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Trail Headquarters Now Open
The Glen Arbor headquarters of the Trail is now open for your visits, your questions and your tired feet. The office is located at 6391 Western Avenue in Glen Arbor, MI, centrally located in the...
View ArticleBike Trail Provides New Opportunities
The Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail is a paved route that provides new access to important habitat in Leelanau County. The bike trail extends from the Dune Climb in Empire to Glen Arbor. The portion...
View ArticleBreeding Bird Observations
The summer is certainly in full swing and the migration is in the rear view mirror. We thought that is might be interesting to benchmark a window of breeding birds each year going forward. The...
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A Thank You
The Trail is appreciative of all those who have stopped by our office in Glen Arbor the past few weeks. You have had many suggestions, many ideas, and we have enjoyed answering your questions and...
View ArticleBeaver Island Birding Trail in 2014
2014 will mark the introduction of the Beaver Island Birding Trail. This significant population of avifauna makes the Island the perfect place for a virtual birding trail. Inspired by the success of...
View ArticleProductive Sewage Ponds and G.T. Bay Corridor
With so many miles of shoreline and public land, it is easy to overlook the far northern end of the Trail, as M-22 heads south towards Traverse City. Suttons Bay Harbor Wetland Walk is always...
View ArticleSleepy Dog Days Done, Fall Migration Underway
The fall migration is underway and birders are now reporting a much wider variety of warblers and a great diversity of shorebirds. It is now time to get out and comb the shoreline and mudflats as...
View ArticleThank You to SBBT Visitors
Our first summer season is now behind us and over 500 people visited our headquarters in Glen Arbor in the past eight weeks. Thank you to those who volunteered to help the Trail and thank you for your...
View ArticleBenzie Loop Near Completion
One of the most frequent comments we had at our headquarters this summer was interest in developing Birding Loops, or smaller subsets of the Trail that would take birders through a very detailed...
View ArticlePoint Betsie Fall Birding
Carl Freeman will lead a Benzie Audubon field trip this Saturday, November 9, to look for migrating waterfowl along Lake Michigan. Meet at the parking area at the end of Point Betsie Road at 9:30 a.m....
View ArticleBirdtrax Update – 212 Species
The Birdtrax “barometer” has hit 212 species in the past two weeks. Our Birdtrax widget on the homepage shows sightings on the Trail in a rolling two week format. Last year on May 20th, there were...
View ArticleShalda Creek Wetlands
Shalda Creek is a small stream that flows into Good Harbor Bay in between Glen Arbor and Leland. The creek crosses Co. Rd. 669 just south of the bay and then again along Lake Michigan Drive. These...
View ArticleHoliday Weekend Sees New Peaks
Near perfect holiday weekend weather conditions capped off a spectacular week of birding that saw the Birdtrax app peak at 216 species today. Leaf cover is coming our in earnest now and many reports...
View ArticleBenzie “Beginning Birding” ~ June 7th
Carl Freeman will lead a “Beginning Birding” field trip this Saturday June 7 to help birders develop their identification skills. There should be enough warblers around to challenge everyone, beginner...
View ArticleNews From Our Northern Communities
Ther 4th Annual Leelanau Peninsula Birding Festival wrapped-up just last Sunday. Despite a few “slow” locations on afternoon field trips, the overall festival species count was up this year. 120...
View ArticleA Couple of Summer Reads
Here a few suggestions if you looking for a summer book to read: WHAT THE ROBIN KNOWS, by JonYoung and GIFTS OF THE CROW, by John Marzluff and Tony Angell. Both books are about bird intelligence and...
View ArticleStrange Bird at the Feeder
The Trail is home to a variety of wildlife but bears are not terribly common here. This black bear discovered my neighbor’s feeder this week on Miller Hill in Glen Arbor. We certainly welcome and...
View ArticleTalking With Your Mouth Full
We all heard it as youngsters, “Don’t talk with your mouth full!” But we all do at moments, often with hilariously confusing results. So, the question is simple, can birds talk with their beaks full?...
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Summer Discoveries
Summer is for relaxing, how about for birders? It seems to be so if you look at the steep decline in eBird reports in June and July compared to May. Summer shouldn’t be all down time for birding as...
View ArticleBirding the Benzie Bonus Loop by Kayak
An August 1 tour of Little Platte Lake reminded us that summer birding need not be on foot and need not be boring. We met Mike Jones of the Benzie Conservation District at the DNR boat access off of...
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