Welcome to the Kirtland's Warbler GeoTrail (KWGT). This trail will take you in a loop in central Northern Michigan through the Jack Pine ecosystem, breeding home of the Kirtland's Warbler. This tour takes you to a total of 25 caches with an amazing trackable geocoin as a reward. The KWGT Passport can be downloaded here: https://f81c572e-1d95-4026-befc-8c60f69cbcd9.filesusr.com/ugd/31e003_41b2f3aa918442e8b08c880e746e6946.pdf
Most Kirtland’s Warblers (98%) breed in the central northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, with smaller breeding populations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, and Ontario. Males arrive on the breeding grounds in early to mid-May, with the females arriving about a week later. They nest in large stands (200 acres or more) of 5-20-year-old dense Jack Pine. After about 20 years, the lowest branches of Jack Pine start to die and break off. These lower branches provide cover for both the nest and the young. Their nest is built on the ground out of sedge, pine needles, and occasionally a few twigs, usually against a microstructure such as a log, clump of grass, or edge of plantation furrow. The nest is lined with rootlets, deer hair, moss, and fine grasses. Normally 5 (range 3-6) eggs are laid in late-May to early-June, and hatch about 2 weeks later. The female incubates the eggs, and the male often brings her food. Both parents feed the young. The nestlings leave the nest (called fledging) about 9 days after hatching. The fledglings are a mottled brown and gray that look remarkedly like the Jack Pine cones, aptly named pine cone plumage. The parents continue to feed the young, but after 3 weeks, the young find most of their own food. After breeding, most Kirtland's Warblers start heading south from late August to late September, with a few lingering into early October. The young head down to The Bahamas before the adults.
Cache
The cache is placed in habitat created by the 1964 Ogemaw Refuge Burn. A singing male Kirtland’s Warbler was found here in 1976. The habitat across the road was planted in the early 1990s.