Pt. Pelee & Eastern Michigan

Pt. Pelee & Eastern Michigan
May 12-20, 2007

May 12, 2007
I flew into Detroit Airport which is actually in Romulus, MI, then drove west 19 miles to the nearest Whole Foods Market in Ann Arbor, MI, even though it was the opposite direction from my final destination. Ann Arbor looked like a tidy town. In fact, all of Michigan seemed very neat and tidy; I saw little to no trash anywhere and most of the homes were well kept. I drove back east from Ann Arbor, through Detroit, across the Detroit River, onto the Ambassador Bridge and into Canada to Wheatley Provincial Park in the tiny town of Wheatley, Ontario where I planned to camp for several days. The customs agent grilled me. When I said I was going camping in Wheatley Provincial Park, he said, “come on, you drove all the way from San Francisco to camp at Wheatley?” I said I was just camping there and planned to go birding at Pt. Pelee. Then he said do you have any alcohol? I lied and said no. I was not about to turn over $25 of special Michigan craft brew I had bought specially in Whole Foods. I didn’t know it was illegal to even possess alcohol at Wheatley. They must have a big problem there. As I entered the town the first thing I saw was a big sign that said, “Crime Stoppers call ….” It didn’t make me feel secure. As I set up my tent at Wheatley an American Woodcock began to give its “peent” call. After a few peent calls it began to display to attract a mate by flying high into the sky while making a wing whir and then fluttering back to the ground. It was spectacular to watch as I had never seen it before. Unfortunately they only do the display at dawn and dusk so it was difficult to film. It didn’t get dark until 9:30 PM and after that I fell soundly asleep in my tent. Almost everyone there was tent camping with just a few campers and very few RVs. During the night some hoodlums made some noise but they left after the weekend and the rest of the time it was quiet.

May 13, 2007
I got up at 5:00 AM and other birders camping in the park were already up and at ‘em. It was a chilly 42 degrees. From Wheatley I drove about 10 minutes to Kopegaron Park and walked a boardwalk through a virgin forest. Pink and white trilliums were blooming in huge patches, though the trees were not nearly leafed out. It was quite chilly and the sun was not warming the tree tops yet and I only saw Ovenbird, Gray Catbird, White-throated Sparrow, and Red-bellied Woodpecker here, all things I could see in NC. So I headed another 15 minutes south to Pt. Pelee National Park, which is the southern most point in mainland Canada in the tiny town of Leamington, Ontario. I drove as far as I could to a large parking area at the visitor center and walked the rest of the way to the tip. Except for two weeks in May when the park is inundated with birders you can drive all the way to the tip but because so many people come to Pt. Pelee to see the spectacle of the amazing spring migration there everyone must either walk or take a tram to the tip. Pt. Pelee is a 15 kilometer triangular-shaped piece of land jutting out into Lake Erie. It sits at the crossroads of the Atlantic flyway, the park's protected forest and sand spit (eroding rapidly) offering a much needed respite to weary birds making their long spring migration northward across Lake Erie.

There were people everywhere I looked. I took a trail behind the visitor center and started walking. I have never seen such a collection of Baltimore Orioles which nest in the park. They were everywhere I looked with their black heads and bright orange bodies making a splash of color in the nearly leafless trees and making them easy to spot. There were also many Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. On the ground sweet cicely was blooming in huge carpets as were more trilliums, red columbine, fairy bells, and jack-in-the-pulpit. On the woodlands trail to the tip I saw a Wood Duck in a tree, a Carolina Wren, and Black-and-white Warbler. I walked to the tip where hordes of birders were surrounding a Chuck-will’s-widow that was asleep on a log beside the trail. This species should not be this far north so most people were thrilled to see it; indeed it was probably a life bird for many people there. A Mourning Warbler was singing away in a bush nearby but this shy bird never revealed itself to me. Somebody told me about an Eastern Screech-Owl in a tree and I went and looked at it. Then I walked back up the woodlands trail. There were ten people ahead of me and 20 behind. The place was just crawling with people. I don’t know if there were more birds or birders. On the return trip I saw Black-throated Blue Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Nashville Warbler, many more Baltimore Orioles and some Orchard Orioles. There were literally thousands of Yellow Warblers in every tree. Later I walked the Tilden’s Woods trail and saw Common Yellowthroat, Eastern Wood-pewee, Great-crested Flycatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Least Flycatcher, and Wilson’s Warbler. In the afternoon I took the woodland trail again and found one Worm-eating Warbler which is very uncommon in the park and much sought-after. I saw Swainson’s Thrush, Veery, and Hermit Thrush and American Redstarts were plentiful. Out over Lake Erie there were Common Terns and Forster’s Terns and Bonaparte’s Gulls. Very late in the day I stopped at Hillman Marsh and was surprised to find yet more people. There weren’t many shorebirds to study just Lesser Yellowlegs, Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Scaup, Spotted Sandpiper, Bufflehead, and Blue-winged Teal. I heard a Ringed-neck Pheasant calling.

5/14/07
I got up at 5:00 AM and went to Kopegaron Woods again where I saw Lincoln’s Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Black-capped Chickadee, Black-throated Green Warbler, and Tennessee Warbler. Then I went back to Pt. Pelee. There were many birders. The Mourning Warbler was still at the tip and this time I actually saw it for about two seconds. There was a photographer trying to get a picture; he was the first and only black birder I have ever met. There are three kinds of birders at Pt. Pelee—serious birders who are looking for that rare bird that gets blown across Lake Erie into Pt. Pelee, bad birders who don’t know anything and have just heard about Pt. Pelee, and photographers. These are not just your ordinary photographers either; these people are crazy. They walk around chasing around these poor tired birds with these five foot long cameras with giant flashes and diffusers all sitting on massive tripods that they lug around for miles on the trails. Most of them have camouflaged hoods on the end of their enormous cameras. Someone would report a bird and seven photographers with seven foot long cameras would surround the bird and snap away. I found a Philadelphia Vireo in the trees, a Sandhill Crane flew overhead, and I found a bright red male Scarlet Tanager at the Dunes trail but I could not find a Cape May Warbler anywhere. I asked everyone but they all said they were on the Sanctuary trail the day before, a trail I had not taken. I drove to Sanctuary and walked the trail but only saw more Black-throated Blue Warblers, Northern Parulas, Blackburnian Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Ovenbird, Canada Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, American Redstart, and one Blackpoll Warbler. Even though I was not finding my target bird the sheer numbers of warblers I saw was astounding. That night at Wheatley campground the Woodcock was displaying and it was not nearly as cold as the day before.

5/15/07
I got up at 4:30 AM to try to get to the tip at day break. Birders were already in the parking lot waiting for the first tram ride. I started to get on and someone said there was a warbler in a tree: I looked and there it was my first ever Cape May Warbler and what a beauty! I took the tram to the tip. There were warblers dripping from the trees. It was going to be a good day. All day long I saw warblers everywhere including many beautiful Cape May Warblers. As the day progressed it warmed up to 80 degrees—the only day I wore shorts and the only day I saw butterflies which were 99% Red Admirals except for one Morning Cloak. Large crowds of people would swarm any tree where a photographer set up. Someone yelled out Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and I saw it in the trees. Any time more than two or three people stopped to look this would attract even more people so that huge crowds would gather around various warbler filled trees and of course the photographers with their ten foot long camouflaged cameras were swarming the birds as well. I wish I had filmed the photographers just because it alone was a spectacle to behold. After lunch somebody said there was a Golden-winged Warbler on the Shuster trail so I went over and there it was in the thicket. I also heard a Northern Waterthrush in the swamp. I looked for birds all day long until my feet were so tired I felt I could not go on. I ended up seeing 22 species of warblers in just this one day – amazing! In California if I see more than four it’s a miracle. As I was resting at a picnic table two people pulled up and peered into a tree. They left and I dragged myself up and there was a Common Nighthawk perched in a tree asleep. A crowd gathered around a willow tree. I practically crawled over to see what the fuss was about and they were excited about an Orange-crowned Warbler (whop-te-do—they are common as mosquitoes in San Francisco) and a Willow Flycatcher—why couldn’t it be the incredibly similar Alder Flycatcher that I have never seen before? Alder and Willow Flycatcher look nearly identical except Alder has a slightly more noticeable eye ring whereas Willow has nearly none. The vocalizations are similar but distinguishable and unless they vocalize often they cannot be distinguished in the field. Some “expert” birder called this one a Willow (Willow Flycatchers migrate through San Francisco in the fall and are fairly easy to see) even though it never vocalized. I left Pt. Pelee exhausted as it closed at 9:30 PM and crawled into my tent. I didn’t sleep well though as a storm descended and pelted my tent all night long. It rained and the wind blew the tent flaps constantly.

5/16/07
I got up at 4:00 AM and drove a long arduous drive east of Pt. Pelee around Lake Erie three hours to Toronto and then another hour and a half to Carden Plain a Nature Conservancy site. It was a hellish drive. I had to get directions from Susan who did a google search to find it. I ended up on a single lane dirt road in the middle of nowhere in Canada. It was drizzling steadily. I parked at a bridge where a local birder named Roger told me I could find Sedge Wren, a bird I have been looking for a long time, Yellow Rail, and Upland Sandpiper. As I got out of the car an American Bittern began to gallump. If you have ever heard one you know it makes this sound like water coming out of a jug. I did not hear or see any Sedge Wren. I drove to the end of Wylie Road and parked. It continued to rain so I just left my camera in the car. What a mistake! As I walked up the road I saw Vesper Sparrow, Grassshopper Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and Savannah Sparrow. Four male Bobolinks perched right in front of me on a fence. Wilson’s Snipes were displaying everywhere. They also make a wing whir as they end their display and descend to earth. Then there they were four Upland Sandpipers flying across a field making their strange call. I walked all the way back to the bridge and nearly there I found another Golden-winged Warbler. This one perched on a branch in plain view. I was supposed to meet Ken at the Visitor Center at 5:00 PM. It was a five hour drive back. I wanted to stay and go back and get my camera since the rain had stopped but there was no time. So I sadly had to leave with no video or pictures of this mysterious bird I will probably never see again. It was a hellish drive back and I didn’t even get to the VC until 6:00 PM anyway. Around 6:30 PM I found Ken and he said he never told me to meet him at 5:00 PM. We walked around and saw many of the same birds I had seen the two days before. Then Ken headed for his camp site at Wal-mart parking lot and I headed to Wheatley with the Woodcock for company.

5/17/07
I got up at 4:30 AM and met Ken at the VC. We took the tram to the tip but there was not much activity compared to the previous days. Everyone said there had been many cuckoos the day before. Ken was dying to see a Mourning Warbler or Connecticut Warbler. All day long he surreptiously played bird song tapes, even though this is verboten at Pt. Pelee, trying to draw in either of these two highly sought after warblers. He did manage to call in four Black-billed Cuckoos one of which landed just inches from his right shoulder at one point. These are very cool birds with a very unusual underside of their tail. I have seen Yellow-billed Cuckoos in southern California and South Carolina but never the much more sought-after Black-billed Cuckoo. We wandered around for hours seeing many great birds but not the ones Ken wanted. Ken complained bitterly out loud if any birders passed us. I was wondering the first day I got there why he even liked the place when there were so many birders. He yelled at a couple of people and grumbled a lot. It was overcast and quite chilly so there weren’t even that many people compared to the previous three days. I suggested we try the De Laurier House which had been a hot bed two days ago. We walked out to a cemetery but there was nothing really there. Ken just wanted to rest because his video camera weighs about 20 pounds and he carries a heavy tripod too. I said we should go over to the pond where I saw all the Cape May Warblers on Tuesday. We started seeing some warblers at least but Ken was disappointed that none of them was a Connecticut or Mourning Warbler. We stopped to go to a look out to see an alleged eagle nest, which we never saw. While we were resting a Mississippi Kite snatched a swallow out of the sky and took it to a tree to eat it. I was amazed. This was very far north for this species. As it ate, a Common Grackle or Red-winged Blackbird repeatedly swooped at it once even pecking its back. I thought it was pretty cool but Ken was unimpressed because it was too far for videotaping it. He only cares about birds he can videotape. Ken is working on a project to videotape all the species in North America. So far he has probably about as many as I have on my life list. But the project seems so massive to edit when he takes about nine or ten hours of video on every trip he takes, that it seems inconceivable he would ever be able to complete the task without professional help. I wanted to stay longer but we had a five hour drive ahead of us to Mio, Michigan in Huron National Forest where we were to take a tour at 7:00 AM the next day. So we reluctantly left Pt. Pelee National Park. At first I was following Ken but he refused to go even one kilometer over the speed limit and it was a painfully slow drive. An 18 wheeler truck even passed us which has never happened to me before. So eventually I passed Ken too. At the border the customs agent asked me what I did in Canada and I said looked at birds which they must hear a lot given how famous Pt. Pelee is. But he wanted to tell me about flying squirrels they have in the east. I did see some Eastern Black Squirrels in Pt. Pelee but no flying squirrels. I was so long at the border that Ken got ahead of me and I lost track of him. I stopped at two rest stops and got gas and still found Ken puttering along Michigan Highway 33 around 11:00 PM with five cars behind him. After they all passed him I followed for a while but when I saw a forest service campground I decided to camp there and turned off Hwy 33. Ken went ahead to the ranger office. I slept soundly at a nearly empty quiet little forest service campground on Wagner Lake. I got up at the late hour of 6:00 AM to 25 degree weather! It was so chilly in upper Michigan. After breakfast I drove to the ranger station which had moved to McKinley Avenue in Mio. Ken was already complaining about how many people were there and how he wasn’t going to go, etc, etc. I just went in and paid my $5. They had a video playing in the visitor center with ultra close up shots of the endangered species we came to see, the Kirtland’s Warbler, feeding chicks in a nest which they build on the ground. Before we started our tour to find one, the forest service had us watch a short video. It’s good that it was dark because I almost started to cry when they said in the video that there are only 2000 breeding pairs of Kirtland’s Warblers left in the world, a species that is sure to go extinct in our life times. Michigan is very pretty in a subtle way. It doesn’t have the gorgeous cliff lined coasts or majestic mountains or even a real beach but the trees stretch for miles, everything is very clean, it is surrounded by the incredible great lakes, and it has the last remaining breeding pairs of the endangered Kirtland’s Warblers. After the video Ken tried to get the forest service to give him a private tour but they said no. So he had no choice but to join the others. Chris with the Huron National Forest Service which oversees management of the Kirtland’s Warbler sites, led us to a spot where we would look for one. We drove to a managed Jack Pine forest. Kirtland’s Warblers are going extinct because they only breed in Jack Pines that are 4-10 feet high. Jack Pines get higher than that but historically there were many the right size for the warbler because of naturally occurring fires. The cones of Jack Pines will only release with fire. Fires have been suppressed for many years by the Forest Service and this along with loss of habitat by development caused the Kirtland’s Warbler numbers to decline dramatically. Now the forest service sets proscribed burns and replants the Jack Pines to keep these few remaining Kirtland’s Warblers alive. We started down a trail in some pine trees with a few scattered Pinoaks. Within five minutes one flew up right in front of us. Unfortunately it was right in the sun making for bad photos and video. I got a good look at my first ever Kirtland’s Warbler with its bright yellow breast, black face, and eye arcs. He perched in a pinoak and sang away. After everyone had satisfying looks we headed over to an area where they capture Brown-headed Cowbirds. These birds are native to the central US but their numbers have increased dramatically with the dramatic increase in the cattle industry. Now Brown-headed Cowbirds occur in large numbers throughout the US. The problem is that they are obligate brood parasites. This means that they build no nest. Instead the female lays her eggs in another bird’s nest and lets that bird raise her chicks. This causes the other bird’s chicks to starve. It is illegal to kill any native bird but the forest service has special permission from Congress to euthanize these cowbirds in order to help the Kirtland’s Warbler which would otherwise be parasitized by the Cowbirds. The number of nests which are parasitized by Cowbirds has been reduced to 6% since the introduction of the capture project. While looking at the cowbird pen we saw four more Kirtland’s Warblers and some Clay-colored Sparrows and one Vesper Sparrow. Two Trumpeter Swans flew overhead and a Scarlet Tanager flew into a tree. As I stood in front of the Jack Pine forest planted by the US Forest Service and intensely managed by it, I knew it was only a matter of time before the Kirtland's Warbler would go extinct. I could imagine 20 years into the future when the demands of overcrowding and overpopulation would cause the government to turn the land over to developers. I could imagine the argument the developer would make: "The Jack Pine wood is only good for particle board and this real estate could be put to better use as a housing development with condominiums and a golf course..." My picture of the Kirtland's Warbler is not very good but I think I will keep it as it may be the last Kirtland's Warbler I ever see. After the tour we went to a burn area to look for Black-backed Woodpecker which we did not find, just one Red-headed Woodpecker. Then it was time for Ken to head north for Minnesota and me to head south closer to the Detroit Airport. I went into what’s known as the Thumb Area of Michigan, an area surrounded by Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron, to the Minden State Game Area. I walked out about two miles but didn’t see anything but very common birds but it was interesting nevertheless as it is a peat bog. As I walked along I flushed a Wild Turkey out of the bog which was strange. After I left the bog I headed south along the shores of Lake Huron. There are many picnic areas and public parks along the shore but I didn’t see any suitable campgrounds. I was debating driving back to Pt. Pelee but dreading crossing the international border again. It was getting late and I was ready to go back into Canada when I found a state park campground, Lake Port. It was $31! And when I got to my campsite which the ranger made sound like it was huge and private there were hundreds of RVs! And not only that but they were bunched together like an RV condominium. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like a shanty town. I wanted to go back and get my money back. Instead I just crawled into my car not even putting my tent out and fell fast asleep in the car. I got up before anyone and was out of there by 6:30 AM. I drove to Port Huron, MI which is along Lake Huron but at the base of the Thumb region. I went to the Port Huron State Game Area and spent the entire day there at various spots looking for birds. At the first stop on Vincent Road there was a sign which made it amply clear that the area was made possible by the money extracted from hunters. This is a story I have heard many times before—that birders do not support their sport and that hunters do and that’s why we have to bird in dangerous areas with crazed hunters. Fortunately for me it was not hunting season. I was the only person there the first two hours. I started down a well worn trail past the spent shotgun shells in the parking area. Immediately I began to see many warblers including four Golden-winged Warblers. This is another prized warbler. Their numbers are threatened by hybridization with Blue-winged Warblers. The problem is that where the two species’ ranges overlap as in Michigan the Blue-winged will edge the Golden-winged Warbler out (if they continue to hybridize it threatens by definition the existence of the species). I did not see any hybrids but I did see a fair number of Blue-winged Warblers. A Cooper’s Hawk was perched in a tree but took off. I heard a Hooded Warbler which is uncommon this far north and I saw two more Cape May Warblers and one Palm Warbler. I next stopped at the Black River and was dismayed to see several cars and a table set up. Some people were walking the trails with binoculars but it was obvious they were rank amateurs. I stepped onto a flooded side trail and there in a tree was a male Mourning Warbler. Before I could even get my camera turned on it flew into the tangle which is so typical of this shy bird. I met a man and asked him why so many people were there; he said it was a mist netting and banding event (what this actually means is a time for amateurs to come and torture birds by capturing them in nets making them vulnerable to prey and then putting on an uncomfortable piece of metal on their little leg). I asked him if he had seen any Alder Flycatchers and he looked at me like he didn’t know what it was. He said he wanted to see a Golden-winged Warbler. I told him about the previous spot and told him it was at the end of Vincent Road. He left and within two minutes I heard and then saw a Golden-winged Warbler. He obviously did not know the bird’s song. What a moron. I ended up seeing four more at the Black River. I walked the trails around the Black River for about two or three hours and eventually found an empidonax flycatcher that was singing which I think was an Alder Flycatcher. There were a few Baltimore Orioles and a lot of eastern species like Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting, Least Flycatcher, and Great-crested Flycatcher. Later at another location on the Black River I heard a Mourning Warbler singing but it never popped out. Next I drove to Bruce Road which was just incredible. I saw a Mourning Warbler right in a tree over the trail, Magnolia Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler (very common it seems in MI), more Golden-winged Warblers, Hooded Warbler (rare here) American Redstart, Ovenbird, Wood Thrush, and the only Tufted Titmouse of the day. Unfortunately it began to rain. I ran back to the car and got my raincoat and continued my walk seeing more warblers and one Ruby-throated Hummingbird. I stopped at Kingsley Road and found a Veery and Nashville Warbler and in a weedy field Field Sparrow and Bobolink. It was getting late in the day and I still hadn’t found a definite Alder Flycatcher. I drove to Graham Road and parked in the parking area. There were a few cars. A sign said Firing Range Closed but I heard gunshots anyway. I walked up Graham Road listening for Alder Flycatcher. I stayed in the middle. A car came tearing down this dirt road about 60-65 MPH. Some brat teenager was driving some rickety old car with a broken side mirror dangling. It was getting hard to hear between the gunshots and racing car. Then some jackass started driving his lawn mower down the dirt road for about one mile. It was so noisy. Do you have any idea how loud a lawn mower is on a dirt road? I glared at him and after he passed I turned my camera on him and called him foul names. I could not find an Alder Flycatcher. A kid walked up in fatigues and asked if I had seen anything interesting which was amazing for a teenager. I said it was too noisy and he said they were playing paintball but somebody came and tore down the Firing Range Closed sign and began shooting so he quit. He walked home and I turned back to my car as it was getting too dangerous here. These people living out in the country are crazy; South Carolina has nothing on them! A few minutes later the jackass in the car with one mirror pulled up. He was some pimple faced impudent obdurate child and the churl that was driving the lawn mower in the road was in the passenger seat. The driver said impudently what are “you guys” doing? I thought maybe in Michigan they don’t know that “you guys” is plural just like in Texas they don’t know that y’all is plural. I glared at him with a withering look and said I’m not doing anything. I’m looking for birds jackass. He said something I couldn’t hear; I think they were worried I was videotaping him riding the lawn mower on the road. The little morons I’m sure will grow up to be full blown criminals. I found another parking area said to be good for Alder Flycatcher in the Birding Michigan book. I walked out into a muddy weedy field. I played the Alder Flycatcher tape and an empidonax flycatcher flew into a nearby tree. Sing I yelled, sing! But no, it would not sing and I still don’t know if it was a definitive Alder. Why wouldn’t it sing? I deserved for it to sing after putting up with those crazy Michigan red-necks. It was getting real late. I walked a very scenic woodland trail but it just had Red-eyed Vireo and Wood Thrush. I had one last stop and that was Wadham Road for Upland Sandpiper or possible Sedge Wren neither of which were in the field. Good thing I made that long drive to Carden Plain in Ontario and saw the Upland Sandpiper. The Sedge Wren will have to wait for a winter visit to SC or NC. There was a Bobolink in the field and a Cliff Swallow. Then it was time to drive back to Detroit for an early flight back in the morning. I really enjoyed my day of birding in Michigan. It had superb numbers of warblers without all the big crowds of Pt. Pelee. But every birder must make the trip to Pt. Pelee at least once in his or her life time just for the sheer spectacle of both man and bird and beast.

5/20/07
At the airport security the agent took my ticket and identification and said, “what happened to your hair?” I said Michigan happened to my hair.

Total number of species = 167
Total number of life birds = 4 maybe 5
Cape May Warbler
Upland Sandpiper
Black-billed Cuckoo
Kirtland’s Warbler
Possible Alder Flycatcher