Marinette and Menominee birdwatchers flock together for holiday counts

MARINETTE COUNTY – Canada geese and mallard ducks might be a dime a dozen in Marinette, but not compared to 400 red-winged blackbirds sighted in 90 minutes earlier this fall.

“They were in the marsh in the cattails. All of a sudden, they fly up in a flock. You count 10, 20, 30, 40. We guesstimated how many there were: 100 there, 200 over here. It’s fun to see,” said Joan Campbell, a member of Pond Road Birders in Marinette who was on the group’s walk when the red-winged blackbirds were staging in the marsh in mid-September.

The blackbirds had flown down from the north for the winter migration, she said.

“They stage there and then go to Southern Illinois. They mix in with red-wings, yellow starlings and a mixture of blackbirds,” said Campbell.

During Pond Road Birders’ last walk before the fall hunting season, about 15 birders also recorded 42 Canada geese, 32 mallard ducks, seven woodpeckers, six wild turkeys, three great blue herons, two sandhill cranes and a long list of other species.

Marinette and Peshtigo residents can stay put and spot hundreds of birds as they migrate south for the winter and return in April or May for the summer, said Campbell, who has personally spotted about 1,808 different birds while birdwatching throughout the world, out of about 11,131 total species, according to AviList, a collaborative global checklist. Campbell’s North American list has 703 different birds.

“Birding and birdwatching are huge in this country,” she said, noting birders come in all shapes and sizes and with different habits.

Some are content to look at birds in their back yard, while others travel great distances to see birds they might not otherwise encounter.

“I love it. It’s in my blood. It’s so much a part of my life,” Campbell said about birding.

For Campbell, birdwatching was an occasional pastime while she worked and raised a family, she said. In retrospect, she should have become an ornithologist because of how she has gravitated to birding, she said. Instead, she studied music, taught piano and organ and performed. She also sold real estate.

Campbell has now taken up birdwatching in her retirement in Marinette and the Town of Peshtigo, ideal locations for birding.

“We’ve got a great shoreline. This part of the state is really good to see migrating birds coming south in the winter from the north and coming north in the summer,” said Cathy Carnes, another area birder and member of Pond Road Birders.

The group meets weekly from May to September along the bay shore where Marinette borders the Town of Peshtigo. It takes a break for fall hunting season out of safety concerns, Campbell said, then holds three Christmas Bird Counts. They’re scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 16, in Carney, Michigan; Tuesday, Dec. 30 in Peshtigo; and Saturday, Jan. 3, at Hayward Lake in Menominee County.

“We have a good time. We usually stop for lunch somewhere and continue our count in the afternoon until about 2 p.m.,” she said.

Peak season for birdwatching in Marinette and Menominee is from May to August or September, Campbell said. At the annual Pond Road Birdfest, held this past May 17, about 75 bird species were seen and recorded on a flip chart, said Carnes, a retired biologist who worked for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The fest was held at the Peshtigo Pond Road birding site located on Pond Road off County Road BB south of Shore Drive. The area includes wetlands and forest, providing several different habitats.Pond Road Birders helped to build the deck along a gravel road by the bay, Carnes said.

While most participants try to walk quietly so as not to scare off the birds, socializing is part of the experience, Campbell said.

“Everyone loves to look at flowers and butterflies, even the grasses. Everything is interesting, and a lot of people are knowledgeable,” she said.

“We’ve gotten to be such good friends. We have a lot of get-togethers. Someone will bring pictures. We’ll have bonfires and tell stories. We get to be a close group.”

Of course, socializing also comes with a downside for serious birders. “I’m trying to listen for a bird and everyone is yakking,” Campbell joked.

Campbell, who has birdwatched for 59 years, said she gets calls from fellow birders excited to tell her about the latest sighting, such as a forked tail fly catcher, a rare bird from South America.

“Everybody knows I’m a birder, so they call me,” she said. When a black throated grey warbler visited a bird feeder in Menominee County, Michigan, she received a phone call with an invitation to come see it.

Through a spur-of-the-moment meeting to see a rare specimen, Campbell was introduced to Lynette Thonne of Michigan, who now coordinates Pond Road Birders, she said.

With many bird species dwindling in population, the 700 species Campbell has seen over the years is some feat. “There’s only 1,000 in North America, and I’ve seen over 700,” she said.

Campbell started birding occasionally in Illinois before she moved to Marinette 44 years ago.

“When I started birding, there were 40% more. It’s amazing what has happened. We would go out and see so many more species. I would see over 20 warblers on Pond Road. Now it’s a good day if you see 14,” she said.

The number of birds in the U.S. has declined over the six decades Campbell has watched them. She attributes it to pesticides that have wiped out the insects birds eat and clearings of forests that have destroyed their nesting spots. Wild cats also prey on birds in the bay area. Some migrating birds get caught off season in an area too cold for them and don’t make it, she added.

“There’s nothing like watching birds,” she said. “They’re so interesting, and you never know what they’re going to do or when a rare bird is going to show up in your area.”