Boreal Chickadees, Black-backed Woodpeckers - Luce County; Whitewinged Crossbills - Chippewa County

[Don Henise]

We spent the last few days birding in the eastern UP. Joyce Peterson took us
around in the general Newberry area looking for some breeding specialties.

The most exciting birds for us were 3 Boreal Chickadees found on Skyline
Road about 4.4 miles in from M-123 north of Newberry in Luce County. Robyn
and I first found these on our own on Friday afternoon. We ran and got Joyce
from her cabin and she was able to see them. We found them again on Saturday
evening and again on Sunday morning. The first two sightings were about
1/10th mile beyond cabin # 8594. Sunday morning we saw them almost directly
across from the lane to the cabin. Also on Sunday morning two Red Crossbills
flew over at that location.

Saturday morning we had a flock of 30 or so White-winged Crossbills feeding
in the spruces on the edge of the parking lot at the Lower Tahquamenon Falls
in Chippewa County. Later in the day we had a small group fly over while we
were on Farm Truck Road and then 2 or 3 were hanging around the bridge over
the Betsy River on Maple Block Road. On Sunday we saw 2 White-winged
Crossbills on M-77 just south of Grand Marais in Alger County.

Several Black-backed Woodpeckers were found on the edge of the Sleeper Lake
Burn area in Luce County on Friday. There is an unmarked road off the north
of M-123 between Skyline Road and Murphy Creek. We drove in maybe 1/2 mile
and then walked out a mile or so and encountered 7 Black-backed Woodpeckers,
several of which were young birds.

Other birds of interest were a Leconte's Sparrow singing on the road to
Natalie in the Dollarville Flooding area and a pair of Trumpeter Swan with a
single cygnet seen from the Dollarville Flooding Dam in Luce County.

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I tried to send the message above last evening, but my internet connection
went down before I cound send it. 

On our way south this morning we stopped along Basnau Road (Hulbert's Bog)
in Chippewa County looking for Gray Jays which we dipped on, but we did find
3 more Boreal Chickadees at 2 different spots along the road. Two were about
halfway along the road and then a single bird was seen closer to the eastern
end of the bog. Both times they were in close proximity of Black-capped
Chickadees. 


Don & Robyn Henise
 
Librarians
New Tribes Bible Institute
Jackson, MI
don_henise at ntm.org