The exhausted travelers were just about out of gas, so they pulled over to the only rest stop they could find in the fog.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources workers aboard the research vessel Coregonus wondered why so many migrating warblers were suddenly landing on their boat 16 miles off the Lake Michigan shore from Port Washington. The pooped birds didn't care where they landed, as long as it was dry.
To the warblers lost in the fog, the boat probably looked like a giant floating life preserver.
"Most of them were just dead-tired," DNR fisheries technician Tim Kroeff said Tuesday.
American redstart, magnolia and palm warblers were among the species landing on the boat, as well as at least one vesper sparrow.
"Some were so tired I could catch them with my hand and bring them into the cabin. Some of them would land
and it was almost like they were in hypothermia, they were shivering," said Kroeff, a DNR fisheries technician for three decades.
Warblers migrating from tropical climates to Wisconsin to breed or pass through on their way to Canada visit stopover sites, which ornithologists have dubbed fire escapes, convenience stores and full-service hotels, depending on habitat and availability of food. On this day in
late May, the Coregonus was a fire escape - a vital rescue stop the birds happened upon that likely saved their lives.
"It happens in the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico; there are amazing stories from people on ships," said Noel Cutright, founder of Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory in Ozaukee County. "They're always looking for some place to sit down."
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