewa County. This fall seems to be developing into one of the best ever for seeing snow buntings in the Upper Peninsula. Numerous small flocks are being reported along highway shoulders where the birds are foraging for weed seeds and gravel for their gizzards to grind up the seeds. Later in the day Marquette birders were doubly delighted to find the large flock and a flock of geese with eleven cackling geese and two snow geese. The part that birders liked was that there were both morphs — color phases of the snow geese, a white one and a “blue” morph. These two varieties were separate species until DNA for the two was examined and determined to be the same in 1983, allowing ornithologists to lump them into a single species.

The snow goose is also known as the wavey goose. A more common name in the past and rarely used today, it has its origins in the Ojibwe name wewe goose. The name comes from the high pitched call, easily distinguished from the deeper call of the Canada goose. Because of the difference in the pitches of the calls, Vs of geese flying high above can easily be identified by their call. Some have suggested snow geese are the noisiest of all waterfowl.

While snow geese are among the most common migrants traveling to Hudson’s Bay and the Canadian islands of the High Arctic, their migration routes to the American West, the south Central states and the mid-Atlantic Coast often skirt around the U.P. during migration, so the appearance of even a family is met with excitement. When large flocks do come this way they usually pass over high above.

The windy, rainy weather created a good spot where a few birds got funneled into a sheltered spot. Evidently full of insects blown and washed up onto weeds, brush and debris between the Lower Harbor breakwall and the Coast Guard dock in Marquette four different species turned up over the past weekend. On Oct. 19 a late Baird’s sandpiper and a winter wren were hunting together. Both were very active, occasionally flying in gentle circles around the opening to glean insects off the side of the breakwall and in the grass just inside the Coast Guard fence. The rest of the time they moved up and down the water’s edge and into the large rocks looking for food.

The following day both were gone, but two American pipits and a common yellowthroat were there essentially feeding the same way. The two pipits did not seem to get along as one continually chased the other, but both seemed quite tolerant of the yellowthroat. By the third day, only a yellowthroat was left. These are extremely late dates, and unlikely sites for all four species in Marquette. The other notable part of their appearance was their relative lack of shyness. They did not appear to be particularly disturbed by the passage of walkers along the breakwall above.

Two other southbound migrants have also begun turning up in the U.P. this fall, northern shrikes and rough-legged hawks. Both have been found singly at multiple sites across the area. The shrikes have been seen in Chippewa, Houghton and Alger Counties. Hunters of small mammals and songbirds, they will be seen most often along field edges and around bird feeders. Only the size of a robin, they are amazing predators relying mainly on a sharp hooked beak to dispatch and eat their prey.The rough-legged hawks are also open field hunters and are most commonly seen in the eastern U.P. in winter. Birding of late has been exceptional as we move closer to that season.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is a teacher at Bothwell Middle School in Marquette and a freelance photographer.