Northern MI - mini-report

 

well, here is a real quick report from my 5-day Michigan trip last week (a lot of birding, but also some camping, canoeing, etc:

 

Sun - no Western Meadowlark seen or even heard around the Ypsilanti Willow Run Airport, then over to Pointe Mouillee - pretty good variety, including ducks, best birds were a male Y-H Blackbird, two or three White-rumped Sandpipers, and a flock of ten Whimbrels

 

Mon - photo-op long look through the telescope at a singing Kirtland's W near Mio, nice look at Clay-colored Sparrow near Gaylord, still no luck with W Meadowlark (around Pellston Airport) - also nice looks at Upland Sandpiper, singing Olive-sided - try for 'night-birds' like Whip-poor-will and owls around Pellston got rained out...

 

Tue - (UP MI) photo-op long look through the telescope at a singing Le Conte's Sparrow a ways south of Sault Ste Marie - a good long look (through binoculars) at a singing Connecticut Warbler near Trout Lake - a few migrant warblers, singing Yellow-bellied Flycatchers at Whitefish Point  (saw only my second bear ever - an adult who obviously saw me before I saw him, running away from me, on the road at Whitefish)

 

Wed - (UP MI) weather was clear but very cold and breezy - worked mostly 'boreal' habitat, but 'drew a blank', for any of the resident boreal species...

 

Thu - mostly drive back south - the usual wonderful leisurely canoe ride, out of Rollway Flats on the Au Sable River west of Oscoda - saw territorial Northern Waterthrush, Mourning Warbler, B&W Warbler up close (and more bears! - three bear cubs, up in a white pine tree, about 30 or 40 feet from the riverside)

 

Had 162 species for the 'trip list' - weather overall was pretty decent - bugs were a non-issue - only a deer fly or two and a mosquito or two, by the campfire near Pellston on Tue  ...WHAT A GREAT TRIP!    :-)

 

Have a great summer,  Good Birding,

 

Paul Chad

Bowling Green