Migration Counts

Right when we were losing hope of meeting our quota for our season total of Long-tailed Ducks, November 6th happened. We set a new all time day record with 23,569! A strong northerly wind straight off the James Bay brought across lots of snow. On this rainy, sleet day at Whitefish, the Long-tail flocks [...]

As we enter into the first few days of November, this El Nino year becomes more and more noticeable on Lake Superior. Consistent southerly winds and unseasonably warm weather has changed much of our outlook for the last two weeks of the count. With dozens of Spring Peepers still singing around the Point, two [...]

Our biggest change this week is now daily numbers of Buffleheads and Common Goldeneyes, which have been a little late to the scene this fall during this El Nino. We expect for their numbers to ramp up over the upcoming week. White-winged Crossbills have continued to be plentiful around the Point and in morning [...]

Somehow, it’s already mid-October and although it has been an odd fall with the El Nino year, we have seen some recent changes at Whitefish Point. On Thursday the 15th, a front that was developing out of the prairie provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan blew down over eight hundred Lesser Scaup into Lake Superior. [...]

The last week at Whitefish Point has been pretty slow overall, with a lot of strong winds and rain that has kept migration to a minimum. Strong 40mph winds on the 10th brought in our first Black-legged Kittiwake of the season.  Luckily, just this past Tuesday, October 13th, we got a breakthrough with the [...]

October has brought some cooler weather and some very strong winds. October 1st was bananas. Over 5,000 passerines came in off the lake, including over 2,000 juncos! Several other species such as Hermit and Swainson’s Thrushes, Winter Wrens, Ruby and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers, Red-breasted Nuthatches, White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, Swamp Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, [...]

Changes are in the air at Whitefish Point. On September 28th, some cloud cover and a light NNW wind brought in a movement of over 4,000 ducks and good numbers of other waterbirds. The big two species were over 1,000 Greater Scaup and a record breaking high count of 1,337 American Wigeons! A few [...]

Another week, another chapter in migration here at Whitefish Point. Waterbird numbers have gotten off to a relatively slow start this month, but scaup, wigeon, and pintail numbers continue to remain consistent. Red-breasted Merganser numbers have increased recently. On the 20th, over 70 Common Loons were counted, which is the highest day so far. [...]

Birds? Who cares about those? On September 9th, it was a calm SW wind and a cloudy morning with lots of songbirds such as Blackpoll Warblers, Palm Warblers, and more coming in off the lake. What stole the show though, was a total of 41 bats that flew in from Lake Superior and crashed [...]

August has come to an end! Just like that, the first day of September is in the books. So far, we have recorded a little over 12,000 birds of 140 species, 1 species of bat, 6 species of dragonfly, and 7 species of butterflies! A few of our most numerous bird species of August [...]