Today on December 30th, I decided to go to northeastern Maricopa County to the Old Beeline Highway where I was hoping to enjoy some more irruption birding like I did yesterday at Seven Springs. The weather was foggy on the way and foggy in the early going. Recent rains and cloudy weather have created the conditions, and it's pretty cool. The rains have also made lots of roads and terrain extra muddy. I wanted to go to Mt. Ord too, but figured the road conditions would be poor. Today marked what will be my last full birding day of 2022 as I work tomorrow. It's been a great year for birding!
The Old Beeline Highway has been one of my favorite locations to bird at this year, and it's given me a lot of highlights. Today was another one, as I made the location my main adventure for today. It was foggy when I arrived, but one the fog cleared it was cloudy and calm weather wise. I started birding just before 8 A.M., and from the start the bird activity was incredible. Most of that came from American Robins. Both sides of the Sunflower Valley, in which the Old Beeline Highway stretches between, was filled with Robins calling everywhere on juniper slopes. They were loud due to their numbers. Before I knew it large flocks were constantly flying overhead and heading in the northeast direction. In about a half-mile that I walked, I counted close to 3,000 birds as I counted by 10s, 20s, and 50s. The numbers were mindblowing, and it didn't include undoubtedly more abundant numbers of birds that were on the slopes that didn't call or fly up. Not all birds call, and when I thought one section had about 15 birds based on what I was hearing, a Cooper's Hawk in the pursuit flushed about 150 robins from a particular spot. And at some spots, the numbers and birds and the vocalizations of birds made it hard to hear others. My safe count was 3,550 American Robins, with no doubt many more. Townsend's Solitaire's were present in abundance as expected, and I came up with a count of 65 of them. They were loud and vocal, but in similar ways to the Robins, who knows how many there really were. Evening Grosbeaks were present in high numbers too, and the count I came up with was 80 of them. After seeing a big flock of 50 and another flock of nearly 20 within close time frames of each other, I had more flocks throughout the day that were more scattered. It was hard to say whether or not these birds were flying around and joining in big flocks at times. At times I had decent flight views of them, and a few times I had backlit looks of them higher in trees. Too they were up as high, as Evening Grosbeak is one I enjoy seeing and one I wanted to get some good photographs of. I didn't think this area would have better numbers of things than Seven Springs did, but I was wrong. After seeing lots of Cassin's Finches yesterday at Seven Springs, I only detected 3 today at Old Beeline. Other than these irruption species, a Pacific Wren was a fun highlight. It favored dense wood piles along Sycamore Creek just south of Sunflower Workstation. In this immediate area it was also fun to find two White-throated Sparrows, a male Black-and-white Warbler (which may be a long staying individual since early fall), and a Townsend's Warbler. Something that's being kept in mind are Cedar Waxwing numbers, as this area and Seven Springs are the most likely host for high numbers in Maricopa County. Today at Old Beeline I only had 4 birds. We'll see what the next month looks like as the winter continues. My walk today took me from the dead end at Old Beeline for driving and hiking Old Beeline for 1.7 miles to the Sunflower Barricade. The entire 1.7 miles had Robins and Solitaires that were constantly abundant and present. On the way back I ran into Susan Fishburn, Heather Eaton, and Heather's daughter, Emily. It was fun to run into them, and we enjoyed the Pacific Wren, Evening Grosbeak, and the crazy numbers of American Robins. I found a total of 47 species at Old Beeline today, full list on eBird at the link here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S124940250
Hammond's Flycatcher
Pacific Wren
Townsend's Solitaire
American Robins, the bird of the day
Evening Grosbeak flock
White-throated Sparrow
Black-and-white Warbler
I made a stop at Cross F Trailhead along Old Beeline too, and had more Evening Grosbeaks and of course lots of Robins. On the way home I checked Saguaro Lake for any interesting waterbirds on the lake. Nothing crazy, but a Clark's Grebe was mixed in with over 200 Western Grebes. My last birding of the day came from Avondale when I gave the Red-headed Woodpecker another visit at Rancho Santa Fe Park. I found it on the east side of the park in that big mesquite before it moved to the big palm tree, where it sat on both sides of the tree for the remaining 15 minutes I stayed at the park. The woodpecker had to share the hole with the European Starlings from the look of it. Also of interest in the park was a Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay. Unless I go birding tomorrow, this day was a fun end to 2022, which has been a great year to go birding.
As the day of June 2nd started with an early morning departure from Grayling, I made my way north to the upper peninsula of Michigan. As the day would be consumed with at least nine hours of driving, it did have some hardcore birding goals. After spending a day-and-a-half in Crawford County, my Michigan list had reached about 85 species. My goal for the day and as I would drive west to Wisconsin from the upper peninsula was to reach 100 species for the state of Michigan. I had a certain time that I wanted to be back to Gretchen's cabin by, but I planned the drive out that I would have five hours of birding time.
The Mackinaw Bridge was a treat to drive over again as I went from the lower to upper peninsula in a matter of minutes via the bridge over the Lake Michigan and Lake Huron divide. Once I got on state highways, I wanted to stop at many different locations as I drove. The scenery was awesome, and seeing roadside birds like Bald Eagles and Sandhill Cranes were good indicators that the birding would be good. I kept myself disciplined to not get carried away and to stop at a bunch of locations before I would get to the main location of the day that I had in mind. The GPS was running for directions, and after passing through state highway for about a minute and entering into Michigan's Chippewa County, I arrived at my main location interest for the day, which was Hulbert Bog.
Highway 28 accessed Basnau Road, which the Basnau Road branched off in a straight direction to the due east, while Highway 28 had ran in a straight, slightly southwestern direction for a good length. It was an interesting intersection. Basnau Road accesses Hulbert Bog just off of Highway 28, and runs to the east for two miles through the bog. As Basnau runs through Hulbert Bog, the road is in good shape and one can park and easily access the bog just about anywhere. I was aware of that, but I decided to park at the Highway 28 and Basnau Road intersection and walk east for two miles on Basnau to explore the bog slowly and to take my time. When I first started, I didn't think it was going to take me as long as it did. A good birding spot is a good birding spot!
In the early going, the songs of Alder Flycatchers came everywhere from a more open area on the west side of the bog. Common Yellowthroats matched their numbers. Upon starting, this male Black-and-white Warbler sang along the edge of the road, and it was awesome when it came down to getting his picture taken!
The exciting department really lit up when I heard calls above me that we coming from White-winged Crossbills. This northern species breeds in the northernmost regions of North America, and will breed in the northern states I was in during years. Prior to my trip, I was seeing regular, but not abundant, reports of White-winged Crossbills, which indicated that this was a year that they were breeding. As I heard them flying over me, they became an official life bird. I looked up to see a flock flying over the bog, and they kept on going. There must have been at least fifteen birds in the flock. I heard their distinctive, dry, and low, "chut-chut" calls and the flock was vocal. Minutes later, a single White-winged Crossbill flew overhead and was lower, and I got to hear it's flight calls more clearly than the flock who had just gone by. I looked up to see the bird visually, but it kept going and avoided my hopes of wanting to see one perched in one of the spruce trees within the bog. When the Crossbills flew over, I took a recording. One can barely make out the White-winged Crossbills, but I did capture some of the early morning bird chorus.
As I went through the bog, this Canada Warbler, as any Canada Warbler, sparked a fun sighting. It was working it's usual tangles of dense habitat and would come into view every now and then.
When walking through a bog during crisp, early morning air, it's a good time to hear a variety of bird songs. While most bird songs are peaceful, some of them have the power to immediately cleanse and refresh the mind. One example of a song like that comes from the Black-throated Green Warbler. It gives a beautiful song.
Looking ahead of me was a Snowshoe Hare. Right now they are brown with white feet, but in winter their fur turns into a solid white.
The next warbler that I photographed was a male Mourning Warbler who sang out in the open for a few minutes.
An awesome American Redstart male!
A big highlight came from watching a pair of Magnolia Warblers forage in dense habitat. The male gave me the chance for photographs, and the female popped up briefly. This was the first time of the trip I encountered Magnolias on their breeding grounds. Another epic warbler out of many.
One of the best songs in North America comes from the White-throated Sparrow. It's song is heavenly. And it's a sharp-looking sparrow! Hulbert Bog had a lot of them singing throughout the length of the hike.
Even though it was partially covered when I photographed it, I like the way the pictures turned out of this striking Canada Warbler. Yeah, I think this warbler is awesome and whenever I hear one sing, I try to make the most of it!
The last bird I photographed in the bog was this female Purple Finch.
I ended up spending close to three hours at Hulbert Bog. I covered about two miles in one way of walking, and I recorded at total of 57 species. The bird diversity at this location was impressive, and my looking at eBird, most people don't hike the entire length of the bog but usually opt to cover shorter distances and usually stay for shorter time duration. I'm glad that I spent the amount of time there that I did and covered the amount of the entire bog that I did. It makes me appreciate what birding underbirded locations, like this, can do. Here is a link to my eBird checklist:
After Hulbert, I made my way west into Schoolcraft County, Michigan and decided that I would make my last birding stop in Michigan an hour long one at a location called Seney National Wildlife Refuge. On my way to the refuge, I had an American Bittern fly low and just over the highway, where it continued into a marshy area. When I got to Seney National Wildlife Refuge, I decided to drive a seven mile loop drive through lakes, marshes, and woodlands. It was a fun spot to explore for about an hour, and I didn't get too serious about birding it thoroughly. Trumpeter Swans were very common.
From Seney, I wanted to start heading back to Spooner. I took a stop to submit all of my eBird checklists after Seney and a few other Michigan incidentals. I was pleased to see that I had reached over 100 species for Michigan, and I ended up with 106 species total for the state in roughly two birding days. From Kirtland's Warblers to the scenic upper peninsula, Michigan is a place I'd love to return to someday. Ahead of me was six more hours of driving to Gretchen's cabin, where a comfortable and homely sleep sounded great. The next day of the trip was planning to see some of Minnesota's boreal forest. An expedition was planned in place, and the biggest target was yet another warbler. That will be the next stop on Northerly Treks!
