The hawk count has finally come alive! The slowdown began the final week of March. It continued into the first week of April, when 47 hours of ceaseless searching yielded a meager total of 23 raptors. Nothing changed through the second week of April, aside from the weekend’s blizzard dumping a fresh two feet of [...]
by Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley We want to start by thanking everyone who attended Spring Fling this past weekend. Your support, interest and encouragement is truly appreciated. Although we’ve given a presentation on WPBO’s long term owl research during Spring Fling for years, doing so as the keynote speakers this year was admittedly a bit [...]
By Louie Dombroski Almost one week into the waterbird count, there is still little to report. There were some hopeful signs in March and early April with a few (very few) Canada Geese, Mallards, and Sandhill Cranes all reported from the hawk watch. On one visit in March, I climbed [...]
By Chris Neri and Nova Mackentley Northern Saw-whet Owl, Photo Chris Neri We had hoped by waiting out the winter storm we might have some good news to report. Unfortunately, no such luck as of yet. Obviously, the storm had us shut down for a few nights, and we frequently [...]
By Skye Haas, 2018 Spring Field Ornithologist And I thought there was little to report in my last update! Very little bird migration has occurred in April so far. Persistent north winds and frequent snow showers have plagued the research programs here at WPBO, and we have been setting some new late arrival [...]
By Gary Palmer, 2018 Spring Hawk Counter After a solid start to the count in March, migration is suddenly far behind schedule here at the Point. Eight days into April only five species of raptor have been recorded for the month, and their numbers have been dismally low: one Turkey [...]
By Skye Haas, Spring Field Ornithologist Sadly, there is not too much to report this week. We are stuck in a long-term holding pattern of cold north winds, and periodic snowstorms. We did get a few new season birds, with a trio of COMMON GOLDENEYE over the hawk deck on [...]
By Chirs Neri and Nova Mackentley With the exception of one night, things have remained slow during the nighttime at the Point. Following our last post, we were able to run nets four consecutive long, cold, full nights that produced a grand total of one Northern Saw-whet Owl. Mercifully, the [...]
By Gary Palmer, 2018 Hawk Counter Bald Eagles, Photo Skye Haas Migration seems to be on pause here at Whitefish Point, as March ended with a sizeable snowstorm accompanied by fierce north winds to continue a string of slow days. The month ended with a total of seven species of raptors and [...]
By Skye Haas, 2018 Spring Field Ornithologist Hello everyone, here is the weekly sightings report for March 22-29. Aside from a few brief days of a welcomed warm-up, it remains very wintery up here at Whitefish Point. There has been some snow melt, and while the bay is still locked [...]
