• Wednesday-What'sUP June 22 - 09:08 am

Steve Haagen recently visited the Copper Harbor area and like most people that do, headed on up to the top of Brockway Mountain. I'm sure he expected to see a variety of visitors up there, but I bet he didn't expect to see these two guys sitting there taking in the view. Maybe they're checking out the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge Golf Course in the distance, wondering if those little white balls flying around over there, might be something worth gliding over to eat.

If you've seen a favorite photo of the view from Brockway, maybe you'd like to have it included in the 2007 Pasty Cam Calendar. Just find the photo on our web site and send the URL to 2007Calendar@pasty.com.

Beautiful morning....eh

you all have a safe and blessed day.......

Ps 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made....let us rejoice and be glad in it....

Hugs..........

A favorite view for sure. Once my family stayed
at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. That was
the summer we went to Isle Royale. It was
splendid. Very good food. Wouldn't it be nice
to be breathing some of that Copper Country
air?

There's no better place in the Keweenaw to get a "birds-eye" view of the land!!! ;-)

Are those turkey buzzards? I think they have reddish heads and the beaks look white and hooked?

my favorite place in the whole world!!!
Brockway mountain..thanks for sharing.

Turkey Vultures looking for their "carrion" luggage?

Those do look like turkey buzzards. If so, they are quite a ways
north of their typical range. Maybe their range is expanding,
tho, like the cardinals one sees all the time now in the U.P.?

I don't know if they were absent years ago, but I have seen a fair share of turkey vultures in the Keweenaw, and I believe they get up into Canada. Couple weeks ago there were 4 of them drifting right over Houghton.

If there were vultures drifting over Houghton, they were probably looking for any tech students after finals that didn't make it, hehe ;-)

I have always remembered seeing vultures in the Keweenaw soaring overhead. I'm not sure if they are what you would call "accidental" like a cardinal, but they are much like a hound; follow their nose/beak to where the best food is....

Interesting.

Brockway Mountain is also one of my favorite places in the whole world. The best time is a clear summer night when the sky is packed with stars. I just stare at the cosmos in awe. It certainly is the 'big picture'.

The range of the Turkey Vulture (cathartes aura) has been increasing in northeast America since about 1920. By 1980 Petersons Field Guide notes the northward expansion and their range map shows the normal northern range at about Gaylord in the NLP. By the late 80s, early 90s the first "Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Michigan" shows it well established across the UP. Several reasons have been noted for the northward expansion,--warming climate, increase in food supply from "road kills" and an increase in old abandoned buildings and barns that they readily use for nesting! And yes their range now is well up into Canada.
Many other species also have expanded their summer or permanent ranges well to the north in recent generations. Cardinals, Tufted Titmouse, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Ring Necked Pheasant, Carolina Wren etc. etc.(In part from feeders) Several of the Warbler species have now almost entirely left their traditional areas in the south of Michigan and points further south and are now mostly only being found from the NLP northward in summer!
It is amazing in just the past few years to check the Michigan Rare Bird websites and UP Rare Bird website particularly and see some of the bizarre species that now are being seen regularly in many cases from the south and out west across MI & the UP!
Kirtlands Warblers are now being found regularly in the UP!

I concur with Margaret, interesting!

I have seen two pairs of these buzzards (on different days) this spring here in Cornell. They were doing a fancy sky ballet as they were hunting for lunch or supper over the hay field. The last few days, the turkeys have been cleaning out one of the feeders. They have discovered where the seeds on the ground came from. The long legged, long necked galoots! They sure get off the ground fast for such a big bird.

What a timely shot!

I've sat on top of that Mountain Drive on a good clear night and have been mezmerized by all the stars and the milky way so bright. Those are some of the best times on vacation I'll never forget.