upper-peninsula – Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years

After a dreary January things have picked up a bit in our lives. For starters, we seem to be past the sub-zero temperatures. We’ve had a few spring-like days. Kind of scary warm for February days. And, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow on Groundhog’s Day, predicting only six more weeks of winter. How can you go wrong with a groundhog predicting the weather?

Last week we got to do our annual Eastern Upper Peninsula winter bird trip. The one we tried to do in mid-January, but the weather thwarted. We drove up to St. Ignace, Michigan, and our friend Joanna came over from Marquette to meet us.

This year was very different from the past 20 or so years we’ve done this trip. The weather was weirdly warm for this time of year. We have done this trip in single digit temperatures. There’s always a lot of snow cover. This year the temps were in the mid-thirties Fahrenheit and there was very little snow cover. We were driving on gravel roads that in the past were snow-packed. We didn’t know they were gravel until this year. On the up side, there were no snowmobiles. The warm temperatures produced fog and beautiful hoarfrost in the mornings. The fog made for low visibility and some tough birding.

Beyond those frost-covered, fog-shrouded, trees is miles of open space. Our visibility range was maybe 20 yards at best.

Overall the birding was so-so. This area is known for snowy owls in the winter. We ran into multiple group outings and numerous individuals, looking for winter birds and in particular snowy owls. One loop we drive typically produces over 20 owls. This year there was only one known snowy owl in the area. Many people were looking for that individual. We finally saw it, with help from someone who spotted it and waited by the road to point it out. Too far away for good pictures, but we got our snowy owl for the year.

The much sought for snowy owl. It looked better in the spotting scope.

We saw other winter species too, but we had to work for them. Overall the number of species and the number of individuals seemed to be low. Very possibly because the low snow cover didn’t concentrate the birds as in other years. And, even if we didn’t get any new species for the year, it would have been a great trip. Getting north of the Mackinac Bridge and spending time with a good friend helps rejuvenate the soul.