Fifteen Species of Birds Found on Island During Bird Count

On a cold and windy morning, the third of January, my dog, Jake, and I ventured out, not just so he could get his morning run, or so that I could get my morning ski, but so that we could count birds. Several days before, I received a phone call from Steve Baker, a retired veterinarian in the Straits area, who asked if I would like to participate in the Audubon Society's 2007 Christmas Bird Count (he coordinates and compiles the Christmas Bird Count for the Straits Area Audubon Society). He had been given my name and that of Laura Eisler, one of our elementary schoolteachers, as people who might be interested in participating. Basically, all we had to do is to head out to different areas around the Island and count the number of birds of each species that we see and then report back to Steve. Both Laura and I agreed to the undertaking. I understand that this is the first time Mackinac Island has been included in the bird count.

The Christmas Bird count is about 100 years old, and it grew out of an old hunting tradition. In the past, hunters would go out before Christmas to shoot game, particularly fowl, to have for the holiday meals. From this evolved a time for nature lovers to get together, to go out and count the birds instead of shooting them. The count is now conducted by the National Audubon Society all over the United States and Canada. Over the years, this study has been helpful in determining changes in distribution and population of bird species. In recent years, counts like these have shown the northern "march," if you would, of cardinals and species like house finches, red-bellied woodpeckers, and tufted titmice, which have moved into our area.

Each branch of the Audubon Society is given an area to cover that is basically a circle with a radius of 7.5 miles. The center point of the coverage area of the Straits Area Audubon Society is the middle of the Mackinac Bridge. It includes the St. Ignace area north to about Rabbits Back, and west to Gros Cap, including St. Helena Island. Eastward, the area includes Mackinac Island, Round Island, and part of Bois Blanc. In the Lower Peninsula, it includes the territory around Mackinaw City, southeast past Mill Creek Park, southwest through the French Lake area, and south to about Dow Road.

Twelve hardy birders set out Thursday, January 3, to cover this area. The count has to be conducted within several weeks of Christmas on a particular day selected by the group.

Well, back to my adventure in bird counting. Jake and I set out up our street at 8 a.m. Despite the wind, at my feeder and that of Dr. Bill Chambers, I saw three house sparrows, 18 black-capped chickadees, and a couple of cardinals. At the top of the East Bluff, while putting on my skis, a flock of ducks (mallards), 32 in all, flew overhead. In the next 2.5 hours, having covered North Bike Trail, Fern Way, Juniper Trail, Crooked Tree, and Sugarloaf Roads and South Bike Trail, I only saw two more birds, both of which were hairy woodpeckers. I guess that all their feathered friends were hunkered down to keep out of the wind, and I decided to do the same. Unlike our counterparts on the mainland, we have no cars to go back to in order to warm up, so Jake and I headed home.

After a break, and armed with my binoculars, I decided to head out again, but this time on my snowmobile, so that I could check cottages and count birds at the same time, killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. I saw a couple of birds (crows and mallards) heading out through town and to the West Bluff. While checking the cottages in the Annex, I looked up and saw a pair of bald eagles overhead, and what I think was a third one, but it was so high up that even with my binoculars, I couldn't tell for sure. I was encouraged, and pretty excited to see them. I continued through Hedgecliff, Stonecliffe, and down Forest Way, stopping periodically (often at Islanders' bird feeders) to locate and count our feathered friends. I turned northeast along the shore road and picked up a few water birds, including common and red-breasted mergansers and ring-billed and a herring gull. In addition, I saw another bald eagle and a flock of small dark birds that were disturbed by the eagle's passing, which I was unable to identify. As I headed back toward town to go in for the day, I had the thought to go down to the Arnold Line dock, as there are often ducks along the dock. Boy, was I right. Owing to the high winds, the ducks were all sheltering along the back of the Chippewa Hotel and along the east side of the dock. I counted 68 mallards, one lone black duck, and three mute swans, one of whom evidently was not happy with me getting close to the edge of the dock. It stood up on its legs, flapping its wings and hissing at me, and so ended my day of bird counting.

All told, I counted 177 birds that I could identify, not including the flock of unidentified small birds on the east side, nor the third suspected eagle on the west. The most numerous bird species I counted, by far, was the mallard duck. I ended up with a total of 15 different species sighted. This includes those previously mentioned in this column, with the addition of mourning doves and redbreasted nuthatches. Two birds that I had spotted earlier in the week, which I would have particularly liked to have seen and did not, are the pileated woodpecker and the barred owl. No one else in the Mackinac Straits area count found them, either, that day.

Overall, in the Mackinac Straits Area Christmas Bird Count, a total of 3,556 birds were seen, made up of 34 species. The most numerous bird was the redhead (duck) with a flock of 1,500 of them seen along the bridge near St. Ignace. There were no real rarities to report, but one person sighted a grackle, which was unexpected. The total bird count per species is as follows: mute swan, 77; black duck, 1; mallard, 125; redhead, 1,501; greater scaup, 40; long-tailed duck, 1; bufflehead, 6; common goldeneye, 441; common merganser, 58; red-breasted merganser, 4; bald eagle, 7; sharpshinned hawk, 2; ring-billed gull, 29; herring gull, 55; rock pigeon, 258; mourning dove, 57; downy woodpecker, 12; hairy woodpecker, 11; northern shrike, 1; blue jay, 3; American crow, 47; common raven, 70; black-capped chickadee, 217; tufted titmouse, 1; red-breasted nuthatch, 10; white-breasted nuthatch, 2; European starling, 195; northern cardinal, 7; common grackle, 1; pine grosbeak, 19; house finch, 1; common redpoll, 109; American goldfinch, 43; house sparrow, 146.

I've got to say it was great fun to participate in the Christmas count, and I hope to do it again next year. If anyone is interested in doing it next Christmas, contact me and I'll try to set you up. Yes, you, too, could be walking around in the cold, blowing snow, counting birds for a day.

Trish Martin is a yeararound resident of Mackinac Island, has earned a master's degree in botany from Central Michigan University, and owns Bogan Lane Inn.