This year has been an incredible journey so far – one that for the rest of my life I will look back on as a highlight. The memories I have made, the people I have met, the places I have explored, and the birds I have seen have all been nothing short of spectacular. That said, this year has been equally exciting and exhausting – physically, mentally, and emotionally. I had planned for my time in Michigan to be action-packed with birding trips all across the state, but truthfully I was so beat up and exhausted that it was probably for the best that I ended up taking it easy for the bulk of the week.
My “vacation” from this was epitomized by the events of Monday June 30th, the first day this entire year I never so much as opened a car door. My birding for the day, as would be the case for most of the next couple weeks, would be limited to a single morning walk at one of my favorite places in the entire world, Seven Ponds Nature Center. The highlights of my walk Monday included Red-shouldered Hawk, Yellow-throated Vireo, Pine Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Blue-winged Warbler.
Tuesday was more of the same, though I took a drive into Imlay City to get a haircut, stopping at a series of my old regular “goose loop” stops, which I used to frequent regularly in my search for Ross’s Goose or Greater White-fronted Goose, neither of which did I ever manage to find in Lapeer County. There wasn’t much happening at Dittman’s Pond, Nash Pond, or Sout Mill Road Marsh, and after my haircut I swung by the Weyer Road fields to try to find one of the resident breeding Brewer’s Blackbirds, but unfortunately they are always tough to find I was unable to track one down.
On Wednesday I made a morning visit to one of the Seven Ponds satellite properties, the Jonathan Woods Nature Preserve, to track down some of the locations specialties. The first two, Scarlet Tanager and Acadian Flycatcher, were heard calling almost immediately after my arrival, and after a short walk I made it to the first of my main targets. Along the fast-flowing brook downhill in the northwest-most portion of the property Louisiana Waterthrush can be regularly found, and just a few hundred feet uphill to their southeast there is a swampy bog which hosts a breeding population of Northern Waterthrush. I can’t imagine there are very many spots where the two birds can be found on territory so close together, and it has always been a treat to have one such spot a few minute’s drive from my home.
On the third I spent the morning around Seven Ponds before heading into Oakland County to visit my old job and get dinner with some friends, on the way swinging by some of my old stops I would regularly make on the way to-and-from work, including the Metamora Railroad Grade Trail, Blood Road Marsh, Brocker Road Marsh, Kelsey Lake, Lake Oakland, Fish Hatchery Park, and a handful of personal eBird locations. After meeting my buddies Pat and Diego at Buffalo Wild Wings I then headed south towards the southeast corner of the state, spending the night in the town of Monroe.
Friday was another day of only a single checklist, but this time around I certainly wouldn’t say I didn’t do much birding. Pointe Mouillee State Game Area is one of my favorite places in the state to go birding, but it is never an “easy” day as unless you have a bike a day at Mouillee requires an investment of several miles of walking. Personally I put in a 7-hour day with about 11 miles of walking, but the investment was well worth it and paid off with Blue-winged Teal, Gadwall, Northern Pintail, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Sora, Common Gallinule, Black-necked Stilt, Short-billed Dowitcher, American Bittern, Least Bittern, Black-crowned Night Heron, Grasshopper Sparrow, Orchard Oriole, and Dickcissel. I had planned to keep birding after Mouillee but was too thoroughly beat afterwards and called it a day.
On Saturday morning I met back up with Isaac Polanski at another of my favorite spots for birding in Michigan – this one much more manageably accessible – Erie Marsh Preserve. Isaac and I had a great walk at the marsh, kicking off our time there with Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper and Short-billed Dowitcher. The highlight of our visit was definitely the American Avocet we found after debating whether or not we wanted to continue farther down the path or turn back – of which of course Isaac got some incredible photos. After our walk there we parted ways and I made my way back to Lapeer to take care of Week Twenty-six’s blog post and getting caught up on Daily Notes.
On July 6th I returned to vacation mode, going for another morning walk at Seven Ponds but not anything beyond that – and I only had the usual suspects, though this time I managed to spot a few of the resident Chimney Swifts. On the 7th my birding was again limited to just a morning walk at Seven Ponds, though on this walk I was joined by two of the nature center’s naturalists on their day off, Madi Christol and Nico Bradford. We had a nice walk at the nature center, though it wasn’t an especially birdy morning. Still though we had a highlight bird in a pair of Pied-billed Grebes on the North-80 pond, a spot in which I’ve never had them previously.
The 8th was the first of three days in which I didn’t do any birding whatsoever, instead spending the morning blueberry picking with my Grandma and transporting some stuff from my parents’ house to hers for storage. After parting ways with my Grandma in the afternoon I headed to Midland to meet up with my brother Justin and hang out with him for the rest of the evening. Then, on the 9th, the only birding I did was a few minutes spent watching the feeders outside the Director’s Residence at Seven Ponds.
Finally on the 10th the only checklist I submitted on eBird was a brief stop-and-scan at one of the regular Osprey nests in Metamora. The evening of the 10th I met my dad, Madi, and local Lapeer birder Anita Spencer at the nature center for a few games of Wingspan – not quite birding, but still birding adjacent.
On Friday morning I big farewell to Seven Ponds. The birthplace of my birding passion and my home since 2018, Seven Ponds will always have a special place in my heart. It is quite possible that my walk there on the morning of the 11th was among the last I’ll ever take if I follow through on my current plans to move to New Mexico at the end of the year, a thought that left me tearing up the other day as I wrote while getting caught up on my Daily Notes over on Patreon. There is not a single place in the world which with I possess the familiarity I have with Seven Ponds, and before most of my walks there I can usually predict where I am going to see 90% of the species before I even head out the door.
After saying goodbye to my home and family Friday morning I hit the road heading north, and when I reached Grayline I swung by the North Down River Road Jack Pines, one of many spots in the region that is home to Michigan’s specialty bird, Kirtland’s Warbler. In addition to the first-of-year warbler I also managed to pick up Upland Sandpiper, Brewer’s Blackbird, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Clay-colored Sparrow, and Vesper Sparrow at the spot.
It was on the morning of Saturday the 12th that my “vacation” finally reached it’s end, when I kicked off the weekend by crossing over the Mackinaw Bridge and starting my day at the Munuscong Wildlife Management Area Potholes, one of the state’s most reliable spots for breeding LeConte’s Sparrow. Unfortunately it was pouring rain there, so I moved on up towards another of my favorite places in the world for birding: Paradise. Truly a fitting name, the Paradise region is spectacular, with places such as North Preachers Road, Vermilion Road (and Point), and especially Whitefish Point all holding a special place in my heart. Preachers has for the past few years been a rock-solid spot for tracking down Spruce Grouse, but unfortunately it seems this year they have started to dry up and become less regular. Even if they were as good as ever I probably wouldn’t have had one, though, as you typically need to be there at dawn and I didn’t make it there until late morning.
Whitefish Point itself is probably the most legendary place for birding in all of Michigan – and for good reason. This time of year there isn’t much that happens there as the spot is primarily a migration-watching site, but over the past few years I’ve had six Lifers or State Birds there in Great-tailed Grackle, Pacific Loon, Black-legged Kittiwake, Swainson’s Hawk, Smith’s Longspur, and Eurasian Tree Sparrow – plus other noteworthy birds including Say’s Phoebe, Sabine’s Gull, Harris’s Sparrow, Harlequin Duck, Lark Sparrow, and more. It is the only spot where I expect I will ever reach the feat of having Ruffed Grouse, Sharp-tailed Grouse, and Spruce Grouse all at the same location, and is my highest personal species total for a single location, edging out Seven Ponds Nature Center, Pointe Mouillee, and Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge to claim its top spot. Rivaled only by Seven Ponds I would have to put Whitefish Point as one of my favorite places in the world, not just for birding but in general.
After spending a bit of time around the Paradise area and getting lunch at my favorite sub place anywhere (the Fresh Coast Cafe), I headed back to Munuscong to meet back up with my buddy Isaac, with whom I would be spending the next couple days birding in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Our evening visit was more productive than my rainy morning one, and while we still dipped on LeConte’s Sparrow we tallied a solid list including Northern Harrier, American Kestrel, Bobolink, Alder Flycatcher, Blue-winged Teal, Sedge Wren, Clay-colored Sparrow, Black-and-white Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and more. When we left Munuscong we had a few hours of driving ahead of us towards Marquette, where Isaac and I spent the night and prepared for a couple days of birding the area.
On Sunday morning we headed to County Road 478, a rural area which has been hosting Canada Jay quite reliably over this year, though unfortunately we dipped on the bird which Isaac still needs for the state. We still had a great morning though, picking up Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Winter Wren, Veery, Dark-eyed Junco, Ovenbird, Nashville Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Canada Warbler, and more. When we eventually gave up on the Canada Jays we made the decision to head up into the Keweenaw Peninsula to Copper Harbor. After brief stops at the Baraga Marina and Sand Point, we arrived at one of the few places in Michigan that can rival Whitefish Point in legendary status: the town of Copper Harbor. We didn’t add to that legacy during our visit, but still had a decent day spotting Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Broad-winged Hawk, Merlin, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin.
After leaving Copper Harbor we swung by a few stops along the coast in Hebard Park, Dan’s Point, and Cat Harbor before making our way to the Calumet Sewage Lagoons. We had a solid walk at Calumet, spotting Northern Shoveler and Lesser Scaup right as we walked in, and soon picking up some early shorebird migrants when we spotted a bunch of Pectoral Sandpiper and Least Sandpiper, along with a trio of early Baird’s Sandpiper – the first of year for the entire state of Michigan! Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Hooded Merganser, and Ring-necked Duck would join our list before we moved on, making the stop well worthwhile. We made two more quick stops at the the Baraga Sewage Lagoons and Clowry Truck Trail before calling it a day, picking up Semipalmated Sandpiper at the former and Common Nighthawk at the latter.
On Monday of Week Twenty-nine Isaac and I will continue our birding adventure, and then on Tuesday I finally move on from Michigan and get started on birding in Wisconsin, there chasing (and hopefully tracking down) my first-of-year Little Gull and Lifer Kelp Gull. Those will have to wait for next week, though, when my journey officially returns to normal. In the meantime, Happy Birding!
First and foremost - thank you to anyone who chooses to support me in this insane adventure of mine. When I initially had this idea and began planning I didn't even consider the possibility that others would want to support me, but I am extremely grateful to those who have reached out to do so. For those who are interested in supporting me, I have set up a Patreon, which can be accessed by clicking the logo to the left (or you can send me a message via the contact page). Again, thank you for your incredibly generous support!
All Patrons will receive my "Daily Notes" 12-36 hours after the end of each day, and Patrons subscribed to the "Sponsor" tier will receive monthly postcards, mailed out between the 25th and end of each month.
For anyone who wishes to support me without using Patreon, clicking the "$" Icon will link you to my Venmo as well. There is also an option on Patreon to purchase my Daily Notes Collection for a one-time $10 payment without becoming a paid member, which will give you access to the Daily Notes without having to subscribe to a monthly subscription. For those who it requests the last four of my number for, it's 1403.
Following recent suggestions I went ahead and created a GoFundMe in order to help ensure I can keep this adventure going and afford the costs of gas, vehicle maintenance, and food (including, with enough support, some more diversity in my diet). The GoFundMe can be accessed by clicking the image link with the coin going into the donation box. (If anyone knows how to add a custom icon on Elemetor to make the Venmo and GoFundMe Links their respective logos, I'd love to hear how to do it!)
Thank you again to those of you who have supported me so far, it's tremendously generous and greatly appreciated.
Follow me on my journey to see 100 species in every Lower-48 State during 2025, experience some of the incredible places and events in American birding, and meet and bird with as many local birders as possible along the way.
Posts will be made every Wednesday (I will try to have them out by 5pm, but situationally they might be a bit later) and will cover the previous Monday through Sunday. Additional posts will be made periodically with no set schedule.
