Tawas Point: the sandy hook that traps migrating birds

In the third week of May, the warblers arrive at Tawas Point in numbers that make grown birders giddy. The reason is the shape of the place: a long, curving finger of sand that hooks out into Lake Huron and forms Tawas Bay behind it. Birds flying north up the shoreline hit the water, follow the land, and pile up at the tip — a natural funnel that concentrates them in one small, walkable park. Birders call this a migrant trap, and this one is among the best in the Great Lakes.

The park covers 183 acres on the spit, the windswept beaches and pine that earned it the nickname “Cape Cod of the Midwest.” Hundreds of species pass through here in spring and fall. On a good May morning the low trees near the lighthouse can be dripping with yellow-and-black warblers, while shorebirds work the wet sand and hawks ride the wind down the point in September. People drive from across the Midwest to stand on the same short trail and add birds to a list.

One resident is rarer than any migrant. The piping plover, a small pale shorebird the color of dry sand, nests on these beaches — and the Great Lakes population is federally endangered, down to just 17 breeding pairs by 1986 before slow recovery began. Almost all of them now nest in Michigan. Stretches of beach get roped off in nesting season to keep feet and dogs away from eggs that look exactly like pebbles. It’s an easy bird to miss and an easy nest to crush, which is why the signs are blunt about it.

Come at dawn in mid-May with binoculars and patience. The birds don’t wait for a convenient hour, and neither do the people chasing them down the sand.