Birding

Among the tourist draws around the Great Lakes is birding. These lakes attract hordes of waterbirds, and also act as barriers to migrant landbirds flying between the boreal forests to the north and their tropical wintering haunts in Central and South America. At certain times of the year these migrants crowd along the lakeshore, waiting for the opportune weather conditions (trailing winds, absence of rain) to make their nonstop flights across the water. Such “massings” offer an unparalleled chance to see, in one small patch, dozens of bird species that ultimately will occupy thousands of square miles of forests where they breed or winter.

Great Lakes locations such as Point Pele (Canada), Magee Marsh Ohio), and Presque Isle (Pennsylvania) are renowned among birders for the migrant landbirds (warblers, vireos, orioles, tanagers, flycatchers, etc.) that swarm here each spring and fall. The same is true for Indiana Dunes, among the world’s most spectacular locations to witness the miracle of migration.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society have joined to create eBird, an online tool for reporting and displaying bird sighting information around the country. We have linked our blog to Cornell, and below you will see eBird feeds for specific sites along the Discovery Trail (such as Indiana Dunes State Park), as well as notable bird sightings for the state itself. We also love Cornell’s All About Birds, their online bird guide.

Keep an eye of these sites, and watch for the first migration movements of the season. Birding migration is the American version of the Serengeti, and no place is better on Lake Michigan than the Beyond the Beach Discovery Trail.

 

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