Combine the Beauty of the Boreal Forest with its Birds

Answer the call of the wild.

Male Cape May Warbler in Female Spruce Buds

The boreal forest is the world’s largest intact forest ecosystem. It is defined as a forest that grows in regions of the northern hemisphere with cold temperatures, made up mostly of cold tolerant coniferous species, such as black and white spruce, balsam fir, eastern white cedar, and jack pine. But it also contains deciduous trees, such as white birch, certain maple and oak species, balsam poplar, and tamarack (a deciduous conifer). It contains 25 percent of the world’s wetlands, and its varied landscape supports a rich variety of plant and animal life. It is very important for maintaining clean air and clean water.

Boreal forest offers intact nature on a scale normally absent from modern life. It occurs throughout Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where it is at the southernmost boundary of North America’s boreal forest. It is characterized by abundance during the growing season – including abundant insects, and abundant insect-eating birds, especially warblers.

BOREAL SPRING FOREST UNDERSTORY COLOR

Male Nashville Warbler in Spring Maple Sapling

I try to combine the beautiful elements of these boreal forests with their beautiful songbirds, and teaching that is a key part of the Northern Warblers and More Workshops.

In the images above and below “spring color” is combined with the warblers. The red/orange color of some maple saplings, as well as other saplings, occurs for only a few days in certain areas of boreal forests in the spring. This color is made up of pigments called anthocyanins. The saplings of those trees experience cold nights and warmer days during the boreal spring, and that facilitates a surge of sugar moving into the new leaves. And this sugar is converted into the pigments, which can be red to orange.

Male Black-throated Blue Warbler in Colorful Understory

COLORFUL SPRING BUDS

In the spring the conifers and tamaracks of the boreal forest can produce colorful buds for a few days. This does not happen with every tree every year and some years are better than others. And the timing of when it occurs is variable. So, some searching is required to find the colorful buds. Here in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, I search for the colorful buds on spruces (white, red, and black), tamarack, and Jack Pines.

There are male and female buds. The buds of spruces and tamarack are easily distinguished as male or female, but the differences between male and female buds for other conifers is usually subtle.

Male Blackburnian Warbler in Male Spruce Buds

Male Black-throated Green Warbler in Female Tamarack Buds

Male Kirtland’s Warbler in Male Jack Pine Buds

CONES

Buds mature into cones and the cones last much longer than buds, sometimes many years, so they provide a much longer photographic window of opportunity for combining them with birds. The colorful Spruce Warblers (Magnolia, Cape May, Blackburnian) combine nicely with Spruce Cones, especially because these species are very comfortable in spruces.

Male Magnolia Warbler in Black Spruce Cones (with buds above the cones)

Male Cape May Warbler in Spruce Cones

Female Magnolia Warbler in Spruce with Cones

Cedar and Tamarack Cones are abundant in our boreal forest.

Blue-headed Vireo in Maturing Golden Cedar Buds (which are green initially)

Male Yellow-rumped Warbler searching for insects in mature cedar cones

Male Magnolia Warbler in mature Cedar Cones (under the tail are 2-year-old cones, and under the breast are year old cones)

Male Wilson’s Warbler on Tamarack Cones

Pine Cones are also abundant in the boreal forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Red Crossbill on Pine Cones

Male Pine Warbler on Pine Cones

PHOTO NOTES

The images in this article were captured over a period of many years. Some of them were set up, using clipped vegetation from my property, such as a cone-loaded top of a wind-storm downed spruce. There were very unexpected opportunities where a bird landed in a nice area. And opportunities where the possibilities were present, and the bird cooperated. I am always searching for nice areas within bird territories so that I am aware of them before a bird arrives or is drawn there.

Countless great opportunities were missed while using older technology equipment. With 8-10 fps (frames per second), no high ISO capability, and older auto-focus technology, the chances were very high, in many circumstances, that I would not be able to set for a high enough shutter speed or depth of field, not be able to gain focus in time, or I would miss the brief moment when the head angle of the bird was good. All of that is mitigated by the newer technology cameras, when they are set up properly for warbler photography. I make sure of that for clients.

MOSSES AND LICHENS

Mosses and Lichens are abundant in the boreal forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Most of the boreal forest in this region occurs close to the shores of Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan, and those areas are cool and humid during the growing season. This facilitates the growth of mosses and lichens, and they normally do not dry out for long periods of time, so they proliferate.

The next 2 images have starburst lichen on the rocks. Certain coves, bays and shorelines of Lake Huron in Michigan’s Eastern Upper Peninsula have many rocks with this lichen. The lichen requires nitrogen so rocks with many bird droppings are where it grows.

Female Common Merganser with Sunburst Lichen Background

Male Kingfisher on Starburst Lichen Rock

Barred Owl Nest Cavity – surrounded by moss

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Female Black and white Warbler

Male Evening Grosbeaks

Winter Wren

Male Canada Warbler

Male Pileated Woodpecker

Philadelphia Vireo

Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Female Blackburnian Warbler

Ovenbird

Male Nashville Warbler

Boreal Winter

Winter offers much fewer opportunities, but there are possibilities.

Male White-winged Crossbill in Hoarfrost Spruce

Hawk Owl in Snowy Spruce

Male Pine Grosbeak on Snowy Spruce Cones

BOREAL BOUNTY

There is a good reason why songbirds and other migratory birds come to the boreal forests to nest, beside avoiding the cold winter. And why they have evolved over thousands of years to fly so far, and risk so much during the gauntlet of migration. Nature supplies their food – insects. In abundance.

There was never a need for humans to supply their food. That is why feeder bird photography would never consume a very high percentage of my time and effort, from the beginning. I wouldn’t experience nature or nature’s variety in the boreal forests because I would not be pursuing knowledge of how nature supplies that food.

If you want to be connected to nature, connected in a real way, visit the boreal forest. Immerse yourself in it.

This is what you do at the Northern Warblers and More Workshops. You experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the southernmost part of the boreal forest and the habitats connected to it. You visit a wide variety of habitats specific to certain warbler species and shared by others.

Male Pine Warbler in Spring Maple Sapling

Female Black and White Warbler with Spider on Usnea Moss

Male Connecticut Warbler on Lichens in Colorful Understory

Male Cape May Warbler in Female Tamarack Buds

Male Golden-winged Warbler in Spring Color

Male Black-throated Green Warbler on Lichens

Male Blackburnian Warbler on Female Spruce Buds

Male Chestnut-sided Warbler on Lichens

Male Canada Warbler on Spring Maple Sapling

Male Northern Parula on Lichen Branch

Successful bird photography by hunting for the wide variety of birds of the boreal forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is demanding. It involves knowing the timing of migration of the migratory and partial-migratory species, finding out how it varies based on the season, monitoring weather constantly, learning the songs and calls of birds, knowing their habitats, what they feed on and how they feed, how they are likely to behave and where they are likely to go in response to changing weather, how seasonal weather affects nesting habitats and various species’ food supply, how certain birds behave in response to predators. It requires mobility to explore and respond to changing conditions. All of that requires living in the area full time.

But that is what I love to do and share with other bird enthusiasts and photographers. I would not have moved away from access to high-speed internet (and ease of marketing my photography) if I did not put a high priority on living at a great migratory stopover sight (spring and fall), which is close to state and national forest, and with great bird diversity and numbers of songbirds. I set myself up to live and learn, daily and yearly.

Passing along this knowledge is one way I simulate the knowledge transfer between our hunter/gatherer ancestors. I pass along learning experiences with birds, similar to what they did during their lifestyle living off the land, passing all manner of information on how to be successful at living.

That is the way I view it. And I believe that we are genetically programmed to derive satisfaction from observing and learning from nature, because for thousands of years we did this in order to survive.

Answering the call of the wild was necessary for our survival.