Birds of the Peninsula — a stop on M-22 North.
This peninsula sticks out into a big lake, which makes it a funnel — and that makes it one of the better birding stretches in the Midwest.
Migrating birds don't like to cross large open water, so in spring they follow the shoreline north and pile up at the tip near Northport waiting for the right conditions. In autumn the same thing happens in reverse. That concentration is why serious birders come up here in May and September with scopes.
Year-round you'll see bald eagles — genuinely common now, which is a conservation success story worth pausing on, because in the nineteen sixties DDT had thinned their eggshells so badly that the Great Lakes population had nearly collapsed. They came back after the ban. Look for them on the shoreline dead trees and over the inland lakes.
On the water: common loons on the inland lakes in summer, with that call that makes the hair stand up; mergansers and goldeneyes on the bay in winter. In the dune grass, look for the small pale piping plovers I mentioned earlier. In the woods, warblers in absurd numbers during the May migration, plus pileated woodpeckers — crow-sized, red-crested, and impossible to mistake.
Pull over at a quiet spot, put the window down, and just listen for two minutes. There's more going on out there than the engine lets you hear.