Sunday, February 12 – Ed

Sunday, February 12
University of Michigan-Dearborn Field House. Volleyball tournament. Deafening noise, whistles, yelling, commotion. Wasn’t I birding in the UP yesterday? Is this a nightmare? Did I do something evil in a prior life? Am I in hell? Apparently the answer to all of these is yes.

Yesterday we did some birding with our friend Barb in the Sault Ste. Marie area. As soon as Molly got out of school on Friday we headed north. As usual when traveling in Northern Michigan during the winter, we hit some snow and icy conditions. Interestingly, the further north we went, the better it got. By the time we got to Sault Ste. Marie it was just cold. Real cold. Like zero Fahrenheit. Like, Ice Station Zebra. Like, The Iceman Cometh. Like winter scenes in Dr. Zhivago. Like, what happened to global warming?  Still, it was better than being in the UM-Dearborn Field House for a Vball tourney. The field house is only slightly warmer. 

Typical birding with Barb and Lise.

Lovely day at the park.

Bird-wise we did pretty good. We were going for winter species. Didn’t get many but the ones we got were good. New birds for the year were red crossbill, hoary redpoll, pine grosbeak, evening grosbeak, Bohemian waxwing, and pileated woodpecker. Four of these;  red crossbill, hoary redpoll, pine grosbeak, and Bohemian waxwing are life birds for Lise and me.  The red crossbill was a life bird for Barb. 

Barb with a friendly chickadee.

We missed on a couple we were hoping to get. Sharp-tailed grouse and gray jays are regulars in the area. Gray jays we thought would be the easiest. They tend to find people, looking for handouts. Like deer in Brown County State Park. Barb even tried the sure fire “rattle the potato chip bag technique” to call them in. No luck. The DNR must have had a cull.

We saw some interesting places. One house had about forty thistle feeders up. There were easily a hundred pine siskins there. The plastic Santas, snowmen, and knocked over penguin were nice touches. The Dafter dump was another interesting place. Despite the potential health issues there were five bald eagles at the dump. Unfortunately the dump was closed so we couldn’t get close to the good stuff. Bird wise that is.

The ever popular Dafter Dump. Bird at your own risk.

Then there was the old Sault Ste. Marie power plant. A really interesting building that has part of the Saint Mary’s River flowing under it. Often times this is the only open water in the area. Some years a gyrfalcon or eiders can be found there. Apparently it is too warm this year.

The old Sault Ste Marie power plant

Right across the street from the power plant is Antlers, one of the dining highlights in the area. They have a couple hundred stuffed dead things hanging on the walls. Everything from a pride of lions to sharks and an anaconda. Not only do they have the classic Jack-a-lope but the incredibly rare fur-bearing trout. Fresh from the deep cold waters of Lake Superior. It don’t get any better than this. The food was pretty good. I had shephard’s pie made with venison. The part I didn’t eat is probably hanging on the wall somewhere.

The gang at Antlers

Why it is called Antlers

The very rare fur-bearing trout

The ever popular jack-a-lope

The “Pride of Michigan”, obviously not the Detroit Lions.

Lise being eaten by the giant anaconda. Maybe it’s time to talk about Mutual of Omaha insurance.

OK, so maybe the volleyball tournament isn’t a complete bust. Coming back from a coffee run we had seven great blue herons fly up out of the Rouge River. Number 74 for the year.