Tawas Point

 May 17, 2021  Au Gres City campground to Tawas Point State Park - 30 miles

May 18, 2021 - lots of birding and beach walking

It is an easy and very flat ride to Tawas Point.  We get off the main road and travel some little lanes where cottages line the lakeshore.  There is a big house here and there but for the most part these are seasonal cottages where folks come to fish and relax and look at the lake.

  One shady stretch of bike trail parallels the state route and winds through piney woods.  It passes by the United States Gypsum Company land.  Gypsum mining operations have been supported here since the 1800's.  According the the informational sign, Gypsum is a mineral found in rock form.  Its scientific name is calcium sulfate, and the mineral itself  contains two molecules of water that make up about 20 percent of its weight.  It is unique in that when water is added back to the rock it will again harden into a solid substance.  It can be found all over the world and has been used since ancient times for plastering and sculpture.  

The remnants of an old tramway stretch out almost two miles into Saginaw Bay.  This was the longest over-water tramway in the world.  Buckets of crushed gympsum were sent one by one to waiting ships.  Now, gypsum is sent out as crushed rock from the mine to ships on Lake Huron through a system of conveyors .  We can see the long covered conveyors going out into the lake.  The white colored stone and powder is everywhere.  The company has reclaimed a lot of the former quarry land and made it into wildlife habitat.  It actually doesn't look too bad for a mining operation.  And, most of us have gypsum plaster in our homes so we are a part of this.

Soon we arrrive at Tawas Point State Park.  This is a major destination for birders.  It is sometimes called a "migrant trap" and as many as 300 species of birds have been seen in and around the park.  Passerines (which you probably call songbirds) migrate between their breeding grounds and their overwintering quarters.  The Lake Huron Flyway is a very important one for many many species.  Email or text me if you want me to send you a list of all the birds we saw on this spit of sand.  

This is a birding paradise

We don't even have binoculars and we see so many birds.  I am able to add two new species to my life list:  The black throated blue warbler and the golden-winged warbler.

If you love birding, look up the Saginaw Bay Birding Trail and Tawas Point.  Both spring and fall bring thousands of birds.

Tawas Point Light 

We spot three porcupines hanging out in trees

There are whole flocks of scarlet tangers migrating through.  They are resting and eating insects to fuel the rest of their journey.  Look at that stunning red color against the blue Michigan Sky.  

Magnolia warbler

Tawas Point Light has been moved and re-built more than once because the whole point has shifted with the sands of time.

Our campsite has a little path which leads right to Tawas Bay.  We were sitting in our site watching warblers when out of the trees ran a squirrel with a red fox in pursuit.  The squirrel ran up a nearby oak tree and the fox ran right toward us before screeching to a halt and turning back in to the woods.  He was only six feet from us when he turned back.  We were all very surprised.

These swarms of bugs are food for the journey for all the birds.