Southwestern Michigan Birding Hotspot

Under the heading HOTSPOTS, an article by Tom Funke entitled "Smile for the birdies as they return" and published in the Battle Creek (Michigan) Enquirer on 04/30/06 contained the following remarks about one of my favorite Michigan birding localities when I was a teenager and college student:

Are you looking to be overwhelmed, unable to keep track of all the birds flitting about? Just a few miles inland of Grand Mere State Park is Warren Woods Natural Area. Bisected by the Galien River, this climax beech maple forest is a magnet for migrants.

Visit in mid-May and look for such rarities as Worm-eating Warbler, Hooded Warbler, and the Northern Parula. Woodpeckers feast on old, dead trees.

Thrushes race through the understory. Even an advanced birder struggles to keep up with all the activity. An added treat is the abundant and diverse flowers that grow in this forest that has never seen the plow or axe.

I spent many enjoyable hours observing and recording the birdlife of Warren Woods, activities that resulted in one of my earliest publication on birds, in the pages of the Michigan Audubon Society’s Jack-Pine Warbler (a now defunct quarterly journal of ornithology).