Munuscong Bay State Wildlife Management Area

This area, just south of the Soo, has a reputation among birders of having a reliable population of LeConte's Sparrows. This tiny sparrow is very secretive, uncommon, and highly sought after by listers and photographers. I arrived early Friday afternoon and checked into the State Forest Campground on the Munuscong River. What a difference between last night at Central Lake and here. For exactly the same price I have no showers, no flush toilets, no electricity, no quaint village nearby, and some of the more open lots did not have the grass mowed. On the other hand, however, it had beautiful natural sites, some of the wooded ones backing up onto the river. After selecting a site on the river, I checked out the boat ramp. There were apparently three fishermen trying their luck, judging from the trailers in the parking lot. The river looked high and very muddy.

My biggest surprise was a posting at the launch.

For a minute I thought I was back in Salineno, Texas watching illegals wade across the RioGrande to a waiting pickup truck. I wondered how misinformed these aliens were if they really wanted to be smuggled into Michigan. Did somebody tell them there were great paying jobs at GM and Chrysler? Did terrorists find Michigan to be a target rich environment? With these thoughts in mind I headed to some grasslands where the illusive LeConte's Sparrow waited. I met two bird photographers along the way that I had met previously at Crane Creek, Ohio. They left a little early to catch the Stanley Cup finals.

One strategy when photographing LeConte's is to find their singing perches in the evening and then set up for them before sunrise the next morning, since they often use the same singing perches. This works if you find them in the evening. Common wisdom is that they pop up out of the grass to sing around sunset. I waited, and waited, and waited some more. The sun set. I scanned the fields with binoculars. I listened for their odd song with the windows open while mosquitos poured into the truck. Occassionally I tuned into the RedWings game but unfortunately both the RedWings and I bombed. I drove back to camp, had a cuban libre nightcap, and went to sleep not bothered in the least by aliens slipping silently through my campsite.

The next morning I returned to the same fields before sunrise and did find several LeConte's. I stalked them hoping that after they dove into the grass they might pop up again if I waited quietly. They did not want to follow that script and all I managed was a few distant shots but nothing that would stop my delete button. On the way out I found several Yellow Warblers, a common species, and a poor substitute for LeConte's, but I have always loved these small, energetic, yellow dynamos. I remember in elementary school seeing a picture of a yellow warbler nest with four different levels in it. Each time a cowbird laid an egg in it's nest it would cover both it's own eggs and the intruder's with another layer and start over again.

Chain of Lakes Watershed

Every bird photographer has certain species that seem to cooperate for other photographers but somehow eludes digital immortality no matter how much effort the photographer puts forth. One of these, for me, is the Common Loon. After having requests for loon images at art fairs, I once again set out with it as my main target. My preconceived "perfect image" would be an adult with one or two young chicks riding on it's back with a soft green background. This means they will have to be close to shore with the sun at my back.

The Chain of Lakes Watershed is a beautiful area to work and has many loons present. The largest lake is Torch Lake, which according to the locals, at one time was picked by National Geographic at the third most beautiful lake in the world. It is Michigan's longest and deepest inland lake. I decided this was too much water to cover, so I confined myself to Bellaire and Intermediate Lake, both of which drain into Torch Lake. I figured these lakes would also be more use to boat traffic rather than isolated lakes in the U.P.


Within an hour of arriving and scouting the lakeshore of Intermediate Lake, I spotted two adults close too shore on the west side of the lake. Binoculars showed two chicks. What luck. I asked permission from the landowner to shoot from shore and set up. As soon as I was ready the sky clouded up, I lost good color and the loon family slowly drifted farther out. With grayish colors and the degrading quality of a 2x extender, I knew I did not have my "perfect loon image".


I decided to reserve a camping spot at Thurston Park, maintained by the village of Central Lake. This is one of the best deals in the North Country. For $15/night you camp next to Intermediate Lake within walking distance to the village of Central Lake.



I finished the evening by scouting out the Jordan River Valley before returning to camp.

The south end of Intermediate Lake

The next morning I got up at five and drove south to an access area intending to have the kayak in the water at sunrise. Unfortunately there was little sunrise to see with about 95% cloud cover. I had hoped to paddle less than a mile to where I had seen the loon family the previous afternoon, but they were not there. I continued a couple more miles to the south end of the lake where I found them. (Actually, as I found out later, a different family). With the sun breaking through once in a while I thought perhaps I would luck out. This was not to be, however, since the adults became agitated if you came within a couple hundred yards of them. I was told later that very few boats were out on the water this spring due to poor weather and that yesterday everybody was out for the first time and the loons, who had had the lake to themselves, were going crazy over all the new traffic. Either way, I knew I wasn't going to get baby pictures this trip.


Just as I was about to give up a pair of loons landed with a lot of commotion behind me. One of the adults from the pair I had been watching (I was now between the two pairs) began running across the water straight towards them. I thought he was going to go through me but he passed by on the right very close (and ignoring me) as I cranked off about ten shots. One of them looked reasonably sharp and will have to substitute as my loon picture until something better comes along.

I went back to camp for lunch and then set off for the Jordan River Valley. I got sidetracked by a pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers at a nest, which was ok since it was a sure thing while the Canada, Mourning, and Golden-winged Warblers were not cooperating anyway.

On the way back I stopped to see my colleague Stan and his wife Nancy at their cottage.