One of this year’s Michigan travel goals is to hike a “new to us” trail in each of Michigan’s 83 counties, so we have been out exploring with every moment of free time we have. A sunny weekend in May found us visiting one of Southeast Michigan’s most popular summer destinations – Kensington Metropark near Milford. This amazing property spans more than 4,500 acres and includes a golf course, nature center, farm center, disc golf courses, beaches, a splash pad and water slide, miles of trails for hiking, biking, or horseback riding, and plentiful opportunities for fishing, boating, or kayaking on Kent Lake. It didn’t take us long to see why this beautiful park sees around two million visitors each year! Our visit was focused on hiking some of the trails and doing some birdwatching and we had an amazing time. Kensington Metropark’s unique location allowed us to complete a hike in both Livingston and Oakland counties during our visit, and today we will share some photos of the birds we saw and more information on how you can plan a visit of your own.

We started our visit by parking in the lot by the Nature Center. After checking out the board with trail maps we decided to first hit the Wildwing Trail (1.75 miles) that loops around Wildwing Lake. The seven miles of hiking trails here are open to foot traffic only. As we took the stairs down from the parking lot to the trail, we saw a handful of birds (mourning doves, red-winged blackbirds, grackles) right away and a snake crossed the path in front of us – it sure seemed like this was going to be a good day! The path travels a short distance before it reaches a boardwalk that brings you even closer to the lake.

Birds were plentiful along the boardwalk and in the water. The highlight here is the heron rookery on an island in the lake. From the boardwalk we were able to see dozens of these majestic birds and their babies. While we’ve come cross many Great Blue Herons in Michigan, this was our first time seeing any on a nest or with babies, and definitely our first time seeing so many in one place!

In the lake we saw fish splashing and a turtle swimming, as well as a Mute Swan on a nest. Other birds we saw in the boardwalk area included a common grackle, a curious downy woodpecker, and a vocal red-winged blackbird:

After the boardwalk the Wildwing Trail continues to follow around the shore, and there were many more chipmunks, squirrels, and birds. A few sandhill cranes even crossed the path by us.

We followed the trail around the southern edge of the lake then followed it along the western edge as it became more wooded and much quieter. For a brief part of the trail there are towering pines on your left and a view of the lake on the right.

After the trail covers a few steeper sections and comes out of the woods it passes an observation shelter that overlooks the lake before the scenery opens up a bit. It was shortly after here that we had one of our favorite encounters of the day as a family of sandhill cranes were right in the middle of the path. This was the closest we’ve been to these prehistoric-looking birds and seeing them interact with their colt was very special. It was a short distance from this point to the nature center, where we checked the map again and headed out for the second part of our adventure.

When you stop at the nature center, be sure to head out back and visit Ranger, the resident red-tailed hawk.

We next decided to head out on the Chickadee Trail, a two-mile loop that covers the woods north of the nature center and also intersects with the Aspen Trail (1.5 miles) and the Deer Run Trail (1.5 miles). We weren’t far from the nature center when a wild turkey crossed the path in front of us.

As we turned to the east we spotted a lone Great Blue Heron walking through the woods.

The smaller birds through this section were incredibly vocal and had no issues with getting incredibly close to us. Despite the many signs posted throughout the property encouraging visitors to NOT feed the wildlife, a note of the park website says you may “feed only birds that land on your hand.” A white-breasted nuthatch, a chickadee, and a tufted titmouse all took us up on that offer. We also saw several indigo buntings and a few rose-breasted grosbeaks through this part of the trail. As we used a boardwalk section to cut across to the Deer Run Trail, a pair of sandhill cranes walked right in front of us.

As we looped back to the nature center we passed a few more observation areas and even saw a very friendly red squirrel. A sing bearing the park’s name encouraged visitors to post selfies from here as part of a bigger Huron-Clinton Metroparks project.

We made a final trip to the boardwalk to look for more birds, and got to see an Eastern Kingbird perched on a tree overlooking the lake. This was an amazing park for birdwatching and we covered around four miles of trail while visiting. I have no idea why it took us this long to visit Kensington Metropark, but we will definitely be returning and encouraging others to visit as well!

**There is a daily entrance fee for the metropark ($10, or purchase a yearly pass for $45/$40 for residents of Livingston, Macomb, Washtenaw, Oakland, and Wayne Count