First Boreal Owl of the season. We mentioned in our last post that the forecast at the time contained both conditions that would keep us from being able to open the nets and conditions that looked very good for migration. The forecast proved true on both counts. Heavy rain on the 9th washed [...]
Sandhill Crane by Skye Haas It has been a week of strong contrasts; either we have been shut out by harsh winter-like weather or it’s been beautiful spring days with classic Whitefish Point skies full of hawks! Waterbirds for the most part have not yet really got going- a modest push of COMMON [...]
A season-high nine Golden Eagles, including the one pictured here, were counted on Saturday April 8th. Photo by Gary Palmer. Toward the end of last week, after a taste of warm, springy, sun-filled days, Whitefish Point got hit with a few of north winds so strong they shook my shack as I huddled [...]
Long-eared Owl We published our last post halfway through the night of March 31. The owls had been slow for a few nights and had continued to be slow up to that point in the night. We had no reason to believe that would change during the remainder of the night, but it [...]
Common Merganser by Skye Haas Greetings folks, here is this week’s sightings report. It has been another decent week at the Point; the first part of the week saw some decent hawk and songbird flights though blustery north winds have quelled migration here for a few days. Still the weather is setting up [...]
Rough-legged Hawk by Skye Haas Since my last post things have begun really heating up at the point! In the past week three new raptors have been added to our season totals. March 29th brought a pair of Rough-legged Hawks, and the first Turkey Vulture finally appeared on the 30th. Surprisingly, after their [...]
The first Barred Owl of the season. It's hard to believe, but in less than an hour it will be April. While it still does not feel like spring in the woods at night, winter has definitely begun to loosen its grip at the Point and the owls have become a bit steadier. [...]
Greetings, here is the sightings report for the week of March 24-31. Spring has been chipping away at the edges of winter up here, and the snow, while still a few feet deep in some places is doing it’s best to melt. A new development here at WPBO is the introduction of electronic data collection [...]
March, as I have been learning firsthand, can be a rather hit-or-miss time on the hawk deck. Diurnal migration is highly dependent on prevailing weather conditions, especially when it comes to early season short-distance migrants. The best conditions for a strong hawk Golden Eagle photo by Skye Haas. flight here are warm, sunny days, [...]
Chris and I are very happy to be back here at WPBO for our 13th and 16th springs, respectively...good grief, that is a long time! Anyway, this year there is quite a bit of snow in the woods, leading us to believe that it is still winter as we click into our skis & snowshoes [...]