MICHIGAN ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB i? 
BIRDS NOTED EN ROUTE TO NORTHERN MICHIGAN. 
NORMAN A. WOOD. 
[From the University Museum, University of Michigan.| 
The past summer of 1904 was a fortunate one for the University Museum, 
as it was able to send a party to Northern Michigan to study and collect 
natural history specimens. While on the way some observations were made 
upon the bird life by Otto McCreary, Max M. Peet, and. the writer, but 
as those records are widely scattered it was thought best to present them in 
this form. A detailed report of the ornithological results is being prepared 
and will be published elsewhere. Many birds were seen that could not be 
identified with certainty from the train; so all of doubtful identity have been 
omitted. The return was made mostly at night, which accounts for the small 
number of records made on the return trip. 
The party left Ann Arbor July 10, and at Detroit on that evening ob- 
served the Nighthawk and a few Herring Gulls circling over Detroit River. 
During the night we left Detroit for Mackinac City on the Michigan Central 
R. R. Long before daylight we had passed through the deciduous forests of 
southern Michigan,and were among the coniferous forests near Grayling, 
Crawford County. This is a region of high sandy hills and Jack Pine plains 
covered with pine stumps and burnt stubs—the remnants of a once extensive 
pine forest. Here we saw a Red-tailed Hawk, four Crows, two Kingbirds 
and Robins. At Waters, Otsego County, we saw a small flock of Tree Swal- 
lows (flying over the water), the Flicker, and Hairy and Downy Wood- 
peckers. 
At Otsego Lake we saw-a Great Blue Heron. At Gaylord, Otsego Co., 
a Meadowlark (not a common bird in this high sandy country), and at 
Vanderbilt, also in Otsego Co., we saw the Bronzed Grackle. At Wolverine, 
Cheboygan Co., we saw the Chimney Swift. At Topinabee the railroad runs 
near the shore of Mullet Lake, and here we saw the Spotted Sandpiper, 
Phoebe, and Red-winged Blackbird. Here I met a young man named Glen 
Riley, who lives near Onaway, Presque Isle Co., (about 25 miles southeast 
of Mullet Lake). Mr. Riley said the Meadowlark, Bobolink, Baltimore 
Oriole, and Scarlet Tanger were regular summer residents, and that the 
Bob-white had arrived there a few years ago. At Mackinac City and on the 
Straits we saw the Herring Gulls as at Detroit. 
Leaving St. Ignace on the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic R. R., we 
passed through an area of cultivated land, and gradually entered a level, 
swampy tract. It was in this region, on our return, that the Spruce Partridge 
was seen. Here were miles of marshes covered with a short, thin growth 
of coarse grass in patches tall enough for hay. A scattered growth of small 
tamarack and spruce trees occupied the edges of the marshes, while upon the 
dryer ones quite extensive forests were seen. Here the only bird identified 
was the Great Blue Heron, near the Soo Junction in Luce Co. 
Passing from Luce into Schoolcraft County we find that marshes occupy 
most of the region traversed. These are gradually replaced by a mixed forest 
of birch and spruce, with some pine and hemlock. The hills and ridges are 
covered with forests of hard maple. At Seney, on our return, a Meadowlark 
was seen—the most northern point at which we observed this bird. Near 
here, also on our return, we saw twelve Great Horned Owls in flocks or 
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