Re: [MDOsprey] Kirtland's Warbler Quest Results
Marcia Watson-Whitmyre (mww@UDel.Edu)
Thu, 01 Jul 1999 09:46:12 -0400
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------AD621797C60C3254F4E18C4B
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Steve and others Michigan-bound,
I'm sorry that I wasn't able to reply when Steve made his original request,
but at least this note will end up in the Osprey archive and perhaps in
everyone's memory. For a place to stay in Kirtland's territory, I highly
recommend Gate's AuSable Lodge, a few miles east of Grayling on Stephan
Bridge Rd. I stayed there when I went to Michigan in June 1997, and it was
great. The Lodge caters to fly fishermen, and is located right on the banks
of the AuSable River, internationally known for its trout fishing. When I
was looking for a place to stay, this sounded more appealing than the
Grayling Holiday Inn, which advertises "easy on-off the turnpike,"
translated as noise, traffic fumes, and a view of asphalt.
The Lodge has 16 rooms, not luxurious but very comfortable and scrupulously
clean. Mine had 2 double beds, TV, and refrigerator, for about $50 a
night. Unless things have changed, there are not phones in the rooms. All
rooms have two entrances: one from the parking lot, and a back door that
leads to the banks of the river. As I recall, there is a picnic table for
each room, as well as miscellaneous chairs and things scattered around on
the riverbank. The river is shallow and runs over rocks at this point,
making a pleasant babbling sound. The Lodge also has a full dining room
with excellent food, reasonably priced.
And it does have birds. Kingfishers and several kinds of flycatchers hunt
the river continually. I was awakened in the morning by Rose-breasted
Grosbeaks and lulled to sleep by the booming of Common Nighthawks. I found
a Kirtland's just a couple miles up the road, on US Army property. It's
only a 10 or 15 minute drive to the Holiday Inn, where the official warbler
tours start each morning.
As I said, the place caters to fishermen and they are a friendly bunch, even
if they didn't quite know what to make of me. The Lodge is almost always
full, so advance reservations are necessary. For more information, see
their web site at http://www.gateslodge.com/ I hope this information is
useful to someone planning a future trip.
Marcia Watson-Whitmyre
Cecil County
Steve Sanford wrote:
> I decided to go ahead with my long 2 1/2 day loop out of Milwaukee over
> the top of Lake Michigan and back to go look for Kirtland's Warbler in
> northern Michigan, thanks mainly to advice received from the many
> respondents to my "RFI" a few weeks ago.
--------------AD621797C60C3254F4E18C4B
Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="vcard.vcf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Description: Card for Marcia Watson-Whitmyre
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="vcard.vcf"
begin: vcard
fn: Marcia Watson-Whitmyre
n: Watson-Whitmyre;Marcia
org: University of Delaware
adr: 234 Hullihen Hall;;University of Delaware;Newark;Delaware;19716;USA
email;internet: mww@udel.edu
title: Assistant Director for Academic Policies Administration
tel;work: 302-831-6656
tel;fax: 302-831-8745
x-mozilla-cpt: ;0
x-mozilla-html: FALSE
version: 2.1
end: vcard
--------------AD621797C60C3254F4E18C4B--