February U.P. Winter Birding Trip Highlights

This trip report represents the Michigan Audubon February 12–13 Winter Birding in the Eastern U.P. trip for 2022.

While it was cold for the entirety of the weekend, it was also bright and sunny. Early Saturday morning, participants were treated to excellent views of Sharp-tailed Grouse perched, walking on the ground, and in flight. A few minutes later, while observing our first Northern Shrike of the trip, our first Snowy Owl flew over and off into the distance. As we continued to circle the block, participants were treated to a brief look at a Northern Goshawk that flew across the road. The first section of the trip proved to be exciting!

Continuing to drive around slowly, scanning the fields and trees, we were treated to our first Rough-legged Hawks of the day as well as some Pine Grosbeaks. Northern Shrikes continued to be spotted with unusual regularity, and we found our second Snowy Owl just before lunch.

After lunch, we traveled to the Pickford area, where we encountered more Rough-legged Hawks, Bald Eagles, and six additional Snowy Owls. We also had our first flock of White-winged Crossbills with a couple of Common Redpolls mixed in. A short time later, we encountered the only two Ruffed Grouse for the trip. Everybody’s eyes were getting tired at this point from squinting in the bright sun all day, so we headed back to the Soo for an unsuccessful attempt to locate Bohemian Waxwings before ending the first day. Although the waxwings were not present, we were surprised to find a Northern Harrier flying above the campus. Perhaps this is the same bird that was reported on the Canadian side of the river a few times this winter?

Sunday morning was again very cold but bright. Two Snowy Owls flew over the hotel while some of the group were out packing their cars. An additional Snowy landed on a telephone pole within view of the parking lot. We drove immediately to the Rudyard area, where we were able to locate an additional sixteen Snowy Owls — bringing us up to 26 total for the trip. Here we also found our only Snow Buntings of the trip.

After Rudyard, we visited the Kinross feeding station but found little new there. The number and behavior of the Wild Turkeys did provide some amusement, however.

From the feeders, we visited the Dafter Landfill, which was surprisingly devoid of birds. We counted only eight Bald Eagles, less than fifty Herring Gulls, and less than twenty Common Ravens. We did, however, find our best looks at Common Redpolls on the road in, and a Red-tailed Hawk made an appearance.

From the landfill, we visited the Dafter Post Office. We were entertained by a small flock of Pine Grosbeaks that were showing well when our second flock of White-winged Crossbills for the trip flew in.

One last trip around the LSSU campus in the hopes of finding Bohemian Waxwings led to the same disappointing results as the night before. We then returned to the hotel to say our goodbyes.

I would like to thank everyone for birding with me this weekend. I had a really great time, and you were a great group!

** Note: Some birds viewed while traveling quickly from one birding stop to another may not have been recorded in an eBird list. This explains why the eBird trip report says we counted 24 Snowy Owls when in fact, we saw 26.

~ by Darrell Lawson, February Winter Birding in the Eastern U.P. guide

Check out the full eBird trip report here!