Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Sonya Swetich, a seventh-grade student at Houghton Middle School, takes in the view during a class trip to Brockway Mountain Friday morning.

COPPER HARBOR — More than 10,000 birds had flown over Brockway Mountain by mid-May during their migration.

Houghton Middle School students on Friday traveled to Brockway’s summit to hear about the bird count, the geology behind the formation of the Keweenaw, and ways to mitigate the hazards faced by birds.

The trips, which began in 2012, are coordinated by Michigan Technological University’s Center for Science and Environmental Outreach.

“When I ask how many have not ever been to Brockway Mountain, the hands do go up,” said Joan Chadde, the center’s director. “And of course, they don’t really know about this whole migration, so it’s cool for them to learn about that. It’s place-based learning, right here in your backyard.”

Because of COVID, this was the students’ first trip in three years, said Houghton science teacher Sarah Geborkoff.

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Bob Baez, counter for the Mount Brockway Hawk Watch, demonstrates his methods during a talk to Houghton Middle School students Friday.

Students cycled between stations, where they heard from experts before taking part in hands-on activities connected to the lessons.

Michelle Anderson, an outdoor science educator with Michigan Tech and director of Keweenaw Wild Bird REC, told students about some of the hazards faced by birds in the Keweenaw and some solutions.

Scavenger birds are at risk from lead poisoning from ingesting bullets or from eating fish on lures. Where possible, people should use non-lead alternatives, she said.

Glass windows claim another 500,000 to 1 million birds each year; groups like the Copper Country Audubon Society have worked to remedy the problem locally by providing decals at frequent collision sites like the Portage Lake District Library.

For predation by pets, bells on a cat’s collar have been shown to be ineffective, Anderson said. Instead, pet owners should look at a “catio,” a screened porch which allows the cat to experience the outdoors while not allowing them to roam free.

Habitat loss can be mitigated through land preservation, Anderson said. On a smaller level, one step is nest boxes, where migrating birds can lay their eggs. She pointed to one mounted several hundred feet away.

“Places that have habitat loss, that would be an awesome way to give them that habitat back,” she said.

In a game at the end, students played birds and tried to get past other players, who wore placards marking them as threats such as plastic trash.

Dana Richter of the Copper Country Audubon Society showed students the variety of birds they could see at the mountain. The society started the hawk watch about 14 years ago.

The birds migrate north each year from states such as Missouri and Alabama. To conserve energy, the birds avoid flying over water.

“It kind of acts like a funnel, so this is a concentration point,” he said.

Sometimes more than 30,000 birds fly over during a three-month period. Broadwing hawks are the most common, making up about 70% of the raptors spotted this spring. Others include sharp-shinned hawks, noted for their thin legs, and bald eagles, distinguished by the white patches on their heads.

Students also heard from a counter who spends March 15 to June 15 on the mountain. For the first part of the season, he makes the journey up the mountain by snowmobile.

Keweenaw Bird Research Group, a birdwatching group in Copper Harbor, and Audubon collaborate to fund the bird counter, Richter said. Copper Country Audubon Society also gives presentations, including to Lake Linden-Hubbell Schools, Richter said.

In what several students singled out as the best part, Richter handed students binoculars to look for birds. Clouds retreated near the end of the students’ visit, creating new views of the peninsula and more frequent bird sightings.

“I just really like the view,” said seventh-grader Sonya Swetich, looking westward through the binoculars.

The rocks that make up Brockway and the Keweenaw are about 1 billion years old, said Erika Vye, a geosciences research scientist at the Great Lakes Research Center. To show how Lake Superior and the peninsula were formed, she had students line up in two rows with their arms stretched toward each other. One row represented the Keweenaw, another represented Isle Royale.

Magma, acted out by Vye, broke through to the surface in a series of 450 lava flows. The weight of those flows created the Lake Superior basin. Students had ridden past one on the way up — by Cliff Drive, a basalt cliff in Keweenaw County.

“Did you guys know that that is the largest known lava flow on the face of the earth?” she said. “We have it right here.”

Mount Arvon, in Baraga County, is the highest natural feature in Michigan, at 1,979 feet above sea level. A billion years ago, it was part of a range that rivaled the Rocky Mountains, Vye said.

Erosion smoothed out some of the gap between the mountains and the basin, leaving a comparatively tiny peak and material filling out the Keweenaw. The Brockway ridge is an alluvial fan made up of conglomerate rock, Vye said.

“So the rocks that you’re standing on are part of an old mountain,” she said.