Our day started with a veggie breakfast bagel and coffee. Then we were off in search of Gray Jays.
Hulbert Bog has always been one of my favorite places to visit in the Upper Peninsula. The bog part of Basnau Road is only about 2 miles long, but can be interesting in all seasons. There can be a lot of warblers in the spring, orchids in the summer, crossbills anytime. But we all hope for Gray Jays. Years ago Boreal Chickadees nested here, and you could find them in all seasons. Now the chickadees are gone.
While there was an inch or so of snow on the road, the plowed shoulders had several feet. The conifers, dominated by cedars, spruces and hemlock are an attractive place to search for birds and plants. Today we’d have to settle for hearing the jays flying off into the distance, not once checking out our piles of peanuts and sunflower seeds along the road.
We headed over to Hulbert for lunch. Afterwords it was on to Dafter in search of Bohemian Waxwings. No luck with the waxwings, but we did run into a mother and daughter from Kentucky who were birdwatching, looking for the waxwings. They had heard about the hawk owl, but weren’t sure where to find it. With no hesitation, we lead them to the owl, which was about six miles away (as the owl flies), but 10+ as the roads go, especially with a bridge over a creek out.
We got to see the bird a second time, which was nice, but the excitement of these two women in seeing the bird was as rewarding as seeing the bird itself.
The sun was getting low at this point, it was already 4:45 PM EST. So we headed north to the Soo (bringing Stan Rogers to mind) in search of dinner. Susan directed us to Zorba’s for dinner.
There was no reason to go for “other food” when Greek was the obvious option.
Needless to say, we were all happy.
More tomorrow…
Michael's Place 