Merlin, photo by Ted Keyel Hello everyone, Thanks for a great Spring Fling. We had a phenomenal turnout with well over 100 visitors on the hawk deck on Saturday and on Sunday. We were treated to high raptor diversity on both days, with 13 species of raptors on Saturday and an incredible 15 [...]
On Saturday evening, after enjoying Cameron Cox's captivating program on identifying waterbirds in flight, and a standout meal at the Spring Fling banquet in Paradise, dozens of birders were treated to the sight of a stunning male Eurasian Wigen found later that evening at the mouth of the Tahquamenon River. (Thanks to Robert Bochenek for spotting the bird, and to [...]
A Long-eared at the Point from back in 2008. Although the Northern Saw-whet numbers continue to be low, Long-eared Owls have been banded in record numbers this season keeping us very busy lately. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. In the last 16 nights, we have banded 93 Saw-whets and [...]
Well I had written a lengthy blog post about the sightings from the last week and of course, a computer error made it disappear on me so I apologize for the truncated report tonight. North winds have stymied migration, but birds continue to trickle through. Common Loons have started to make modest pushes with over [...]
Hello everyone! Sharp-shinned Hawk, Photo by Ted Keyel After a few days with warm weather, south winds and some great flights, things have quieted down a little. That said, Sharp-shinned Hawks continue to put on a show, with multiple days over triple digits. We also saw our first Broad-winged Hawks, Osprey and Peregrine [...]
This weekend saw an increase in the numbers of both Common and Red-throated Loons at Whitefish Point. On Saturday, April 23, a few lucky visitors witnessed a flock of three Red-throated Loons fly right over the waterbird shack! That day's loon totals were four Red-throated and six Common. Numbers of both greatly increased on Sunday, April [...]
Here is the sightings report for the period of April 11-22. After all migration was completely halted due to winter-like conditions for the first half of April, a powerful warm front finally got birds moving again and there were several days that migrant birds, particularly hawks and cranes flooded over Whitefish Point. The Waterbird [...]
Things have been going pretty well recently. As we mentioned in our first post, the first 11 nights in April were pretty brutal due to the return of winter conditions and we banded just two owls during that span. The weather conditions finally improved on April 12 and we had very a nice run of [...]
The first several days of the waterbird count coincided with the biggest Sandhill Crane flights ever recorded at Whitefish Point. After a plague of bad weather that lasted for over two weeks, the cranes took advantage of the powerful warm fronts and migrated in huge flocks to the Point. What was striking to a few [...]
April 15th marked the beginning of the Waterbird Count for the 2016 Spring Season. The first birds recorded at day-break were three hen Hooded Mergansers, a species actually not recorded that frequently on this count. The rarity of the day was a flock of 4 Trumpeter Swans, this species has only been recorded a couple [...]