Scot Stewart

“We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. “ – Blaise Pascal

A spell of uncertainty continued to hover over the Upper Peninsula in deciding if spring has finally arrived here or not. True, there have been some temperatures, and yes, it does look like most all the snow and ice are finally gone from the woods. As recently as two weeks ago there were still some ice formations at the bottom of small waterfalls in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore over six feet high and several patches of snow still in the woods. With the forecast for 60o temperatures for most of next week, doubts may remain.

Despite the slow, cool spring, bird migration is beginning to wind down. It seems like both sandpipers and warbler populations have hedged their bets this spring about the best time to head north, with a big wave passing through several weeks ago closer to the normal time of year for them to pass through the U.P. This created some problems for insect eaters — not many insects. Warblers, tanagers and other birds unable to find all the food they needed to charge up for the rest of their flights turned to more unusual food sources like suet and seed feeders.

A second, current wave of both sandpipers and warblers seemed to be moving through the area this past week. Mixed flocks, some small and some larger of warblers were seen at a number of places where warblers stop — the reason for many was new hatches of insects Hatches of all kinds have been very sporadic this spring Tick hatches, important for some ground feeders like sparrows have been terrific. Not only have there been some monumental tick hatches, but plenty of other hatches in places not generally regarded as typical places to find them.

This past week also saw some great hatches of midges, small relatives of flies. They are aquatic in their immature phases and often create large clouds as they emerge in the spring as flying adults. The arrival of migrating warblers and flycatchers often coincides with hatches along the northern shore of Lake Michigan as the birds are eager to find substantial food supplies. On Sunday there was a major wave of 20 species of warblers found at the Manistique boardwalk. The following day a Kirtland’s warbler was seen there.

In Marquette there have been some substantial midge hatches seen along the Lower Harbor breakwall in recent years too. Large clouds of non-biting midges (some actually look like mosquitoes with no biting capabilities, just the ability to be very annoying in large clinging clouds)..

The Lower Harbor breakwall became a harbor of refuge for shorebirds in recent years when they needed to forage but still avoided the peregrine falcons patrolling the Upper Harbor beaches. The midges add value to this destination resulting in some nice mixed flocks of sanderlings, least, spotted and semipalmated sandpipers, semipalmated plovers, and occasionally dunlin, ruddy turnstones, willets and black-bellied plovers. On Tuesday a magnificent flock of two least sandpipers, one semipalmated plover and at least 92 semipalmated sandpipers were observed vacuuming up the midges on the concrete portions of the Lower Harbor breakwall through the afternoon and early evening.

Flocks that size are extremely rare in Marquette. Usually smaller flocks are present and when several are on the wall at the same time they move independently. The large group seen last Tuesday stayed in a very tight group and moved on and off the breakwall together as walkers disturbed them. Most shorebirds also use the last quarter to third of the half mile long concrete portion of the wall before the last rock-only section begins. The midges there are usually the thickest and the wall. Tuesday they used more than half of the concrete.

The following day, a similarly large group of semipalmated sandpipers, semipalmated plovers, piping plover, whimbrels and a sanderling showed up on the beach at the mouth of the AuTrain River. This has been a good site to see shorebirds this spring, but this was one of the largest one day groups. It should be noted both harbors in Marquette and the mouth of the AuTrain River are checked frequently by birders during migration. Other beaches and points of refuge may be good stopping points for shorebirds and just don’t get checked at the right times to catch arrivals.

In the last few days other late migrators, cedar waxwings, great crested flycatchers and chimney swifts have been showing up in the Marquette area. A few new vagrants have also appeared across the U.P. at the same time. A logger-headed shrike, Bullock’s oriole and lingering lazuli bunting also kept birders busy. In the western U.P. birders have been keeping track of peregrine falcons nesting on the wild cliffs away from building and bridges. Nests have been found in the Trap Hills in the Ottawa National Forest and the Cliffs area of the Keweenaw. Many smaller birds will be settling in to raise their young — some, like common grackles and starlings have already fledged. They will not be debating if spring has come– they declare it here!

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