Michigan flora and fauna from recent epic foray

A room with a view! This is Lake Nettie, the backdrop for NettieBay Lodge and its complement of cabins. I made this image a few evenings ago, right behind my cabin.

I've just returned from nine days in Presque Isle County, Michigan and vicinity, where I've gone the past ten years. I lead natural history forays, with an emphasis on birds, in conjunction with NettieBay Lodge. You can read about those RIGHT HERE, or use the search box in the top right corner of this page to find much more about past trips. We'll probably be doing one, and if interest warrants, two trips next year. The dates should be set and on the NettieBay Lodge website before long. We'd love to have you along, and feel free to contact Mark or Jackie at the lodge to get on the list, RIGHT HERE.

This year's group poses by Ocqueoc Falls, the largest falls in Michigan's lower peninsula. They may not be Niagaraesque, but are showy and situated in the middle of excellent forested habitat. We always stop here on the final morning of these workshops.

The group of eight (we usually keep it to that number, to better ensure that everyone sees everything) was fantastic. From L to R: your narrator, Jodie (in yellow, hiding like a bittern), Ned, Carolyn, Kay, Sara, Leigh, Bob, Ted, and Vinnie. Mark Schuler, lodge proprietor, took the image.

As a group, we found about 115 species of birds and many other interesting elements of natural history, and we barely left Presque Isle County! I added about 15 other bird species to the list during my pre-trip scouting, and post-trip photography excursions. These forays are essentially three full days: a half-day on either end, and two full days between.

Luxuriant carpets of ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris, cloak the banks of the Trout River. High levels of tannins from plants darken the stream's waters.

There cannot be many more (any?) biodiverse Michigan counties than Presque Isle County. Its eastern boundary is Lake Huron and a vast array of boreal habitats. On the western side are the massive jack pine plains, with an entirely different complement of flora and fauna. On one of the full days, we go east, and on the other, west. The two half days are spent visiting interesting nooks and crannies.

A mosquito provides scale to the elfin flowers of bird's-eye primrose, Primula mistassinica. This tiny plant occupies cold calcareous gravelly soils along or near Lake Huron. In a normal spring, it is mostly done by the time we arrive, but this year spring was tardy and plants in general seemed about a week or two behind.

The small ivory flower of nodding trillium, Trillium cernuum, dangles below overarching leaves. It's easy to walk right by these beautiful wildflowers and miss the blooms. This species is locally common in rich woodlands.

A snowshoe hare ponders our group. These big bunnies prefer dense white cedar forests, and when feeling threatened simply disappear into the thick growth. This rabbit put on quite the show, dashing this way and that on the trail and venturing quite close at times. His odd behavior makes me think he was on the trail of a doe.

A gorgeous magnolia warbler peeks from the white cedars. This is a very common breeder here, but they have a penchant for the gloom of thick understory. Only by learning the soft warbled song does one get a sense of their frequency.

No soft warbled songs here! This is a northern waterthrush, a common breeder in swampy woods, alder swamps and the like. Its loud explosive song can be heard from afar, but the birds are tough to see in the well-vegetated quagmires they occupy. This one, at Cheboygan State Park, had a singing perch right along the road.

Even in late May migration is still in full swing this far north, and the late migrants have entered the picture. This is a yellow-bellied flycatcher, a tiny songbird that might be confused for a warbler from afar. Yellow-bellieds are often quite active, flitting and dashing through the dense understory that they typically frequent. I heard about five, but this bird was the only one that I clapped eyes on.

The fabulous alder flycatcher, which always reminds me of a miniature olive-sided flycatcher. It replaces the more southerly willow flycatcher in the north, and is well-named as its primary habitat is alder swamps. The alder's song is an explosive free-beer! and it gives loud pip-pip calls suggestive of the olive-sided flycatcher. Until 1973, this species was lumped with willow flycatcher under the name Traill's flycatcher.

I spotted this American bittern while driving the entrance road to Wilderness State Park, and stopped for some photos. When "hiding", bitterns stick their bill in the air, sway slightly as if blown by the wind, and become one with the cattails. This bird was singing on occasion, a bizarre sound reminiscent of a pump being run under water.

State and Federal agencies have been doing a fantastic job of managing the jack pine plains for Kirtland's warblers, and we see every stage of jack pine succession from new plantings to old-growth. The warblers occupy the pines when they are around five years of age, and quit using the stands when they age to about 20 years. This animal was in a very young stand of five year old jacks - the first year I had seen the warblers in this locale.

A great many other species benefit from Kirtland's warbler management, including clay-colored sparrows. This little fellow belts out his odd song of raspy buzzes from the summit of a young jack pine.

One of our most colorful songbirds, a Nashville warbler sings from an aspen branch. It's a common species in jack pine country, and about every other type of wooded habitat in this region.

A male palm warbler pauses between bouts of song. This animal has occupied a large jack pine plain, with Kirtland's warblers as neighbors. He sang conspicuously from scrubby oaks such as the young white oak in this image, and dead jack pine snags. The bird is an incidental beneficiary of large-scale jack pine management for Kirtland's warblers, as is a large list of other species: badger, thirteen-lined ground squirrel, brown elfin butterfly, black-banded orange moth, upland sandpiper, clay-colored, field, Lincoln's, vesper, and white-throated sparrows, hermit thrush, brown thrasher, merlin, common nighthawk, northern harrier, eastern bluebird, northern flicker, Nashville warbler, indigo bunting, Brewer's blackbird and plenty of others.