• Wednesday-What'sUP April 28 - 10:12 pm

Brooke Gubacz made a discovery recently, when she took a drive to the top of Brockway Mountain. Upon further investigation of this new building, she discovered it was a temporary shelter for the person hired by the Keweenaw Raptor Survey, who counts the migrating raptors. It's a great vantage point for this count, as the birds ride the updrafts that are forced up the mountainside as they come across Lake Superior. It's a final push for them, before they make the long journey across the Big Lake.

When there aren't any raptors flying by, the person counting has quite an awesome view to take in, as evidenced in Brooke's third and fourth shots, looking toward Eagle Harbor and Lake Medora, respectively. The last photo was the count from a week or so ago, but if you'd like to get the current numbers, you can check it out here, along with more information about the count: www.keweenawraptorsurvey.org

They were up there at the end of March, when we made our trek to the top of the mountain. That's some fabulous stuff to be up there, when a flock of birds flies over the top...WOW...there were a few of us up there one time when some red tailed hawks flew by...I swear you could feel the wind from their wings...unreal...the sound was so cool.

Watching those birds playing with the wind currents is just great.

The opposite of simplicity,
as we come to understand it,
is not complexity but clutter.
Up on Brockway Mountain we thus have truly complex simplicity!

It's a awesome trek in winter by snowmobile!

Fantastic! Do I hear an Amen?

There are a group of "birders" that monitor the hawks here along the Detroit River/Lake Erie every fall for 3 months and post their results daily.


http://www.smrr.net/

Yes Alex. AMEN!!

It was a beautiful day to be up there. Blue skies like that this morning too. What shall I do today? Thinking more walking with the puppy.

Will add my "Amen" also, Alex! Awesome!

My sons really enjoyed our treks to Brockway Mountain. They were in awe with the magnificent Lake Superior and the grandeur of the beauty of the trees. Every time we would have visitors my oldest would suggest that we take them up the mountain. Brooke, thanks for sharing your trip with us who are not able to be there at this time; your photos bring back memories of our own visits. Enjoy your day everyone!

AMEN Alex! Beautiful pictures. I miss being there so much!!

This is why it is know as God's Country!

Don't know if I've shared with the pasty friends but I had a fantastic experience years ago in Door County Wis. with a birding expert during a spring work week at The Clearing. Allan took us to the tip of the county near Gills Rock. He pointed out a mass of hawks circling above the waters of Death's Door as they prepared to fly to the UP on their migration north! There had to be hundreds of them! It was like they were winding up, ready to go! It's one of those memories I'll have to my last breath of life. How inspiring! Another similar experience was the choreography of a flock of pelicans soaring along Texas shore while I was listening to classical music on my Wokman (sp.?)! Ahh memories!

Also Allan called the display of the hawks..."kettling".

Hi
I went to "Hawkfest" at Lake Erie Metropark one fall. They used the term kettling, too: a group of hawks circling in a spiral, getting higher at each round. I wish I had better distance vision (yes, I had binoculars but they had to overcome bad eyes), but it was something to see.

Thank you for including the link to the Keweenaw Raptor Survey, Mary. That's a very interesting site!

I remember going up there one spring day in 1983. There were so many raptors circling I don't know how anyone could have counted them. One flock must have numbered at least 200 of at least three species. They circled higher and higher and then if you looked hard enough you could see them take off northwards. I'll never forget that day.

Beautiful views.

There is a lot more green in the area today, too. We were up there this afternoon for a couple of hours and met a couple from California who were talking to Max about boreal chicadees, (which I didn't even know existed.) So many things to learn.

Hello all!
Thank you for your interest and attention to the Keweenaw Raptor Survey. This is a three year project to document the amazing passage of spring hawks, eagles, falcons and other birds that pass by Brockway Mountain each year. We have a very knowledgeable expert bird counter stationed on top of Brockway and we invite you to come on up and see the migration for yourself.

For more information please visit our website at
http://keweenawraptorsurvey.org/

This is a volunteer-based project. To help continue this research, please consider donating to the Keweenaw Raptor Survey

Thank You!

Skye Haas
Keweenaw Raptor Survey

The BEST place ever to see the stars and the Milky Way streaking across the sky!