Northerly Treks: The Finish

After I left Buena Vista prairies late morning on June 9th, I had a three plus hour drive back to Spooner.  If it weren't for the storm, I would've been on my way to southwestern Wisconsin to seek out some of the awesome southeastern U.S. warblers that find their northern range in southwest Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota.  One of those was Prothonotary Warbler.  There was also a close spot to see the Prothonotary in seemingly good numbers about 2.5 hours west of Wisconsin Rapids, which would be over two hours away from Spooner.  Another bird I wanted to go after again was the Connecticut Warblers north of the cabin.  I figured I'd have a chance of getting killer looks at Prothonotary Warblers sooner than Connecticut Warbler whether I was taking a trip to their breeding range or if I'd see an Arizona vagrant.  Although I got a great look at Connecticut on the first day of Northery Treks, I was craving more looks.  And I decided to drive another four hours straight from Wisconsin Rapids to the Connecticut Warbler spot north of Spooner.  After a two hour search, I didn't have any Connecticut Warblers, although I think I heard one give a song that wasn't as typical as it's usual song.  The walk down Radio Tower and Motts Ravine Road was beautiful, and this view of an awesome scene with a White-tailed Deer in the road is a common sight in the region.

A Wild Turkey also crossed the road, and perched up in trees were a few Cedar Waxwings.  There were plenty of birds around the area, but the overcast weather with a heavy rain approaching didn't raise the expectation in my head that I'd be photographing many birds.

On the trip, I did a good job of staying on roads and trails in order to avoid ticks.  Most of the birding that is done in this region is from roads and trails, and crashing through thick habitat is not ideal.  During my walk, it didn't take me long to find a tick while scanning road side grass.  I can't say enough about how much I hate them.

As I was in Douglas and Bayfield Counties, I also saw some stands of young red and jack pines.  Someday I'd like to spend more time in these counties looking for birds, and Kirtland's Warbler has been recorded as nesting.  The birds are kept private and secret, but if I'd happen to find my own, they would be my own discovery to enjoy.  As I made my way back to Gretchen's cabin, the rain started to come down and it wouldn't stop.  My plan for the 10th was one I'd play by ear.  One thing I did was stay up late at the cabin and decide not to set an alarm for the following morning, it was awesome.

On June 10th, I woke up to overcast conditions and light scattered rains.  It was crazy to me, because I realized it would be like this all day.  I stayed around Spooner for the most part, but I could've gone south for a two hour drive to see those Prothonotary Warblers on their breeding grounds, I could've gone back to Sax-Sim Bog or County Roads 1 and 2 in Lake County by Two Harbors.  I also could've gone back to the Connecticut Warbler spot and had a much better chance at another view with it being the morning hours.  Something I did do was drive an hour west of Spooner to try for visuals and photographs of LeConte's Sparrow.  The location I went to was in Chisago County, which was slightly in Minnesota.  Josh was kind to look into some LeConte's Sparrow locations for me, and he found a spot where a guy had done an eight minute stationary count, and in those eight minutes he heard three birds and even photographed one.  We thought my chances would be great.  I got to the spot with windy conditions, but I did hear at least three LeConte's Sparrows.  Other than seeing a bird twice flying a few feet over the grass about 60 feet away from me, I couldn't get views of any of them popping up.  I stood in one spot for about three hours.  For only the second time on the trip, I struck out on what was one of my major targets.

On my way back to Spooner, I got a big lunch at the legendary Burnett Cheese Factory.  Once back at Spooner, I did some local birding for a few hours, and then I went back to the cabin for the rest of the day to prepare for my trip home and to hang out and enjoy the cabin.  I also went and visited my awesome and late grandparents, John and Pearl DeBardeleben.  Visiting them was the highlight of my day.  I never got to meet my grandfather, John DeBardeleben, but I do know him because of the awesome children he raised in my father, aunts, and uncle and the stories they tell of him.  My grandma Pearl was awesome and a very generous and compassionate woman.  She had the wildlife spirit inside of her, and she was always thrilled to hear about my birding stories whenever I would see her.  They lived in the Spooner and Shell Lake area of Wisconsin.

The places I visited on the final day in Washburn County were the Bog where I get Blackburnian Warblers, the Trego Nature Trail, and another place that's awesome called Dilly Lake.  A male Canada Warbler was the best bird of the afternoon, and the birding was quiet because of the time of day and overcast conditions.

River Jewelwing, a cool ode

This scene from Dilly Lake is one that I really enjoyed.  The sunlight tried to fight through the cloud cover, and it created a double effect on the lake.  I laughed about the scene when I related it to a long and hardcore birding trip.  The light side represents the success of the trip, and the more overcast side represents the misses and mysteries of what may be found on a future trip.  This lake is one that is special to my family, and we would fish here quite a bit in recent years when doing house projects.

As I went back to the cabin and concluded the trip, I can't say how enough of how thankful I am that I got to take this trip.  Covid has been a miserable thing, and there have been many other horrible things that have happened in our world this year.  This trip was my chance this year to do something fun and to get some solid peace in my life.  On June 11th, I left Gretchen's cabin by 1:30 A.M. to get to the airport and be to the port with plenty of time before my early departing flight to Phoenix.

I'll talk a little about the impact of my trip and how I did overall after I set the initial goals I had for the trip.

I drove a lot.  The rental truck was epic.  It had many neat features, and something that was cool was how it kept track of mileage and time driven on the trip.  It also had over 100 radio stations, which the hard rock station, Octane Radio, was epic.  I drove for over 120 hours and for over four thousand miles!

For the trip, I had a list of birds that I considered major targets.  Major targets were grouped into two categories: 1. official life birds and 2. target birds who I had on my lifelist but prior to the trip they were either seen briefly with better looks and photographs desired or were heard only birds.

Official life bird targets: Spruce Grouse, Greater Prairie-Chicken, Mute Swan, American Woodcock, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Alder Flycatcher, Connecticut Warbler, Cape May Warbler, and White-winged Crossbill.  (9 Species Total)

Other major targets:  Kirtland's Warbler (main target of the trip as I wanted visuals for the first time), Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-billed Cuckoo, LeConte's Sparrow, and Henslow's Sparrow (5 Species Total).

RESULTS:  I got all but one official life bird target, and the life bird I missed was Greater Prairie-Chicken.  In the other major targets, I got all but one, and the one I missed was photos of LeConte's Sparrow.  Overall, it was a very successful trip when it came to major targets, as I got 12 out of 14 major targets.

Other life bird obtained:  Eurasian Tree Sparrow, which gave me 9 official life birds on the trip.  This bird was unexpected and wasn't a big priority, but since it was in Two Harbors and I was driving through Two Harbors, I decided to try for it and I succeeded.

WARBLERS:  Warblers were the biggest highlight and goal of the trip.  I succeeded in my biggest three, Kirtland's, Connecticut, and Cape May.  However, the many other warblers around were a blast also.  In the northern parts of the three states I was in, I formed a list that I could land 26 species of warblers for the trip, a true "Warbler Bonanza"!  I got 24 in total (photographed 21 of them), and missed Wilson's and Bay-breasted Warblers on the trip.  If it hadn't been raining like it was on the Gunflint Trail, perhaps I would've found those two that I missed.  Also, maybe the trip would've yielded up to 30 species of warblers had I had gotten to go to the southern limits of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

I photographed 61 species of birds on the trip in total.  I got 123 species in Wisconsin, 117 in Minnesota, and 106 in Michigan.  I spent roughly 6 birding days in Minnesota, 5 in Wisconsin, and 3 in Michigan.  Out of the 15 nights on the trip, I spent 9 of them at the cabin, 2 of them in Grayling, one in a Minnesota hotel, and 3 of them camping in Minnesota.

A takeaway is I really love birding this northern region of these three states.  The region has a mass of great habitats, and there is a lot to cover and explore.  This trip was really a "sample" of the three northern sections of each state.  I'd like to go back again and do less driving and even more birding.  I was also anxious every day and wanted to see as much as I possibly could.  The success I had was awesome, but it would be great to go back without too many major targets and to simply hardcore bird.

Most of the trip was time spent solo.  I did many things on this trip I have never done before, such as renting a vehicle, driving for hours across each state, and getting to bird at my own pace with my own decisions for two whole weeks.  Got my first ever Moose too..

There's some awesome people who I want to thank who played a big role on adding fun and success to the trip:

Thanks to my brother Tyler for taking two days off of work to take me to the airport and pick me back up from the airport.

Thanks to my buddy Josh for joining me for a great expedition on the trip, and for helping me out with a lot of suggestions and informing me on a lot of things Minnesota based.  If it weren't for Josh, I wouldn't have Spruce Grouse on my life list right now.

Thanks to my aunt, Tabby DeBardeleben, for joining me and Gretchen for some of each of the three first days of the trip.  It was fun fishing and enjoying meals together.

Thanks to my grandparents, John and Pearl DeBardeleben.  They were amazing people who have incredible legacies.  Their memories live on in our lives, and they are not only loved by us, but by many others.  They were incredible foster parents to many, and adopted my Dad and his siblings, Gretchen, Tracy, Tabby, and Jed (my aunts and uncle).  John fought for our country.  Sadly his life was cut short before I was born.  Pearl was a strong, compassionate, and incredible woman and always worked hard, and I'm thankful I got to know her.  As my grandparents lived in Spooner/Shell Lake in Washburn County, Gretchen and Uncle Larry bought a cabin near their home.  The cabin is there as a vacation spot for our family and many more.  It remembers my grandparents Pearl and John and honors them and our family, and it also provides a location for us to have fun in what is obviously an epic area.  If my grandparents didn't live there and start a family base, I don't know if I would've taken such an interest in birding the area :)

The biggest thanks goes out to my Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Larry for letting me use their cabin for the two week duration of my trip.  Gretchen's generosity is something I'll always be thankful for.  Gretchen drove a long ways from South Dakota to spend a few days with me, and we had a ton of fun together.  I also got two life birds with Gretchen.  We visited a lot.  She taught me how to kayak for the first time, made awesome meals, and took Tabby and I fishing.  By letting me stay in her cabin, it helped me out a lot on the trip and made the traveling life simple.

BIRD OF THE TRIP:  The bird of the trip is hard to decide on.  Because it took me a lot of effort and hours and hours of driving to get to it, I'll say that the bird of the trip tips in the direction of the Kirtland's Warbler.  On the other hand, it's only a step above four others that are right up there too.  Let's call it a five-way tie, but if there was a winner, it would be Kirtland's.  Connecticut Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Spruce Grouse, and the Great Gray Owl are right there too.

This is the final write up of Northerly Treks.  If any of you have read all of it or even some of it, thank you!  I'm getting to the point where I don't know if I'm going to have time to keep writing blog series like this after these long trips.  We'll see.  What it does do is provide a fun souvenir from each trip.  Last year was Texas Times, this year was Northerly Treks.  What will next year be?  Last year, I called the Texas trip a "great sample" of Texas.  While I didn't think this year would hold as much driving as it did, I was wrong.  Driving for hours upon hours and miles and miles through the northern parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan turned out to be a "sample of the north".  Hopefully I'll return to these states again and can continue the fun.  I want to see a lot more.  As I headed back to Arizona, I was aware there was an Eared Quetzal in the state, and I figured Arizona would have other fun birding in the near future too.

Another great thing about the north (out of many), are the voices of those epic loons...