Mission Point Lighthouse

Being from Michigan, the Kirtland’s Warbler has been a target bird for many years. The opportunity to visit Northern Michigan presented itself and we started looking at areas where this rarity is seen. The best plan seemed to be flying into Traverse City to meet Mike who was driving over from Wisconsin. I had an hour to kill before he got there so spent some time reading tourist brochures and talking to the nice ladies in the gift shop. It turns out that Traverse City is the Cherry Capital of the world and Michigan produces 75% of the tart cherries grown in the US. We were able to catch the tail end of the cherry blossom season.

 

Another new fact is that Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state. Funny how a place becomes much more interesting when you are visiting compared to living there. We made the drive to Mission Point Lighthouse on Lake Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay. There were many wineries on the ride and was surprised to learn the area boasts 52. We stopped at Chateau Chantal and Brys Estate Winery that both had very good wines.

The best birds of the day were three male Common Mergansers in full breeding plumage. Always a beautiful bird but stunning when breeding. I guess the females were on nest while these three swam in the East Arm Grand Traverse Bay.

We spent the night in Grayling at the very clean and reasonable Motel 72 which looks like it attracts more snowmobilers than birders. The next morning, it wasn’t a happy surprise to scrape ice off the windshield in late May. Luckily for us Goodale’s Bakery opened early and had great coffee and donuts. Our only mistake was not buying a dozen cherry donuts.

We had about a 45 minute drive to the Mio Ranger Station to meet our group at 7:15 a.m. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers daily Kirtland’s Warbler tours from May 15 – May 31. Once assembled we watched a video about the Kirtland’s Warbler which had estimated record low numbers of singing males at 167 in 1974 and 1987, and increased to a record high of 1,828 in 2011. It only breeds in Jack Pine between 5 and 20 feet and many people are working hard to restore and maintain the nesting habitat. After the video, we followed the ranger approximately three miles and pulled to the side of a dirt road in the Huron-Manistee National Forest. It was a only a few short minutes until we heard and then saw our target bird, the Kirtland’s Warbler.

We saw a total of fifteen species on the tour including Nashville Warbler and Vesper Sparrow, both rarities for us.

Our final stop of the tour was at the Brown-headed Cowbird trap. These birds present the second greatest threat to the Kirtland’s Warbler survival because the cowbirds lay eggs in other bird’s nests, called nest parasitism. The young cowbird is bigger and eats more food than the smaller warblers, and may actually push the other baby birds out of the nest. Thankfully, Michigan’s aggressive program to remove cowbirds has contributed to the Kirtland’s Warbler breeding success.

Two days was not nearly enough and we look forward to spending more time in Michigan to go birding and visit family.

 

Trip Birds: 23   Life Birds: 1 Kirtland’s Warbler

Next up: South Dakota Birding