Birdsong is echoing deep in the woods, rippling down from the treetops, popping out in quick calls from leafy shrubs, and rising out of deep grass in our Oakland Township parks. The Wednesday Bird Group found it exciting, almost overwhelming at times, trying to keep up with the number of species at Cranberry Lake Park and Bear Creek Nature Park in early May. We hushed each other to listen to bird song. We exclaimed and pointed (“Look! 9 o’clock on the left of that flowering bush!”) And we stared down at our apps hoping for identifications. It’s been a wonderful, friendly scramble to identify these brightly colored visitors.
Cam Mannino
I couldn’t possibly show you all of them, though I’d love to! We heard or saw sixty-one species at Cranberry Lake Park and forty at Bear Creek Nature Park, for heaven’s sake! So I’ve divvied up some of the birds we enjoyed into two groups: “Just Passing Through” and “Summer Visitors.” My photographer friends, Bob Bonin, Paul Birtwhistle, Aaron Carroll, and Eva Mutzenmore as well as generous contributors at inaturlist.org have graciously shared some of their photos and I’ve added mine. So just sit back and relax with the glorious beauty that spring brings to Michigan each year. Or visit our parks, binoculars around you neck and phone app or guidebook in hand, to meet these colorful visitors!
Just Passing Through…So Look Now Before They’re Gone!
Not all migrators breed and raise their families here in Southeast Michigan. Many just stop here for a day or two to snag some insects and rest up a bit before taking to the night skies to move farther north. It’s quite a journey for any bird, but especially the small warblers like those in the following slideshow. They arrive here from Central and South America or the Caribbean and keep going farther north, some as far as northern Canada!
Paul Birtwistle spotted this lovely Blackburnian Warbler male (Setophaga fusca) outside his window after we’d seen one in our parks, but got no photo! They spend the winter high in the forest canopies of South America but breed in southern Canada. What a journey for a such wee bird, eh? 
The Nashville Warbler (Leiothlypis ruficapilla) breeds in woodlands farther north in Michigan or Canada, where it nests on the ground or at the base of a tree. Photo by Paul Birtwistle 
The Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum) with its rusty cap makes its way to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula or Canada to start its family. Its bobbing tail is a good field mark and unlike many warblers, they forage on the ground as well as in trees. Photo by Bob Bonin 
A pensive male Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) on a windy day – almost always the first warbler that I see each spring. Its tail has a splotch of yellow on the top, hence the name. Photo by Cam M. 
The Bay-breasted Warbler was only briefly seen but repeatedly heard at Cranberry Lake Park by our more experienced birders. It’s on its way to a Canadian spruce forest to feast on spruce budworms. Photo by BeccasBirding (CC BY-NC) at inaturalist. 
The male Magnolia Warbler (Setophaga magnolia) with its elegant, long black necklace breeds in conifer forests and forages at the tips of branches. Photo by Krystyn Scrbic (CC BY-NC) at inaturalist. 
The Canada Warbler (Cardellina canadensis) favors a black choker instead of the Magnolia’s longer necklace. He was heard but only quickly seen by the birding group. Photo by stanlilley (CC BY-NC) at inaturalist 
The Northern Parula breeds in many states but not here since we don’t have the tree mosses they depend on for nesting material. Photo by Cam M
Summer’s Avian Visitors Here To Raise Young
Photo by Eva Mutzenmore
with four hungry fledglings by Cam M
Lucky for us, many migrators spend their summers with us here in Oakland Township. I’m always glad to see and hear familiar birds whose presence I’ve missed in the winter. They’re not on vacation, of course. They’re here on the serious business of breeding: finding a mate, building a nest, and raising young. All summer long we watch them to-ing and-fro-ing from their nests to feed the noisy, open beaks of their begging nestlings and fledglings. Adult birds keep dropping thousands of caterpillars and insects into those beaks until the young learn the ropes themselves. So this summer, keep an eye out in our parks for the bevy of beauties in the slideshow below that grace us throughout a Michigan summer.
Wow! Bob Bonin caught this beautiful shot of a female Baltimore Oriole in a crabapple tree at Bear Creek Nature Park. She can occasionally sing duets with the male! This photo looks so much like a painting! 
The male Oriole fanning its tail and wings. I bet that would get a female’s attention! Photo by Paul Birtwistle. 
Like all other blue birds, the Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) looks dark in the shade. It has microscopic structures in its feathers that only reflect blue lightwaves. Photo by Bob Bonin 
A male Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) travels here from Central or South America where it hangs out with tropical tanagers. What a colorful sight that must be! Photo by Cam M 
Bob Bonin caught this wonderful photo of two Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) mating, while the rest of us just gawked through our binoculars! What a lovely sight. 
The Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) sings a very quick rendition of “sweet, sweet, I’m a little sweet” – often from inside of a small tree or shrub. Photo by Cam M. 
The gentlemanly Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus) sings beautifully and helps the female by sitting on the eggs while she forages. And isn’t he a handsome fellow? Photo by Bob Bonin 
The Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) is often heard near the shrubbery around a wetland as he sings his “Witchedy, witchedy” song. Photo by Bob Bonin 
A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) at its cool nest decorated with lichen held in place by spider webs! Photo by Aaron Carroll. 
The Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius) wears russet and black. We saw the male at Bear Creek Nature Park again this year. He and his yellowish mate leave in late summer, a bit earlier than most migrators. Photo by Paul Birtwistle 
An elegant male Blue-winged Warbler (Cardellina canadensis) with an insect for his young. Photo by Aaron Carroll. 
The Veery (Catharus fuscescens) likes moist woods like those at Cranberry Lake Park where “those in the know” saw it briefly and heard its strange, echoing, slightly metallic call. Photo by Aaron Carroll 
The Black-and-White Warbler (Mniotilta varia) creeps quickly along, over and under branches looking for insects. It’s easy to mistake it for a Nuthatch at first glance. I did, for example! Photo by Cam M. 
We’re at the southern edge of the Chestnut-sided Warbler’s (Setophaga pensylvanica) breeding range. You might more readily see it up north this summer in saplings and thickets. Photo by Cam M. 
The Black-throated Green Warbler (Setophaga virens) can breed here but you’re more likely to hear its song high in the canopy a little farther north. It’s buzzy song has a descending note at the end. Photo by Aaron Carroll. 
The secretive Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) never came out in the open at Bear Creek Marsh. But when Ben, our township stewardship manager, played its call, it responded in the distance. We use that technique very sparingly in order to not to confuse the birds, but we wanted to record its presence at Bear Creek Nature Park. Photo by Paul Birtwistle 
A Wood Duck couple (Aix sponsa), the ducks that nest high up in trees! That’s why they have claws on their webbed feet. Photo by Paul Birtwistle 
The Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus) loves to eat those prickly Tent Caterpillars and Web Worms. Maybe it is a bit cuckoo, eh? Photo by Paul Birtwistle
Birds Aren’t the Only Ones Showing Up!
As small, light green leaves emerge high in the canopy, life asserts itself in a wide variety of ways. Early spring wildflowers lead the way in early May, many completing their whole life cycle quickly in order soak up sunlight in the woodlands before the trees leaf out. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve seen at just Bear Creek Nature Park and Cranberry Lake Park this May.
Wildflowers:
Photo by Cam M
Photo by Cam M
At Cranberry Lake, a bird group member discovered a flower that I’d never seen before, Northern Star Flower (Trientalis borealis). This little beauty bloomed with a group of other Northern Star Flowers right near the lake in the habitat that guidebooks describe as its favorite – a moist area, often with mosses, in clusters. What a delightful new addition to the pleasures of May!
Insects! (Buzz..flutter…zoom…):
On warm days, out come the insects that lure so many migratory birds to moist Michigan in the spring. Here’s a short slideshow of some of the ones I’ve seen in early May.
Both Spring and Summer Azures (Celastrina sp.) appear as just blue flutters when on the wing. When resting or eating, they fold their wings (as this one started to do) and only the sedate white-to gray undersides of their wings show! Good survival trick! Photo by Cam M. 
Mourning Cloaks (Nymphalis antiopa) often look worn in the spring after freezing solid inside tree bark or inside logs during the winter and then thawing in the spring! Photo by Cam M 
Look for Juvenal’s Duskywings (Gesta juvenalis) in sunny spots along trails as they look for early spring flowers like this non-native dandelion. Photo by Cam M 
The harmless (unless handled) Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata) hunts for small spiders, caterpillars and ants. It loves a sunny spot near a woodland edge. Photo by Cam M.
Down at Bear Creek’s Center Pond, two Eastern Pondhawks (Erythemis simplicicollis) soared in tandem around the pond after mating. I happened to catch them with my camera as the female dipped her abdomen in the water to spread some of her fertile eggs. (Sorry for the motion blur!)
And Oh, We’re Joined by Others Emerging into the Sunlight.
Adult turtles stretch and bask in warm sunlight after a dark, cold winter in the depths of our wetlands. These adults overwinter by burrowing into the mud bottoms of a pond or lake and lowering their metabolism in order to preserve oxygen, a process called brumation in reptiles. Occasionally they swim very slowly under the winter ice. So when spring comes, these cold-blooded creatures need to stretch out their necks and legs, and bask in sunlight as often as they can to warm up. Can’t you just imagine how delightful that must feel?
Photo by Paul Birtwistle.
Oh, and one glamorous fungus fruited out from a tree, too. A mushroom disperses the spores of the fungus which exists under the wood’s surface. The Dryad’s Saddle mushroom (Cerioporus squamosus) generally grows on stumps and logs; it’s role in the ecosystem is to process dead wood, releasing the wood’s nutrients back into the soil. Occasionally, though, it can be parasitic on live trees . Though it’s sometimes referred to as the Pheasant’s Back Mushroom, I prefer the image of a dryad, a nymph of Greek mythology, riding off on this fancy mushroom saddle – but on what creature, I wonder?
There’s Something Restful about Beauty…
Nature isn’t always beautiful. Like human life, the lives of plants and animals are subject to mortal ills: disease, injury, even violence, and ultimately death. But despite the challenges, nature keeps offering us gratuitous beauty in each season, throughout every year. Beauty isn’t just in the eye of us beholders, is it? It’s also in our ears, noses, and finger tips as we take in the world around us. Birds bring us song and a rainbow of colors as they attract their mates. Wildflowers delight us with scents, colors and shapes as they invite butterflies to pollinate them. Meadow grasses dance in a summer breeze while dispersing their seed. Water sparkles and ripples as it slakes the thirst of wildlife. And here we are, if we choose, right in the midst of it!
We didn’t earn or create nature’s beauty. We just receive the gift of it that let’s us simply be for a time, so we can return refreshed by nature’s beauty and variety. And with that gift comes a responsibility to pass on as much of it as we can to the future. And as you know, reader friends, that’s the reason for and the very heart of stewardship. I feel lucky to be part of caring for nature. And since you’re here exploring, you care too. Thank you!
