When you visit the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and Friends board member Neil Howk is your guide, you’re in for a treat. As a retired park ranger specializing in telling the stories of the islands, Neil has a special way of immersing park visitors in the rich history and natural beauty in the park. This summer, Neil volunteered at the Raspberry Island light, where he paid special attention to the bird populations – many of which have been on the island for more than a century. 

I spent nine days in early August on Raspberry Island as a volunteer-in-park leading tours of the historic light station. To prepare for this assignment I re-read the fascinating diary of light keeper Francis Jacker who served at Raspberry Island from 1885 to 1892. An interesting aspect of the diary is that Mr. Jacker noted natural history events as well as happenings at the lighthouse. I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of the birds that he saw on the island. This gave me the opportunity to compare the birds I saw with what Francis Jacker noticed more than 130 years ago.

The first five days I spent on the island, the only birds I heard calling near the lighthouse besides the merlins were a family of crows. All the other birds were keeping quiet so as not to reveal their locations to the merlins. One day I heard two merlins calling and looked up to see the smaller male merlin returning to the island from over the lake where it had caught a small bird. A female flew out from its treetop perch and intercepted the male above the lighthouse, where they briefly interlocked talons and transferred the prey from the male to the female. Quite a dramatic display.

Sandpiper taking cover on the beach

When I returned to Raspberry Island on August 10 for my second tour at the lighthouse, the merlin family was not around. A series of very windy days may have caused the falcons to disperse. I occasionally heard one of the birds over the next few days, but never saw more than one.

May 20, 1886: Cooked a duck (saw-bill) which shot yesterday. Didn’t make so bad a dish but tasted rather oily.

Saw-bill is another name for a crested, fish-eating, diving duck known as a merganser. The duck’s slender hooked bill has serrated edges (saw-bill) that help it catch and hold its prey. During my stay on the island, I regularly saw a group of 16 common mergansers swimming on the lake. Almost every evening they would swim along the shore below the lighthouse. In the morning, I saw them clustered on the beach at the sandspit.

Common mergansers

The island was also a regular roosting spot for a mixed flock of 40 or 50 herring and ring-billed gulls. When the dock was not occupied by powerboats and sailboats, it was a favorite hangout for the gulls. The first night I was on the island I was checking out the gulls on the dock when I noticed a common loon in the water at the end of the dock. We saw this loon fishing by itself along the shoreline below the lighthouse almost every night and occasionally heard its plaintive call echoing over the water.

September 14, 1886: Robins and small birds are now numerous and keep themselves the most time near the house and barn.

September 9, 1889: Small birds are numerous now. Shot 16 yellow hammers today.

October 1, 1889: Passenger birds, especially robins and yellow hammers (monainkwaneg) were quite numerous of late.

Once the family of merlins dispersed from around the lighthouse, I began to see and hear small flocks of songbirds around the edges of the lighthouse grounds and in the trees behind the beach and along the shoreline. The “yellow hammers” mentioned by Francis Jacker are large woodpeckers we call northern flickers. They are particularly numerous in this area during migration. They are so numerous that the Ojibwe name for Madeline Island is Mooniinwanekaaning-minis (island of the yellow-shafted flicker). Early August is a bit early for flickers to be migrating through the islands and I did not see any during my stay, but I did see downy and pileated woodpeckers on the island.

Downy woodpecker

By August, the breeding season for most birds is over and they stop singing. A few species are exceptions to that rule. I regularly heard song sparrows singing in the shrubs on the bluff below the lighthouse. A few red-eyed vireos continued to sing in the treetops along the trail to the beach. I heard one lonely winter wren singing in the forest the first few times I walked to the beach. I occasionally heard chickadees chattering in the trees at the beach and near the lighthouse.

The small mixed flocks of warblers I saw during my second week at the lighthouse were particularly interesting. I saw dozens of warblers including common yellowthroat, yellow-rumped, black-throated blue, black-throated green, Tennessee, and Magnolia warblers in the trees behind the beach and along the trail. I could not identify many of the less colorful young-of-the-year birds flitting through the branches. Near the lighthouse I encountered another flock of warblers composed mostly of American redstarts, common yellowthroats, and Nashville warblers.

Song sparrow

American redstart

There were also some immature Baltimore Orioles along with a group of robins in the treetops.

The Apostle Islands are an important rest stop for migratory birds crossing the lake. It was exciting to be a witness to the start of the migratory season at Raspberry Island and see the leading edge of the wave of “passenger birds” noted by Francis Jacker in the 1880s. You can learn more about the songbirds of the Apostle Islands in this segment of the 50th Anniversary Resource Stewardship Symposium on our website.