Kensington Metropark

When we visit my mother Mary and her husband Keith in the Detroit area, they always regale us with an endless list of attractions, far more than we could ever see in one visit.  It can be overwhelming, trying to decide between so many exciting choices!  However, this time I knew I wanted to visit Kensington Metropark, because of the opportunity to possibly see a sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis).  Mary has often sent me pictures of these striking birds, and I have written about them for work, but never had the chance to see one myself.  Mary and Keith explained that they don't see the cranes on every visit: Kensington is a park, not a zoo, and the sandhill cranes are wild animals.  But it was a risk I was willing to take, as it sounded like a lovely place to hike regardless.

But we needn't have worried - the first cranes were spotted in the parking lot, before we even opened the car doors.  My instinct was to stick close to the car, not wanting to disturb them, and I gaped in awe while taking some terrible long distance photos.  But I did approach them, slowly, and the cranes also approached us, less slowly, obviously hoping we would feed them (we did not).  I was surprised to learn that Kensington allows visitors to hand-feed songbirds, and the nature center even sells birdseed for this purpose.  The sandhill cranes are obviously accustomed to visitors carrying food.  I have mixed feeling about this practice, because although the wildlife here are protected, many of these birds, including sandhill cranes, are migratory, meaning they fly to places where they are not so safe.  But it does mean that visitors like us can have close encounters with these animals... and it was absolutely thrilling!

After gawking at the cranes for an extended time, we decided to leave the parking lot behind, taking the short paved path toward the nature center (passing more sandhill cranes along the way).  We stopped at the viewpoint for Kingfisher Lagoon, marveling at the enormous carp, briefly stopped at the nature center, then finally set out along the hiking trails. 

Kingfisher Lagoon

Mary and Keith took us on their favorite trails, a loop made by setting out clockwise on the Deer Run Trail, then turning right at the first junction with the Chickadee Trail (labeled 14 on the map below). We followed Chickadee Run almost back to the nature center, but continued straight (at point 8 on the map below) to check out the long boardwalk on the Wildwing Trail and see the heron rookery. 

We saw sandhill cranes several more times on the hike, in more natural settings, including several adorable chicks.  I was squatting low to take a picture of smooth false foxglove (below), when I looked up to see one running straight at me.  They are big birds!  The birds with chicks, and those further from the nature center, were more cautious and we respected their reasonable desire for distance.

smooth false foxglove (Aureolaria flava)

Michigan lily (Lilium michiganense)

pointed-leaved tick trefoil (Hylodesmum glutinosum)

bottlebrush grass (Elymus hystrix)

common agrimony (Agrimonia gryposepala)

flowering spurge (Euphorbia corollata)

we disappointed many birds with our lack of handouts

American hazelnut (Corylus americana)

the heron rookery is on the island

stalking a great blue heron

We decided to make the bridge at the south end of the boardwalk our turnaround point.  We didn't have time to hike the entire Wildwing Trail, but saw the most interesting part, according to Mary, who has hiked all the trails.  The turnaround bridge wasn't part of her planned tour, but Frankie and I can't resist a little bridge, so she humored us as mothers/grandmothers do.   

All us adults are vaccinated, and it is just so nice to see family again!  We commemorated the family fun with lots of goofy selfies and one actual photo of us, kindly taken by another visitor. 

MapMyRide tracked this outing at 3.8 miles with about 180 feet elevation gain.  Kensington Metropark is a great spot for wildlife viewing and we greatly enjoyed our visit.