Outrunning Migration - Part 12 - Tettegouche

In roughly 4 hours on the morning of May 16th I was able to answer a question. Can you outrun migration? The answer appears to be maybe. My planning for window of opportunity on the north shore was set based on my own historical counts for species variety in the month of May. I used my day by day counts to target the highest average window to be hitting the north shore. This turned out to be a great education that really started to sink in by the time my day at Tettegouche occurred.

I seriously hope they are working on a new sign for the park as I could not find an official park sign at all. This one for my lunch break was all that was present. I doubt I missed a large entrance sign as I visited 3 major parking areas.

My number one target for this park was in fact Black-throated Blue Warbler, but I also had designs on Mourning Warbler, Canada Warbler, and certainly a few other as well. I had a prior trip to this park with friend Kevin Manley that was later in the season where we yielded the prior mentioned trio on territory while hiking up the long incline of Tettegouche Camp road.

This sign gives a small taste of the straight line hike if you head up to the camp. Once reaching the peak I then added multiple miles in other hikes, got to the camp eventually and then added another loop and eventually hiked from camp back to the parking lot.

Some of these are late arrivals in general and I certainly found that to be the case as my entire visit to this park did not yield those particular target species. This education was excellent as it helped me to understand a little bit more about warbler migration and what it looks like on breeding territory as opposed to in the twin cities area.

I rolled into the parking area on the far back side of the park that provides the hike up to Tettegouche Camp around 6AM. The day was breezy and overcast allowing me to wear a light jacket. The camp road/trail is 1.7 miles with 300' of elevation gain along the way and I planned to add a diversion trail that would put me in the general area of prior known Black-throated Blue Warblers. The morning was generally quiet and I could tell immediately I was on the early side of migration for this far north. Now that doesn't mean birds weren't present and making noise, I just remember what a day in June was like and how different it felt on this mid-May day. Ruffed Grouse continued to provide the background drumming I was already accustomed to along the north shore. This welcome beat always makes me smile as I hear it so infrequently in the south. Winter Wren provided the non-stop song of the early hike chattering away in the wet wooded areas. Above Red-Breasted Nuthatch added their 2 cents worth and White-throated Sparrows welcomed the new day.

Later in the hike this Red-breasted Nuthatch sat on the side of the tree watching me like I had just taken out a package of seeds for eating.

I stopped often on the hike up to listen noting so far the absence of Mourning Warbler and Chestnut-sided Warbler, but that Blackburnian Warbler and Cape May Warbler were both present. Later I would find Northern Parula starting to stake out territory in a couple select locations. I was generally aware that the Parula would perhaps have a stronger showing further north and I looked forward to getting a sense of their density and distribution.

As I reached the peak of the hike I turned left and came up empty on Black-throated Blue while wrapping around towards the noted main camp site. Along the way a sign noted beaver activity creating wet trail conditions and that was certainly true as I found the trail to be floating and non-viable as I picked my way around via the woods eventually coming back to the trail itself.



Along this stretch I gained good song opportunity from Cape May Warbler and then from Purple Finches. It was very gratifying to have the chance to listen to Purple Finches on territory singing as opposed to seeing them visit a bird feeder in the dead of winter down south. It is amazing just a few hours north and you get the chance to see breeding/singing activity of a species you only get as a winter migrant otherwise.

A nice male Purple Finch singing during the early portion of my hike at Tettegouche.

I dropped into Camp Tettegouche to near silence. I was the only human around and it had a weird horror movie vibe the whole time. I found the serene Mic Mac Lake with light peaking through some darker clouds as Common Loon cried out on the water.

The quiet Mic Mac Lake by Tettegouche Camp was almost creepy in the morning light as I sat alone but for a Common Loon, Beaver, and a few Spotted Sandpiper.

It was graveyard quiet beyond that as I moved through the camp finding a Harris's Sparrow moving about the short grass along with a couple summer coat Snowshoe Hares. Back on the lake a Beaver floated under the dock and pulled up near me and had a morning snack.

North American Beaver stopping to visit at Mic Mac Lake in Tettegouche Camp. This one was no further than 10' away from me enjoying a morning bite to eat.

A few Spotted Sandpiper moved along the shore as well peeping just a few times at each other. After resting a bit and enjoying the solitude I found another trail segment and looked to hike towards Floating Bog Bay and see what else might be moving about. This added a couple more Common Loon and Magnolia Warbler to my list.

By the end of this first 4 hour, 5 mile hike I would check off 41 species of birds. The most pervasive of the warblers were Ovenbirds fully entrenched in every space possible along with regular activity from Nashville and Black-and-White Warblers. With solid numbers I knew though that I was technically early for critical mass of species. I neither saw nor heard from Chestnut-sided Warbler and would have expected a number of them to be present. (Though to be fair, I could have been hearing them and not realized their song. I still have trouble fully separating those from American Redstart and a few others.)

As I got back to the car I spotted a Cape May Warbler down the road in a tree. This was my only actual visual of the species during my north shore trip, proving how evasive some of these species really can be regardless of how many times you hear them sing.

The long distance view of a Cape May Warbler.

I moved now to a less publicized trail that is just a spur location taking you to Illgen Falls. This small pull off parking location is along highway 1 and was well worth the effort as I started picking up many Black-throated Green Warblers and had a great time seeing the falls. For a short spur trail this is a nice bonus waterfall for anyone chasing those in numbers along the north shore or looking to minimize the stress and strain of some of the larger hikes.

Illgen Falls at Tettegouche State Park

Nice rock formation just above the falls.

More rocks and trees above the falls hike.

I now moved my car again and setup in the main body of the park looking to hike even more and track down a couple more waterfalls (High Falls and Two Step Falls), which would have to leave Cascade Falls for another day. It is truly unreal how much hiking exists as this park and how many sights are to be seen. If Tettegouche is not my favorite State Park then it is number 2 as I can see spending a week in this place and never getting bored. Man is it a fun place to just lose yourself.

My hiking was now loaded with tons of wooden stairs, roots, elevation changes, and just plain old awesome.

So many stair sections to the falls it was like hitting the gym for a crazy stairway montage or something. If you have the juice all of it is worth the effort.

I spent the vast majority of my time alone and enjoying the company of rushing water and the interspersed song of warblers and other woodland species. I added on another 3 miles of trail time over a 2 hours period picking up views of the falls and truly enjoying everything mother nature had to offer on this day. I didn't even get to the Shovel Point trail with unreal views of the lake this day and was more than satisfied.

The top of High Falls at Tettegouche State Park, the scenery is amazing and I had it all to myself on this day.

The cable suspension bridge over the river at High Falls.

High Falls itself was a great waterfall. You can see the other side viewing platform near the top of the image. The hike in comes along that whole other side ridge line and then curls around on the cable bridge in the prior photo.

Further up from High Falls is Two-Step Falls that offers a nice secluded view of the river as it continues to drop down towards the lake. Truly a next level awesome hike.

As I wrapped up my 8th mile of hiking on the morning I went and found a secluded beach named Pedersen Beach. This little pull off location along the highway has a short walk in and provided me a chance to each lunch and sit by the lake. Having arrived in the area just on the front end of the tourist season I spent the picnic time alone and grateful for my early timing, despite some bird species misses. I picked up a Palm Warbler still likely moving north at this small location and even a Killdeer to add to my Tettegouche park list. I remember smiling and being excited that I have been starting lists for every park I visit this year. I'm setting myself up for a lifetime of park listing and visiting beautiful spaces. This year has been a gift to myself that will continue to pay off for years to come.

My lunch spot on the beach looking out at the lake.

The Great: Um, the words above pretty much say everything. This place is unreal and has so many places to hike and explore that even in my 2nd visit with many hours and miles under my belt it has so much left to offer that I want to go back and stay for several days of hiking and exploration. This is a top 5 park in the state of MN and would likely only be outclassed by some of the national parks when it comes to the level of awesome it brings to the table.

The Meh: My only complaint is my own timing being days ahead of the later warbler arrivals. This was as great education that sometimes is hard to swallow, but it was a fine education on how and when some species arrive for breeding. This adds context to what we see in the Twin Cities area and how migration manifests itself 3 hours north of us so I'll still call it a win.

The Verdict: Explore this park! Gooseberry and Splitrock get a lot of buzz as they are closer to the south end of the north shore and they have a great waterfall and lighthouse respectively, but Tettegouche is that first space that makes you just say, wow I can get lost in this park and see something new every day I visit.