Michigan's Upper Peninsula - A total miss

A trip to the U.P. for bird photography has always been for me a hit or miss journey.  After seeing recent reports of Long-tailed Ducks, Hawk Owls, and Snowy Owls, I had hoped to try and catch theses northern species before they left.  As I crossed the bridge I was hoping to see some snow cover remaing but 5 straight days of temperatures in the sixties had erased all signs of snow-even the lakes were opening up.  I started out at De Tour where several thousand Long-tailed Ducks had been seen.  I scanned the water at the Drummond Island Ferry dock but found no sign of them.  I then began a search of the fields south of the Soo for Hawk Owls and Snowy Owls but came up blank there also.  I gave up at sunset and found a hotel for the night at the Soo.  Believing warm weather had driven all Boreal birds north I headed west.  My first stop was Hulbert Bog for Gray Jays and/or Boreal Chickadees.  Except for a few Black-capped Chickadees the place seemed devoid of life.  My next stop was the Bear Butt Bar in Ekerman which always produces some Evening Grosbeaks, and this year was no different as a flock of a dozen flew back and forth across the road from feeder to feeder just north of the bar.  The only problem was they would not come down from the tree tops and when they did they stayed tight in some shrubbery.  I finally gave up, hoping Whitefish Point would break my string of misses.


Northern saw-whet Owls had been banded recently and I had hoped to find some, but besides chickadees, starlings, and a flock of Snow Buntings the Point was rather dead.  I stopped off at Taquamenon River State Park and had a quick look at a Ruffed Grouse.  Becoming discouraged, I decided to make a final run to Seney NWR.  On the way I had a Pileated Woodpecker and Northern Harrier flyover.  At Seney everything was closed including the Marsh Road.  I debated heading to Munising but decided that this trip was probably going to be in the complete miss column no matter what I did.  Too late for Boreal species and too early for the migrants. 

Trumpeter Swans at Kellogg Bird Sanctuary

Arriving home earlier than usual from the southern states this year, I found the lakes still frozen and decided to get some "white on white" images.  Our largest swan, the Trumpeter Swan, became nearly extinct by the turn of the century and completely disappeared in Michigan.  Thankfully, restoration efforts reintroduced them and they are now holding their own.  One of the best places to view them is at the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary near Gull Lake.  The sanctuary played a large part in their reintroduction to Michigan and is a great place to photograph them.
I arrived early in the morning to find two small open areas where the local Mallards were swimming alongside one Hooded Merganser.  A few Trumpeter Swans and Mute Swans were sleeping out on the ice.  As the morning progressed Trumpeter Swans began to arrive from the surrounding area in small groups of two or three.  Each arrival was greeted with noisy trumpeting from the birds already on the ice.  Some of the arrivals were met with polite socializing while a few were greeted with downright hostility that only swan culture could predict.  When photographing these white on white scenes you have to open up the camera a bit but the results are worth it.
About midmorning the staff came around to fill the feeding stations which probably explains the daily fly in from neighboring marshes and lakes.

Lake Martin, Louisiana

Five years ago I spent a week photographing nesting wading birds at Lake Martin near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.  At the time it was listed as one of the top ten bird watching spots in the U.S. by the National Audubon Society.  An estimated 20,000 birds nested there, entertaining visitors and photographers who could park along Rookery Road while the birds went on with their daily lives practically ignoring all the human traffic.  The following images were taken that year:

Sadly, two weeks after I left, some unexplained event caused most of the birds in the southern half of the rookery to desert their nests and leave.  They did not return.  The northern section however continued to have a normal year but in 2006 after a good start, catastrophe struck again.  Reports indicate on Friday, March 17 all the birds were there, but on Saturday the entire colony had deserted.   There was a lot of fingerpointing and various theories but the mystery is still unexplained.  Possible natural causes included water levels, poor water quality, and a hurricane.  The sudden desertion on two separate weekends, however, caused many to blame a human component.  Reports of tour leaders disturbing the birds, kids shooting fire works, hunters, and unhappy locals all surfaced but nothing was ever proven.

Since I had some great experiences at Martin Lake I wanted to see if things had improved 5 years later.  Sadly, although there is some improvement, the rookery photography is very poor.  Some birds have returned but their relative numbers are small and they are far from the road.  The area is still great for scenics, large alligators, and flowers but if you want to photograph wading birds during the nesting season you would be better served to go elsewhere.

Cajun Country

A better reason for visiting this area is to experience some Cajun culture.  Breaux Bridge (http://www.breauxbridgelive.com/) is a small tourist town where you can get your full of Cajun and Zydeco music, crawdads and other Cajun cuisine, or immerse yourself in the rich Acadian history.  It gets my vote for being one of the friendliest towns you could find.  Don't be surprized if you are invited inside some of the older  homes while taking the historical walking tour through town, or walk into one of the stores and stay for an hour to listen to one of the local groups jamming.

 

Another good place to visit is Mulates Cajun Restaurant.  Although I can't say the food was extraordinary, the live music and dancing is well worth it.  The mental image of an eighty-something little Cajun lady in her black high lace-up shoes dragging her husband out on the dance floor will always be one of the first things I remember whenever Breaux Bridge is mentioned.  The New Orleans Mulates has a web site which give you a feeling for the place (http://www.mulates.com/) while a youtube video shows a typical night there (www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7LW64TS_IA).

A little exploring in the nearby area will reveal other attractions such as the tribute to Evangeline, a poem about an Acadian girl during the relocation of the Acadians to Louisiana from Canada.  The poem by Longfellow is his most famous work.

Lovers of "hot and spicy" should make a pilgrimage to Avery Island and tour the Tobasco factory there (http://www.tabasco.com/tabasco_history/visit_avery_island.cfm#targ)