An American herring gull is pictured. (Scot Stewart photo)

“… I hear the sounds of melting snow outside my window every night and with the first faint scent of spring I remember life exists…” — John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

Little by little the signs are appearing. The two feet of recently delivered snow here is nearly gone already. New shots of warm temperatures brighten a least a couple of days every week. A report came this week of the first Eastern chipmunk sighting of the season in Marquette. The giant icicles at a couple of places have all but disappeared too.

And the spring birds keep coming. An increasing variety of new arrivals is as close as Picnic Rocks in Marquette. While not always the number one type of birds for many, spring gulls are truly impressive. The numbers of both adult herring and ring-billed gulls, the two common summer resident species, are rapidly increasing along the Lake Superior shore near the rocks and along with them a number of other vagrant species wandering the Great Lakes shorelines again this spring are also showing up.

A few winter visitors are still hanging around and but are on their way north soon too. Both pine siskins and redpolls have turned up, mostly with American goldfinches, at feeders across the U.P. Some large flocks of goldfinches, up to 60, have visited larger feeder stations in northern Marquette County.

Glaucous, iceland, and greater black-backed gulls have all been seen on the Picnic Rocks with the newly arrived summer residents. Most adult gulls have very white feathers over most of their bodies and their head and bill markings are all distinctly different and often very colorful. Some adult gulls have distinct, different marking on their bills that are quite colorful. Bright crimson-red markings on lemon-yellow mandibles indicate breeding-age adults. Bright red eye rings also add a touch of distinction. Adult ring-billed gulls have strong black stripes on the sides of the bills at the middle, along with a smaller size to help set them apart from now renamed American herring gulls.

Ringed-bill gulls will nest on the Picnic Rocks. Herring gulls will nest on other rocky islets around Marquette. All the other species will head off to summer nesting grounds to the north. Glaucous will head to the Pacific Coast of Alaska and far northern parts of Canada and Asia. The smaller iceland gull, also a white-winged” gull, with no black primary wing tips, will head only to Arctic Canada and the southern tip of Greenland. Great black-backed gulls will summer on the Atlantic Coast, Greenland and across the pond in northern Europe. Lesser blacked and slaty-backed gulls are quite rare in the U.P. and are usually seen during spring migration in Marquette. Lesser black-backs are Asian nesters and slaty-backed gulls are year-round residents on the east coast of Asia and a western tip of Alaska.

There have not been any reported sightings of a snowy owl in Marquette since one had a run-in with a peregrine falcon downtown since March 4, and it may have begun heading back to the Canadian tundra. Snowy owls are still being reported in Chippewa County as recently as this past Wednesday near Rudyard as was an early American kestrel.

There have not been any recent calls heard of a northern saw-whet owls in Marquette for over a week either. One had been calling at night since January near the Superior Dome. A northern Saw-whet owl did show up outside an office in west Marquette, sleeping in a cedar tree last Friday. A check of the area two days later revealed the owl had pasted on and was laying under the cedar. The remains were collected and taken to the MDNR office for further study.

Other recent migrant appearances in the Upper Peninsula include some of the more usual early arrivals. Red-winged blackbirds have shown up in the southern U.P. but one was seen this past Monday on the Dead River near Granite St. too. Two song sparrows were heard at Lake Superior State University this past Wednesday in the Soo. A belted kingfisher was seen south of Marquette this week too.

Back in Chippewa County a group of ten sharp-tailed grouse was seen last Wednesday morning. One male there was dancing. The area was not described as a lek in the eBird post, so it was not clear if the male was just displaying or the birds were on a spring dancing ground. Their courtship behavior is quite impressive, with their tails up, their feet moving like high-speed pistons. The males lift cheek feathers to reveal purplish-pink inflatable cheek sacs that provide air for the audio and sound like low running engines along with some clucking calls. The dancing also produces a confusion of zigzagging males darting around each other, dropping in front of each other and occasionally performing quick vertical flights to spar with other males. Females wander through the combatants deciding on the best dancers before mating. The leks are usually in open areas and used year after year. It is thought the females determine the sites but each male designs its own territory for dancing,

Trumpeter swans have continued to kept birders guessing on their whereabouts. Most of their time has been spent between the lower stretches of the Dead River and a wider section of the Chocolay River close to their mouths with mallards a northern pintail on the Chocolay. Single birds and pairs have also continued so the exact numbers are not certain. They frequently now are being seen in the same area as newly arrived Canada geese. Stayed tuned for more Spring!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is naturalist at the MooseWood Nature Center, a writer and photographer.