Birding Adventures at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory

Bonarparte’s Gull. Photo by Karinne Tennenbaum

On Aug. 1, 2020, my mother and I left the house at about 5:30 a.m. and drove five hours up from Ann Arbor to a campground near Whitefish Point Bird Observatory. This specific campground was first-come-first-serve, and it was certainly stressful as about half of the sites were flooded due to high water levels. This left only about ten sites, and the weekend is normally a busy time, especially since this campground is a mere eight minutes from the Point as opposed to others that were an hour away or required reservations. Luckily, we managed to snag the last site available and grabbed some breakfast before heading back to the Point. We strolled the area while maintaining social distancing. It was pretty crowded, but as we walked further from the iconic lighthouse, there were fewer and fewer visitors. Out on the Point, it was us and maybe one other dedicated birder watching the adorable Piping Plovers nestle into the sand, almost perfectly camouflaged.

Piping Plover.
Photo by Karinne Tennenbaum

We met up with Alison Vilag, Outreach Specialist and Piping Plover Monitor for Whitefish Point Bird Observatory. She generously offered to give us a tour of the area and tell us more about the observatory. As it got late, we thought we’d head down the boardwalk that takes you back to the parking lot. Fair warning: The mosquitoes up there don’t mind the bug spray and will eat you alive if you aren’t careful! After some guitar by the campfire, we turned in so we could be well-rested for our return to the Point the next day.

The nearest restaurants and stores are just outside the Point in the heart of Paradise, a quaint little town with only a few general stores and eateries. We were lucky that it didn’t rain for the days we were there, and it was relatively warm. Taking my camera out to the Point again, I got to know more of the shorebirds. Normally, I use Merlin Bird ID to confirm my identifications, but with the terrible internet connection out on the Point, I put my old Peterson field guide to use — and what a save it was! Even Alison agrees that differentiating between some of the shorebirds requires keen eyes.

Photo by Karinne Tennenbaum

Most non-birder visitors come to the Point for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Lake Superior is suspected of having claimed about 550 ships, earning the coastline the appropriate nickname, the Graveyard of Ships. However, if you’re a birder, you visit the Point for, I believe, one of three things: the plovers, the observatory, or Seney National Wildlife Refuge, which extends right through the Point. This is, of course, excluding the well-known research efforts — waterbird and hawk counts and owl banding — that occur at other times of the year.

On our last day, we rose early to catch the sunrise around 6:15 a.m. Although it was cloudy, the sky turned to a brilliant mix of pink and orange. Up at the Point, we met up with an owl bander who had worked through the night and told us of her adventures with Northern Saw-whet Owls. It goes to show that ornithologists work in different ways; from early birds to night owls, there are birds for everyone.

Common Merganser. Photo by Karinne Tennenbaum

Overall, I saw plenty of birds — many familiar species in new habitats and new exciting species, including the Ring-billed Gull, Bonaparte’s Gull, Herring Gull, and Caspian Tern. Walking along the shoreline, I found many of the famous shorebirds, such as the endangered Piping
Plover, the Sanderling, Least Sandpiper, and Semipalmated Sandpiper. In addition, I got a distanced look at a Common Loon, Double-crested Cormorant, a Common Merganser with her young, and two Whimbrels flying over early in the morning. If you couldn’t tell from that long list of birds, Whitefish Point is definitely the birding hotspot everyone tells me it is, even though I didn’t get a chance to see any Broad-winged Hawks.

~ by Karinne Tennenbaum
Michigan Young Birders Network Contributor