A snow bunting looks on. (Scot Stewart photo)

“February is the uncertain month, neither black nor white but all shades between by turns. Nothing is sure.” — Gladys Hasty Carroll

In years past, February found its true happiness with lots of snow, plenty of temperature near 0oF in the Upper Peninsula’s winter. Real winter! Lately there is more and more talk of freezing rain, ice, melting condition, and the uncertainty of the actual whereabouts of true winter. The zigzag of conditions so far is so reminiscent of much of all of the seasons the past few years. It seems to produce somewhat erratic patterns for some of wildlife activity as well.

Changes in dropping barometric pressure have, in some studies, shown birds tend to visit bird feeders more often. They have organs in their ears sensitive to changes in air pressure. Some studies have also shown that increases in air pressure and temperature changes are not as important to the timing of visits to stations with sunflower seeds and suet. American goldfinches continue to flock in some high numbers. Last Wednesday morning, more than 20 were seen at one station in Marquette, prior to the snow-ice storm predicted for the U.P. Goldfinches and mourning doves have both continued in high numbers here this winter.

However, in casual observations of the woodpeckers on Presque Isle, it seems they spend much more time near suet feeders, especially near dusk, dipping down from nearby trees to pull a few bites out and return to the safety of the trees. They may make a dozen or more suet visits before heading back into the woods for the night. Many birds get a bit busier at dusk to “load up” on food before retiring to their nighttime roosting spots. For the woodpeckers, it usually means spending the night alone in a tree cavity, out of the wind.

At first light, many birds make their way to easy sources of food to begin loading up again on necessary calories for the cold day ahead. One of the first to visit some feeders in Marquette is the northern cardinal. The males, with their bright red plumage take advantage of the dim light to feed during the time when they are least conspicuous.

On the recent days when temperatures have risen back up above freezing, birds often seem to spend less time at feeders, and perhaps more time foraging in a more dispersed manner, where there may be less attention taken by winter predators like sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks. Both have been active around feeders in Marquette this winter.

Last week some interestingly high numbers of some birds were noted in the U.P. In the town of AuTrain more than 50 blue jays were seen flying around this week. The number of blue jays in several towns in the U.P. has been close to or above average this winter. Herring gulls have maintained some strong numbers this winter too because of the open water on Lake Superior. 125 were seen at the landfill in Munising this past week. At the Munuscong Wildlife Management Area in the eastern U.P. 22 snow buntings were found on Tuesday too.

There have been some single and small flock of birds to note this past week as well. A snowy owl was seen in the Marquette area, on the Lower Harbor Breakwall last Monday, after a number of days without a sighting. It is presumed to be the same owl that has been seen along the Lake Superior shoreline in town for a number of weeks. By roosting out on the breakwall the owl essentially avoids the harassment of crows and jays.

With the vacillating temperatures and winds the last three weeks, the water in the Lower Harbor, even the slip alongside Mattson Park has closed and reopened several times despite the extreme cold experienced several times since New Years. The open water has attracted long-tailed ducks, hooded mergansers and a few bufflehead, all smaller ducks a snowy owl can relatively easily catch. Combined with a huge number of rock pigeons found in south Marquette, and a good number of cottontails along the shore, there’s a good supply of wildlife there to provide for owls hunting there.

Over at the east end in Chippewa County, a number of snowy owls are still being seen, but it seems to be fewer than last week, with just one or two reported by birders checking the area. eBird, a citizen science website created for individuals to report their bird sightings does not include most owl species on the reports visible to others to protect them from excessive disturbances, so it is not possible to know what other owls have been seen south of the Soo and north of Pickford and Rudyard.

A Barrow’s goldeneye was spotted from the Copenhagen Bridge at Indian Lake last Sunday. This is a great example of the dividends coming for the diligence of using a spotting scope and carefully looking over the individual ducks and other waterfowl seen out on the lakes in the area. Male Barrow’s goldeneyes are a western species of ducks with crescent shaped white patches on the cheeks instead of more rounded spots. Very rare in Michigan, winter is the best time to find them here.

Although it has now come to a weekly watch, many have been excited to see the five trumpeter swans on the Dead River continuing. It has been an encouraging development to remain here through the past few months, again leading to the hopes, the ups and downs of weather will keep them and several Harvey robins around in the weeks to come.

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