Four straight days of sunshine and superb raptor viewing has got me dancing jigs and whistling ditties on the ol’ hawk deck. It truly would have been a perfect weekend to visit Whitefish Point for the annual Michigan Audubon Spring Fling, and probably one of the warmest and brightest in recent memory.
Things have changed quickly here in Paradise, Mich., which up until the middle of last week was a desolate, cold, and lonely place. Bright days and forty-degree temperatures have forced the snow pockets to shrink smaller and smaller, making the dune landscape resemble a photographic negative of its former self.
My days of solitude are over, and birds have been my constant companions all weekend. Today I counted over 700 Sharp-shinned Hawks and folks, that is exactly the kind of day I have been waiting for! I do hereby declare that migration is on. Broad-winged Hawks have arrived and are foreshadowing the great billowing kettles that will soon be occupying the sky. So while we may have missed a formal Spring Fling this year, take it from me, Spring has been flung!
Author: Rich Couse, Hawk Counter
Photo: Sharp-shinned Hawk © Rich Couse
If you are considering visiting the Point, please read this important message from Michigan Audubon and WPBO Field Staff.
Maneuvering the ever-changing implications of COVID-19 has necessitated constant adaptation and evaluation for us all. Michigan Audubon and WPBO have been proactive in taking measures that protect our staff, our physical community in Paradise, and the Michigan birding community, and we have found American Birding Association’s recent guidelines on birding and social distancing a useful resource for guiding bird-related travel decisions. While there are hopeful signs that we are rounding the corner with this virus, Michigan Audubon does not want to sow precocious optimism that encourages long-distance travel. Please take a minute to read these ABA guidelines, and to imagine them through the lens of the eastern Upper Peninsula, which does not have the medical resources of Michigan’s more-developed areas. Chippewa County and its adjacent counties have just three hospitals, and only one of these has more than 100 beds; they all are at least an hour’s drive from the Point. WPBO appreciates and requests your continued conscientiousness as the season’s migration begins to ramp up, and does not condone birding travel that is not local. Keep in mind that the Owl’s Roost Gift Shop and public observation of owl banding are currently closed. In the meantime, we will virtually share the Point with you as best we can until it is safe for all parties to enjoy it together. We hope that will be soon.
