November 15 was the final day of the 2020 fall waterbird count; 744 hours, 93 days, 103,216 birds over 221 species, and countless experiences have made it a memorable season. While we’re working on getting all the data cleaned up and reports written, I wanted to share a few reflections on a great season. We [...]
Birds of prey are charismatic. With their interesting behavior and captivating presence, it’s easy to understand how they attract this attention. Though Whitefish Point is not known for large numbers of migrating fall raptors, we see our share of them pass through. If a sweep of the horizon turns up empty, we often start looking [...]
Seasons are marked by change. Be it fall colors, winter snow, or spring blossoms, we anticipate the treasures they bring into our lives. The wildlife around us is constantly in motion as their lives are dictated by these annual cycles. For birds, we associate every season with a behavior. Spring means northbound migration, summer means breeding, [...]
One of the most overlooked families of birds is Laridae, the gulls. Many times I’ve heard, “There’s more than one kind of seagull?” Common birds are often overlooked; their presence is taken for granted, and not much attention is given to them. Think of the European Starling, a widespread, common bird (which, unfortunately, is also [...]
The owl banding season is coming to a close, and it started to feel like it this week. Nighttime temperatures dropped below freezing multiple times, and the rain that kept nets closed earlier this month has begun to turn to snow and sleet. The owls are still moving, but migration here at the Point [...]
In the past month, we’ve seen a lot of changes at the fall waterbird count. While getting snowed on, it’s hard to imagine that, just a month prior, there was a suite of shorebirds working the shoreline, that we had a tropical visitor in the form of a frigatebird, and that the dabblers outnumbered the [...]
After several nights off at the end of last week, we were excited to get back out and open nets this week. The owls did not disappoint! Our first net run of the week was also our most productive of the season. On top of that, it put us over 200 new saw-whets [...]
This coming Saturday, Oct. 17, is October Big Day! This is an annual project from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to celebrate birds and birding. Participation is simple: see birds and record them in eBird. A goal of October Big Day is to have 25,000 participants. With interest in birds and birding quickly growing worldwide, this seems like [...]
It’s been another windy week here at the Point! Another stretch of strong winds kept nets closed several of the past few nights. We had been averaging over 50 new Northern Saw-whet Owl banded each of the first three weeks of the season. We didn’t quite make it this week, but we came close! [...]
A surprise for many visitors to the waterbird count is how distant the birds are. While the handful of loons that pass overhead and chickadees that venture inside the waterbird shack defy this statement, they are few compared to the thousands of birds flying a quarter mile or more from the shoreline. How we identify [...]
