MYS T ERIES

By Chris Zimmerman

The first time I went to Jack Miner’s Migratory Bird Sanctuary I was just a boy, some 50(!) years ago. For some strange reason, I still remember that day trip with my cousins as we traveled from Detroit to Kingsville, Ontario, Canada. It was the first time I really remembered being in the tunnel from Detroit to Windsor. I marveled at the Canadian and American flags painted on the drab, yellowing tiles in the bowels of the tunnel. In the back of my naive head, I couldn’t help think it was a miracle that the tiles kept the Detroit River from gushing into the tunnel and drowning us all.

In those days, passing through customs was a walk in the park. No passports needed. No cameras, facial recognition software or proof of vaccinations. Entering a foreign country was as easy as a walk in the park.

When we arrived at Jack Miner’s 40 minutes from Windsor, I was amazed at the thousands of migrating ducks and geese. The sound of all those birds was deafening; the sight, most impressive.

Fast forward to early spring, 2023 in Canadian Lakes. What started out as a kind gesture of feeding cut corn to a pair of hungry mallards on our lake, turned into a recruiting effort for Noah’s ark. One pair of mallards turned into a dozen pairs, that were in the throes of mating season. My, my how those mallards carried on, with the drakes, battling for territorial domination and the hens quacking the quacks of joy after a long flight north.

When I told my dad about the abundance of mallards I had entertained, he said, “you know, Jack Miner started out that way.”

And so it began. The trip down memory lane. Back to the early 70s, with four or five cousins in the back of a woodsided station wagon on our way to Jack Miner’s. Some of us facing backwards in the bucket seat behind the middle bench seat. My uncle drove while his wife smoked cigarettes as if they were going out of style. Nary a seatbelt in use.

The mystery of waterfowl migration unfolds every spring and fall. Jack Miner’s is a great place to take it all in. The sanctuary was started way back in 1904 and Jack Miner was known as a naturalist, conservationist, and lecturer. He was one of the pioneers of attaching numbered metal leg bands to ducks and geese. When hunters shot a duck or goose with a band on it, the information helped to identify how long the bird lived and which direction it went after leaving the sanctuary.

Located just a few kilometers from the north shore of Lake Erie, Jack Miner’s has a great layout for waterfowl watchers. Several ponds on premises give migrating ducks and geese a place to cool their heels, while observation decks give visitors a chance to take in the action. Jack Miner’s attracts migrating ducks and geese by the hundreds of thousands. Their website, www.Jack Miner.ca, boasts that it was once rated the second greatest tourist attraction in Canada.

Last April, I planned a trip to Jack Miner’s. Although I missed the massive northerly flight of waterfowl, it was still fun to take that trip down memory lane.

Almost a half hour east of Kingsville, Point Pelee National Park is the place to go for a more diverse birding experience. Strangely enough, the park is funnel shaped and juts into Lake Erie, effectively cutting miles off the long flight across one of the Great Lakes. Most of the park is covered in forest, however, one side of the peninsula has an impressive marsh, and the other side, a pebbly beach. A two-lane road from the park’s entrance south to the very point is carved through a tunnel of trees. Easements along the way are great for taking in subtle differences in habitat. Hiking trails twist through the understory, offering birding enthusiasts a chance to probe the forest or the beach in search of migrating birds.

Spring and fall are the best times to catch the bird migration. By the

Point’s definition, “fall” is mid-August to December. Songbirds are first to pass through the point in late summer, followed by birds of prey in October, and waterfowl in November.

Literature gleaned from one of the park’s headquarters suggest there are benefits and pitfalls when trying to intercept the fall migration of songbirds. In the fall, songbirds aren’t in a rush to head south. They tend to linger inside the park, which is great for bird watchers. The bad part is, songbirds aren’t all that vocal in the fall, and their feathers can be either immature or not as brilliantly colored as they are in spring. Through years of study — and data collected from leg band returns — biologists have determined that Pelee sits at the intersection of two corridors of waterfowl migration: the Atlantic and Mississippi flyways. Although it’s impossible to determine which ducks are using which flyway, my wife and I spotted two species of ducks that are seldom seen in Canadian Lakes: Gadwalls and Northern Shovelers. Gadwalls are rather drab-looking, with a grayish brown color, a chestnut wing speculum and a black rear end. In duck hunting circles, shovelers have a peculiar nickname “post hole diggers” because their odd, spoon-shaped bill that is used to scoop food off the bottom of the marsh. It was fun to watch both species as they bobbed for food and carried out their courtship.

My wife and I shoveled a ton of adventure into a weekend getaway. It was great to watch the birds, visit a foreign country, eat fantastic perch dinners and reminisce about our youth...many years ago. For a great birding experience, I highly recommend a quick trip to Jack Miner’s and Point Pelee.

Our team at McLaren is built on a culture of quality. Since day one, we’ve been passionate with providing the best care to the Mount Pleasant community. That’s why we’re proud to be the only 5-star CMS-rated hospital in the area and to have the best possible safety rating from Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade with our ninth Grade A in a row.