Grounded warblers on Manitou Island

The warblers I usually encounter in the Keweenaw are only visible for a few seconds like streams of tiny gnats streaking overhead, until they disappear beyond the treetops. But every once in a while if weather conditions are unusually foul, the birds drop down to forage on the rocky coast.

 

This usually happens a few times each spring, mainly because the leaf-out of trees where warblers normally forage is very late along the cool, foggy Lake Superior coast. It might seem unusual to see warblers hopping around on barren rocks like colorful Neotropical shorebirds, but on closer inspection there are usually midges and other insects on the rocks that I have never seen in the barren trees.

 

This behavior is not the focus of my project, but makes for particularly satisfying views.

 

 

It is interesting to consider that the rocks must be the best option for food resources, because the birds are foraging in very vulnerable positions--visible to hunting raptors. For tiny warblers, migration through the Keweenaw is not easy. But this is what concentrates them, making it easy for us to count them--whether overhead or on the rocks.

Actually, it is not easy for us humans to get out to our isolated study area on Manitou Island, which I will describe soon…