A migration of not only birds, but birders, will be coming to Iosco County this weekend for the 2013 Tawas Point Birding Festival, which officially starts Thursday, May 16, and concludes on Sunday, May 19, with a few “early bird” events scheduled for Wednesday. The festival, created in 2006, features birding field trips to different locations around the county and region, led by birding experts. There is also a variety of seminars being presented over a five-day period, according to a local organizer. The annual event is sponsored by Michigan Audubon and organized locally by AuSable Valley Audubon. There is a reason Tawas Point is a popular location for birds in spring and the people who want to see them. Numerous bird species, making the annual spring migration north, are “funneled” in... 05/16/2013

Offshore powerboat racing may come to Tawas Bay next year An effort is underway to bring offshore powerboat racing to Tawas Bay next summer. A local businessman told the East Tawas City Council at its meeting Monday he and 3 other persons are working with a offshore powerboat racing association which holds 2 other events in Michigan. "They're looking for a 3rd event for the Great Lakes to hold a triple crown challenge." He said the group has been holding offshore powerboat racing the past 17 years in the St. Clair Shores area and last year held it for the 1st time along Port Huron. The event has been popular and successful in both communities. references: iosco news, john morris, don horne 11/15/2011

Color tours, Iosco County. Michigan Department of Natural Resources are predicting a short season of fall colors. Friday, Sept. 23rd marked the 1st official day of autumn, and with colder temperatures comes the changing of leaf color on many trees. Already, throughout Iosco County, maple trees are beginning to turn. There are many places in Iosco County to view the fall colors. As a starting point, Lumberman's Monument off River Road in Oscoda, which is the National Scenic Byway.references: iosco news, jason ogden, donsrealty   10/09/2011

Michigan Walleye Tour will return to Tawas this weekend The Michigan Walleye Tour will hold a 2 day fishing tournament in Tawas Bay this Saturday and Sunday, according to organizers. The tour travels to walleye locations in Michigan for events that culminate with a state championship. The Tawas Bay event is the last qualifying fishing tournament before the finale, to be held on Lake Leelanau in September. Last year the organization's championship was held on Tawas Bay. Anglers in the group wanted to come back to the Tawases because they like the area.references: jason ogden, iosco news, donsrealty.net 07/15/2011

Tourism is often weather dependent and the Memorial Day holiday weekend brought a mixed bag of weather and visitors to the 19th annual Shoreline Arts and Crafts Show at the Tawas City Park Saturday and Sunday. Considering the weather, it was an average to better than average weekend, said the director of the Tawas Area Chamber of Commerce. Saturday was a drizzly, windy, cool day. Sunday began sunny, in the mid 70s, before turning cloudy in the afternoon and cooling to the mid 60s.references: john morris, iosco news, donsrealty.net 06/08/2011

The East Tawas City Council agreed to a motion to purchase property next to the Robert C. Bolen Memorial Park, if the offer is accepted by the seller. The property is located along the 700 block of Newman St. The 71 x 132 foot parcel also comes with a 2 bedroom, 1 story house, listed for $15,900. If the city's offer is accepted, funds to pay for the property would come from the East Tawas Park Board, which held a special meeting and voted to proceed with making an offer for the property, pending city council approval.references: john morris, iosco news, donsrealty.net 04/16/2011

Michigan State Police (MSP) change will close East Tawas MI post to public. The MSP East Tawas MI post will close to the public later this year as part of agency budget cuts which will reduce the number of posts from 62 to 29. The action is part of a regional policing model designed to provide increased services while relying less upon traditional bricks and morter buildings. The plan emphasizes enhanced technology and data driven policing without laying off a single trooper. 29 posts will remain fully operational, 12 posts, East Tawas MI among these, will become detachments and 21 posts are slated for closure.references: jason ogden, iosco news, donsrealty.net   04/11/2011

Spring snowstorm pounds Iosco County East Tawas - send the groundhog, with its inaccurate prediction of an early spring, to meteorology school, as Iosco County was blasted with hugh amounts of heavy snow last week. The wintry mix filled streets, blanketed fields and clogged driveways, just 3 days after the official start of spring. The storm, which hit last Wednesday, left Iosco County covered in a layer of snow from 8 to 12 inches deep, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.references: jason ogden, iosco news, donsrealty.net   04/04/2011

Tawas Bay has been selected for the site of the 2012 North American Championship Regatta for the j22 class of sailboats. Hosted by theTawas Bay Yacht Club (TBYC), the championship will be held September 11-14, 2012. The j22 North American championships are held every 2 years on even years and alternate years with the j22 World Championships. The 2011 World Championship is scheduled for October 9-15 at New Orleans, LA. A TBYC officer who is the 2012 j22 North American Championship Regatta co-chair, wants this to be a win-win for the (sailboat) class, town and state.references: john morris, iosco news, donsrealty.net 03/01/2011

Tawas City to try USDA's Canada geese remedies City officials acted to accept several proposed remedies in keeping Canada geese from Tawas City's parks located along Tawas Bay. In previous Tawas City Council meetings, the city manager expressed concern that the Canada geese which populate the park may have led to an outbreak of e coli or escherichia coli, causing a closure at the Tawas City Park beach this past summer. Speculation is the bird's feces was deposited on the beach and leeched into the water after a heavy summer rainstorm. The matter is being investigated by the District Health Department......originally posted at DonsRealty.net 02/14/2011

Cruise ship activity in the Tawas Bay area is feasible and would be an attractive addition to the area's economy. That's the executive summary of the 100 page document titled, "Economic Feasibility of Tawas Bay as a Cruise Ship Port of Call and Port City Guide". The study, dated December 2010, was on Tuesday's East Tawas City Council agenda and was prepared by a Port of Call committee comprised of volunteers, Develop Iosco and the City of East Tawas. The study examines 4 areas of concentration, the cruise ship industry, East Tawas as an attractive port of call, economic impact and achievable steps. A second study was prepared for the City of East Tawas, due out next week.references: john morris, iosco news, bing 01/22/2011

USGS project will monitor Lake Huron fish movement A federal fisheries project will monitor the movement of walleye and lake trout in Lake Huron. The project is through the U.S. Geological Surveys Hammond Bay Biological Station and is funded by the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The field station supervisor at Hammond Bay, said the effort will look at the importance of walleye spawning in the Tittabawassee River to Saginaw and Tawas bays and the amount of interchange of walleye between Lake Huron and western Lake Erie. The concept allows them to get involved with fish telemetry.references: john morris, bing.com, iosco news 01/02/2011

Despite temperatures in the upper 20s, crowds in the hundreds heralded the opening of the holiday season Friday evening in downtown East Tawas. The celebration began downtown at about 6 pm with a parade and was followed with caroling and the 35th annual lighting of the city's Christmas tree. Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived in East Tawas during the parade on a horse drawn "Cinderella" carriage for the first of their several visits to the Tawases this year. Sponsored by the East Tawas Business Association, the parade was capped off with caroling and a tree lighting along the Tawas Bay waterfront at Harbor Park.references: john morris, iosco news 12/03/2010

Parade, caroling and holidays in East Tawas An evening of festive activities will herald the official beginning of the holiday season in East Tawas with a parade, including Santa and Mrs. Claus and the 35th annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Friday. The parade will travel down Newman St. to the Harbor Park for the annual tree lighting ceremony, which begins immediately following the parade. The schedule of events calls for cookies, hot chocolate and caroling.references: john morris, iosco news, morguefile.com   11/25/2010

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment will check deer in East Tawas on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays from 10 am to 3 pm, until 11/14/2010. The check station, located at the East Tawas Harbor Dock, is open primarily to enhance tuberculosis surveillance efforts in Iosco County, but hunters may bring any deer they harvest to the check station. Hunters who bring a deer to the check station will receive a complimentary, commemorative patch of the 2010 deer hunting season. The check station will be open throughout the firearms season as well.references: iosco news, mlive.com bing 10/16/2010

Tawas Point State Park is set to be scary Friday and Saturday during the 3rd annual Tawas Point Haunted Lighthouse weekend. The event is sponsored by the Friends of The Tawas Point Lighthouse and features activities for young children over the course of 2 days. The haunted lighthouse event was created as a way to get people out to the park in the autumn season. Children will not be overly scared at the event, which is geared towards children ages 3 to 12.references: jason ogden, iosco news, web.utah.edu bing 10/14/2010

Oktoberfest returns to the Tawases with the tastes and sounds of Germany on Friday and Saturday. The festival offers family fun, games and contests for the kids as well as a traditional beer tent that will offer continuous entertainment on Friday and Saturday. The festival will open at 6 p.m. Friday at the Tawas City Park along the Tawas Bay shoreline. That's when the entertainment tent will open with authentic polka music provided by Polka John and Delilah. M.A.M. Productions will provide rockin' music in the tent from 9 to 11 p.m. Fall ales and wines will be available for persons ages 21 and older.references: john morris, treklens.com, iosco news   09/29/2010

For years we've been hearing about the fabulous fall migration of monarch butterflies at Tawas Point. During the past several Septembers, AuSable Valley Audubon members have gathered here and tagged a half dozen monarchs or so in hopes of playing a minor research role in the monitoring of this eastern population as it wings its way to Mexico for the winter. Those tagged in the late fall will make the entire journey to their southern destination, while it takes several generations to make the return trip in the spring. Western region breeding monarchs tend to head to California and gather in large groups there. Back in April, an article in the Detroit Free Press, entitled "Michigan's Missing Monarchs" mentioned the disastrous spring storms and floods in Michoacan, Mexico that killed near... 09/25/2010

As part of the Port of Call Cruise Ship Feasibility Study, about 30 municipal and business leaders took part Friday in a port-to-port boat excursion to Caseville. The Port of Call study is approaching its conclusion on the feasibility of bring cruise ships and port-to-port excursion boats to the East Tawas State Dock. Paramount to the study is the evaluation of 2 tours - the 1st of which took place Friday. The group left the East Tawas State Dock Friday morning aboard the Miss Charity Isle for the 24.8 nautical mile trip across Saginaw Bay to Caseville, located in the Thumb's Huron County.references: john morris, iosco news   08/29/2010

Pickle Ball, it's a sports craze in many retirement communities across the country, but it isn't just for old people. The game, was invented in Seattle, Wash. in the 1960s and is essentially a modified game of tennis played on a shortened court, with a wiffle ball and graphite rackets. It is very similar to tennis, but the wiffle ball acts a lot differently than a tennis ball. It is a little more involved. There isn't as much running as tennis, but players still have to move around a lot, making for a great workout.references: jason ogden, iosco news 08/22/2010