Yep, He's A Pecker

Needless to say, we got up at the crack of dawn on Thursday, drove 6+ hours to the U.P., waited around on a dirt road in a rainstorm for another two hours, and never saw the damn woodpecker. A few other birders drove up looking for it (there was a nest at one time), but apparently they'd vacated the premises sometime between Monday and Thursday. Asshole Woodpecker.

After driving... and waiting... we drove around some more and stayed the night in Mackinaw City. We didn't get to the hotel until 9pm (after leaving Rochester at 7am). I hadn't been to Michigan's most famous tourist trap in a dozen years (Actually, I guess Mackinaw Island is probably the biggest tourist trap... the City is the Gateway to Tourist-Trap Paradise). I really wish we'd been able to stay around a little longer, but we had to leave by 9am in order to get back to Rochester for a late lunch. The weather was perfect (I can't say the same for the drive back), and even though there were thousands of people there, it wasn't really all that crowded. They've really built up the downtown area since the last time I was there, and it was pretty nice. Someday maybe I'll go back again.