Birding the Northwoods
June 2002

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June 6-7 -- We parked our motorhome at Hartwick Pines State Park near Grayling, Michigan, and early the next morning we joined a ranger-led tour to see the Kirtland’s Warbler.  The weather was cool and clear, and a number of  Kirtland’s Warblers sang from high perches above the young Jack Pines.  To me it sounded like “chip-chip, chee-chee, swee-sweet,” rapid and rising at the end.  This endangered bird appears to be doing well here, but only through careful management of their habitat and constant trapping of Brown-headed Cowbirds.

June 8-10 -- We moved on to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  Our primary goal here was the Black-throated Blue Warbler.  The sources we consulted recommended the Tahquamenon Falls Trail, Miner’s Falls Trail and the Songbird Trail at AuTrain Lake Campground.  We hiked all three trails and occasionally heard the buzzy, rising “sweer sweer swee swee zeee” or “beer beer beer beer beeee” of the Black-throated Blue Warbler among the songs of Magnolia, Tennessee, and Black-throated Green Warblers, Veeries, Hermit Thrushes and others.  But we never were able to get a look at a male Black-throated Blue.  Bob did see a female, but I missed it.  And each time we’d stop to look, hordes of mosquitoes descended on us.  We had already bought mosquito head nets and covered ourselves with industrial-strength mosquito repellent, but the mosquitoes still hovered around us hungrily and found vulnerable spots to bite whenever we stood still.

                Since we needed to be in Duluth, Minnesota, by Monday evening, June 10, to pick up our ABA convention packets and get last minute instructions about field trips, etc., I resigned myself to a “heard only” entry on my life list for the Black-throated Blue.  Our chances of finding that bird were not as good in Minnesota as they were in Michigan. 

                Before leaving Michigan’s U.P. however, we visited Seney NWR.  Not many warblers here.  Seney is a wetland managed primarily for waterfowl.  But we did find American Black Duck – a life bird for me, and we especially enjoyed seeing the display of the Common Snipe at dusk and hearing their winnowing flight “song.”

June 11-15 -- The ABA Convention in Duluth, Minnesota, was very interesting, educational and exhausting.  We learned a great deal in Paul Lehman’s workshop on Weather and Bird Migration, and in Dick Walton’s workshop on Minnesota Bird Songs.  The field trips started around 4:30 in the mornings and generally had us back in Duluth by around 3:00 PM.  By the third day of field trips, I was a zombie – and a cranky one at that.  But we did pick up a few lifers:  Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Black-backed Woodpecker, and Mourning Warbler were all new for me; and Connecticut Warbler was new for Bob.  After the last field trip, we both went to bed early and enjoyed the luxury of sleeping late the next morning.

June 16-17 -- After checking Kim Eckert’s new 2002 edition of A Birder’s Guide to Minnesota and inquiring of other local birders, we headed north for one last attempt to find the Black-throated Blue Warbler.  Mount Oberg on the north shore of Lake Superior was supposed to have a nesting pair or two.

                As we were getting out of the car at the Mount Oberg Trail parking lot, a fifty-ish couple greeted us with complaints about the tent caterpillars.  The man grumbled, “I wouldn’t go back up there if you paid me!  But you can do what you want.” 

                We’d been dealing with the “army worms” all week on the ABA Convention field trips, so we proceeded on up the trail undaunted.  As we hiked up through the mostly-denuded aspens and birches, we batted with sticks to clear our path through the caterpillar threads and webs.  Occasionally we’d stop to pick caterpillars off each other.  At least they didn’t bite, but I didn’t like the idea of caterpillars crawling inside my collar.

                We enjoyed hearing Nashville, Magnolia, Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, and Black-throated Green Warblers, Ovenbirds and Red-eyed Vireos, accompanied by the ethereal music of Veeries and Hermit Thrushes.  Eventually, we emerged into open scrubby habitat with a beautiful view of Lake Superior – but no Black-throated Blue Warblers.  We returned to the deciduous woods we had just passed through and picked up a slow, buzzy “beer beer beer beer beeee,” rising on the last note.  (For some, the mnemonic that works best is “I am so la-zee.”)  We searched the dense vegetation for the singing bird.  Bob spotted it first and helped me get on it – a gorgeous male singing from the top of a mid-story snag.  The warbler looked almost completely black except for his snowy white belly and the white patch on his wings.  Success, at last!

June 18 -– Driving into Ely, Minnesota, we passed a grouse along the road.  It didn’t flush until we were beside it, so we got good looks.  It was a female Spruce Grouse, also known as Fool’s Hen because of its reluctance to flush when approached.  This was a lifer for both Bob and me – our last for the trip. 

June 20 -– On our way south, we stopped at Sax-Zim Bog.  We had birded it on the final day of ABA field trips, but wanted to try for a photo of the Great Gray Owl.  We ran into Dick Walton there, who was videotaping the owl.  Bob snapped a few shots of it, even though it was perched some distance away by this time.  Dick said the owl had been much closer earlier and graciously offered to E-mail one of his photos to us (as well as a photo of the Black-backed Woodpecker seen on the ABA trips).  We visited and birded with him a while before saying our good-byes and continuing our trip homeward.

                After three weeks on the road, our trip list totaled 152 species, with 22 warbler species, 10 ducks, 9 flycatchers, 7 woodpeckers, 7 sparrows, and 6 swallow species.  We enjoyed hearing the birds and learning their songs as much as seeing them.  Some of the most memorable and beautiful songsters in the world breed in the Northwoods of Michigan and Minnesota.

                If you ever plan to go north in search of these birds, be sure to spend some time learning their songs.  In the dense forests and undergrowth where many of these birds breed, they are much more easily heard than seen.  I highly recommend Dick Walton’s Birding By Ear tapes and CDs.  And if you ever have an opportunity to attend a bird song workshop led by Dick Walton, don’t miss it.  Bob told me he didn’t think he would ever get a handle on learning all the different warbler songs with his inability to hear high pitches, but after Dick Walton’s class, he felt much more confident in his ability to identify warblers and other birds by their songs.

                One final word in closing.  There may be easier places to see many of these migrant songbirds (such as the Texas Coast).  But the migrants along the coast are out of context and in many ways incomplete.  They’re generally not singing; they’re not in their breeding habitats; and they’re usually exhausted and not behaving normally.  On their northern breeding grounds, however, these birds not only are singing, but actively courting, defending territories, and then feeding and protecting young.  And all of this they’re doing exactly where they belong.  Palm and Connecticut Warblers and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers in muskeg, spruce and tamarack bogs.  Alder Flycatchers in nearby stands of aspen, alder and birch.  Kirtland’s Warblers in young Jack Pine groves; Magnolia Warblers in low conifers.  Mourning, Canada, and Black-throated Blue Warblers in cool dense understory thickets, along with Veeries and Hermit Thrushes.  Look for priceless moments and memories like these in the Northwoods where these birds breed.

Dorothy Metzler

Click here for more pictures of our trip on Bob's Web site

East Coast Trip:  South Carolina to New Hampshire, September 2002

Banff Area Trip:  September 2001 trip to Canada

New Mexico Trip:  Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque areas, August 2001

Photos Page 1:  Photos of friends and family

Photos Page 2:  Ice, snow (Dec. 2000) and flood (Mar. 2001)

Photos Page 3:  Family photos -- 2001

Photos Page 4:  Another flood in December 2001

Photos used with permission.  Copyright © 2002-2007.  All rights reserved.  All material on this Web site is intended only for the personal information and enjoyment of visitors to this Web site and may not be reproduced or published elsewhere without permission of the respective author or photographer. 
This page last updated May 03, 2009.

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