Hello everyone!

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Our first bird of the season, an adult Bald Eagle. 3/15/16. Photo by: Ted Keyel

The 2016 Spring Hawkwatching season has commenced. We began the count on a fairly warm March 15th, and the first raptor counted was an adult Bald Eagle. An interesting start to the day as the fog would roll in and out throughout the day. The moments that were free of the fog were filled with a decent push of: 15 Bald Eagles, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, and 5 Golden Eagles. In terms of raptor-fodder, a single Sharp-tailed Grouse was definitely the highlight. Skye added to our diversity a few days later with the season’s first Northern Goshawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, and Rough-legged Hawks. The following day was a great day for seeing eagles, with 21 Bald and 15 Golden counted. Eagles continued to migrate by for the next few days, but one of the biggest highlights for the count so far was a distant Gyrfalcon that passed by on Mar. 3rd! This represents the first Gyrfalcon to be recorded on the Whitefish Point count since 1992! The next week was fairly quiet in comparison, but we did see a push of 64 Red-tailed Hawks on the 29th. In addition to the raptors, we saw quite a few finches most days, especially Common Redpolls.

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Black Vulture counted on 4/1/16. Photo by Ted Keyel

April started out with a bang, with a Black Vulture spotted on the 1st. While this may seem like an April Fool’s joke, surprisingly, it actually happened! This appears to be the second record of Black Vulture for the hawkwatch, and third for Whitefish Point. Sadly, we only recorded 38 individual raptors in the following 10 days. Strong winds predominantly out of the north and intermittent snow really seem to shut migration down at Whitefish Point.

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One of 64 Red-tailed Hawks counted on 3/29/16. Photo by Ted Keyel

The warm temperatures we had started with were gone, as Winter decided not to yield to Spring just yet. Thankfully, on April 12th, we had our first double-digit Bald Eagle day since March 21st. Today was an incredible change from what had become the norm, with well over 100 Red-tailed Hawks counted.

Also, for a little fun, here is a photo of last night’s aurora (as seen from the hawk shack). Sadly, there were many clouds in the way and the moon did not help, but it was still nice to see an aurora again.

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Aurora Borealis photographed from the Hawk Deck, 4/12/16. Photo by Ted Keyel

Happy Birding,

-Ted