The Long Way Home

Whitefish Point, Michigan

Although I was pretty exhausted from my time at the Best Week in American Birding (BWIAB), I wasn’t quite ready to go home. Or, maybe, because I was tired, I just didn’t want to drive 1,300 miles along the same route I took to get to Ohio. 

Hartwick Pines State Park

Also, I was still kicking myself for failing to see the Kirtland’s Warbler the day I arrived at BWIAB. 

Target bird: Kirtland's Warbler; Photo: Michigan Audubon Society

So, I did a little research and decided that I would drive north to Hartwick Pines State Park in Michigan where Kirtland’s allegedly nest. I even found out that the local Audubon Society does a Kirtland’s tour. Unfortunately, there was no tour scheduled for another week. 

My destination

After my final BWIAB tour at Oak Openings in Toledo, I drove north to Michigan. The pretty weather I had had while birding started to fade as the day wore on and, but by the time I got to Grayling, where the Park is located and where I was staying, it was drizzly and gray.

The gray skies made the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks pop

After checking into my pleasant room at the Woodland Motor Hotel, I headed to the Park. It was open, but virtually deserted, so there was no one to even ask about birds.

I guess I could ask the Eastern Gray Squirrel

Just off Interstate 75 in the upper portion of the Lower Peninsula, Hartwick Pines State Park covers 9,335 acres of old-growth white and red pine forest, known as the Hartwick Pines. This forest area is said to resemble the appearance of all northern Michigan prior to the logging era. 

Blue Jay

However, the forest does not experience reoccurring low-intensity fires that once regenerated the pines and eastern hemlock. 

Now, the forest contains more hardwood species such as sugar maple and beech

Kirtland’s Warblers nest there because they require large areas of dense young jack pine for breeding habitat. Without wildfire, the habitat is created by harvesting mature trees and planting of seedlings.

Salling Hansen Lumber Company heavily logged much of the property within Hartwick Pines State Park during the 1880s and 1890s. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) planted many of the Park's trees in the 1930s as part of a massive restoration effort.

A Hairy and a Downy Woodpecker

The Park was created in 1927 when Karen Michelson Hartwick, widow of lumberman Major Edward Hartwick, donated an 85-acre pine grove and 8,000 surrounding acres of cutover land to the state of Michigan as a memorial to the logging industry. In 1940, a blizzard badly damaged 36 acres of the old-growth pine grove. After several other storms, only 49 acres of old trees remain.

The Park’s centerpiece is the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum, erected by the CCC in 1934-1935 in two replica logging camp buildings. It contains exhibit rooms, photographs and artifacts of the lumber boom years of northern Michigan.

Hartwick Pines Logging Museum

Because I was there late on my first day and early on my second, it was not open when I was there. I also didn’t get to go in the very pretty Visitor Center, although I did observe a number of birds from the wrap-around deck.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks on feeders behind the Visitor Center

The Park has a campground, day-use area and network of four-season trails for summer hiking and winter cross-country skiing.

I found a friendly Hermit Thrush near the campground

The first evening, I walked the Old Growth Forest Trail that passes by a stand of pines estimated to be between 350 and 375 years old. 

A Downy Woodpecker makes way for me on the trail

The tallest trees are between 150 and 160 feet tall and have a girth of more than four feet DBH (diameter at breast height). These eastern white pines are some of the largest trees in the eastern United States.

Most of what I saw was newer second growth trees

There are four small lakes located within the Park. Two were originally named Bright and Star Lake. However, there were too many Star Lakes in Michigan, so they settled on Bright and Glory Lake.

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

The first evening, I saw and heard very few birds, but I thoroughly enjoyed the peace, quiet and delicious piney smell of the drippy forest. 

The source of great aromas

I went back early the next morning and asked the girl at the entrance gate whether I could find any Kirtland’s in the Park. She had no idea what I was talking about. And, I saw no mention of them on any signage. So, while it was lovely and peaceful, I had to admit defeat and move on.

Time to fly

Upper Peninsula

I decided to continue my trip by driving north to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. As I said, Grayling was gray and drizzly, so I was doubted my plan as I headed north. 

Looking for some Michigan lakeshore

But, just as I reached the Mackinac Bridge that connects Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, the cloud cover abruptly stopped, revealing brilliant blue sky and even more brilliant turquoise water of the Straits of Mackinac, a body of water connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. 

Left: WKFR; Top right: Mackinac Bridge Authority; Lower right: Daily Telegraph

Unfortunately, because the bridge was under construction, there was no place to stop the capture the breathtaking view.

Opened in 1957, the 26,372-foot-long bridge is the world's 27th-longest main span and is the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere.

Once over, I headed north with a goal of going to Whitefish Point at the top of the eastern UP before heading home. It was beautiful when I arrived. 

Blue sky, bluer water

I realized as I stood on the beach looking at the gorgeous Lake Superior water, that on this trip I had seen four of the five Great Lakes: Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior, missing only Ontario to the east.

Lake Superior

Whitefish Point is at the mouth of Whitefish Bay is 11 miles north of Paradise, Michigan. Home to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Whitefish Point Lighthouse and a US Coast Guard Station, the Point is designated as an Important Bird Area. It is also part of Seney National Wildlife Refuge.

Whitefish Point

Whitefish Point is one of the most dangerous shipping areas in the Great Lakes and is known as the “graveyard of the Great Lakes.” 

It was fairly calm when I visited

More vessels have been lost in the Whitefish Point area than any other part of Lake Superior. The wreckage of the ore freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in 1975 and was memorialized in a Gordon Lightfoot song, is 17 miles away.

Storms bring in lots of driftwood

I walked around and visited the lookout point of the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, an affiliate of the Michigan Audubon Society. 

It wasn’t a particularly busy migration day, with just a smattering of raptors listed on the Observatory’s whiteboard and a young man scanning the skies with binoculars.

 

A panoramic photo from the observation deck

A couple of Red-tailed Hawks and four Bald Eagles could be seen very, very far away, but that was about it. I only saw a few other birds.

Ring-billed Gull

White-crowned Sparrow

Common Raven

Blue Jay

Killdeer

I truly enjoyed the warm sunshine (despite a cool jacket-worthy breeze) before I needed to press on if I ever wanted to get home.

Lake surf

The only disappointment was that I never found a place to get some fried whitefish. 

Memories from 2018

Oh, well.

Heading Home

My next stop was the Main Unit of Seney National Wildlife Refuge 80 miles away, where I thought I might see some birds.

Wetlands at Seney

I had visited Seney in the fall of 2018 and saw only a handful of Ducks, Geese and Swans. I figured it would be teeming with waterbirds in May. Wrong!

I saw just one Trumpeter Swan

My trip home had me hooking around the Upper Peninsula and driving straight through the upper Midwest to home.

My route

As I headed west, the weather deteriorated, and I spent most of the day driving through heavy, heavy rain. It was so bad that I really couldn’t sightsee and I saw several really bad accidents. It cleared in the late afternoon as Google Maps decided to send me on another tour of obscure farm roads. I deeply regret not stopping to photograph some of the beautiful farms I passed in Wisconsin. I was tired and anxious to sleep, so I rationalized not taking photos by telling myself that morning light would be just as pretty. It wasn’t.

It was gray and ugly until I hit Nebraska and then it was just boring. Driving all the extra distance was probably silly, but I loved  Hartwick Pines and Whitefish Point.

I am glad I went

A nice ending to a great trip.

Trip dates: May 3-21, 2025