One of the most appealing aspects of birding here is the ease of access. State highway MI-22 crosses Arcadia Lake on a causeway with the marsh visible for nearly a mile on the east side and the open lake on the west. It is easy to just pull off on the side of the road and set up your scope to scan either the marsh or the lake with the elevated causeway helping to see out over the marsh.

 The Arcadia Marsh hosts over 150 species of birds including 17 State Endangered, Threatened, or Species of Special Concern, making it a fantastic site for birding. In both spring and fall, this 155-acre area harbors many migrating waterfowl, shorebirds, cranes, and many other birds. Arcadia has had its share of rarities to catch any birder’s attention including Bewick’s Wren, Black-billed Magpie, Purple Gallinule, Eider sp., Nelson’s Sparrow, and southern overshooting migrants rare this far north such as White-eyed Vireo and Kentucky Warbler. In low water years, the marsh is great for shorebirds and in high water years, it’s one of the easiest places in the state for American and Least Bittern.

Arcadia Marsh Preserve, located just south of Arcadia, offers visitors access to a Great Lakes Coastal Marsh, a rare and declining natural community found only in Great Lakes coastal areas. It is estimated that over 80% of all original Great Lakes marshes have been destroyed. These marshes are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world, and Arcadia Marsh is one of only 15 or so remaining coastal marshes along Lake Michigan’s Lower Peninsula shoreline. Intensive habitat restoration work completed here by Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC) and a dedicated team of partners has helped improve this ecosystem tremendously after many decades of decline due to invasive species and human-made impacts.