2014 Searching for Spruce Grouse Trip Report by Myles McNally
Our brief Searching for Spruce Grouse tour has just one goal: find and get good looks at one or more Spruce Grouse. This is a post-Spring Fling event, happening this year on April 27th. We met in the parking area behind the Paradise Inn, where two things happened. First, a cooperative Merlin flew in and perched high in a tree to the north, allowing us to get good scope views. Second, we were tipped off to the presence of two female Spruce Grouse along the edge of M-123 just west of town. We quickly headed that way.
Of course that would have been way too easy, and we couldn’t relocate the birds. So we headed over to a traditionally good spot – the “slab” on Vermillion Road. We crused down the road slow, only to be surprised by the appearance of a full-sized bus coming up behind us. Turned out the bus was full of birders from Ohio, on a similar quest that morning. Fortunately for all of us a male Spruce Grouse was waiting on the north side of the road. Success!
This bird was about 30 yards off the road, and alternately displayed on the ground and flew up in the trees to do some feeding. Great looks. After some time I could tell that we all had seen enough, so we left the bird there, still doing his bit. While there we also had Red Crossbills fly over, but we didn’t get good looks at them. I was personally fortunate to have some on M-123 south of town as I drove home after the tour, just below the location of the Silver Creek Tavern. Here’s one of those birds:
Red Cross in the middle of M-123
From the slab we head up to the Point to get some coffee, muffens, and see what was happening at the feeders and elsewere. At the feeders we turned up some good birds, such as Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Vesper Sparrow, and on the beach Lapland Longspur and Snow Bunting. After a bit we got a tip that a Pacific Loon had just been seen down at the Tahquamenon River Mouth, so we jumped in our cars and rushed down there. Not surprisingly, there were already a number of other birders there. But sadly no one could relocate the bird. We had to console ourselves with regular old Common Loons and a number of other waterfowl species, including all three Merganser species. A Greater Yellowlegs put in an appearance as well.
From there we called it a morning. Some folks headed home, some to lunch, others back up to the Point. But we all had one thing in common: Spruce Grouse on our trip list!
Trip List – 35 Species
- Canada Goose
- Tundra Swan
- Mallard
- Northern Pintail
- Ring-necked Duck
- Bufflehead
- Common Goldeneye
- Hooded Merganser
- Common Merganser
- Red-breasted Merganser
- Spruce Grouse
- Common Loon
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Turkey Vulture
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Sandhill Crane
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Herring Gull
- Mourning Dove
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
- Downy Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Merlin
- American Crow
- Common Raven
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- American Robin
- Lapland Longspur
- Snow Bunting
- Vesper Sparrow
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Common Grackle
- Purple Finch
- Red Crossbill