Piping Plover monitoring at WPBO has ushered in a change of pace for me: though I work just a few hundred yards from my old station at the waterbird shack, I now spend a good portion of my time intently looking at just two birds when, before, I spent my time intently looking for all [...]
Last week, birders throughout the Great Lakes region went out and kept vigil for the wayward birds we hoped might be transported by the fragments of Tropical Storm Cristobal. (The link takes you to a great Gizmodo piece that highlights how unusual a tropical storm on Lake Superior is.) It’s crazy to think about, but [...]
There’s this word, zugunruhe. It means migratory restlessness, and it looks like dozens of Common Nighthawks streaming north across Lake Superior at dusk. It sounds like the wild cries of the Whimbrel flocks that raced north over the Point this week. It feels like the predictable late-season wanderings my brain embarks on. Food and shelter [...]
After being very cooperative in giving us regular nights off during the first two months of the season, the weather has decided it is time for us to put in some overtime. Tonight is the 16th night in a row that we have been able to open the nets. Thankfully, the nights have been productive. [...]
Well, as you can see by the picture, my wish was granted and I got to count hawks at Whitefish Point wearing shorts and a t-shirt! It's hard to believe that a week ago I was wearing my thermals with ski pants and a winter parka, but spring has finally sprung here in Paradise. It [...]
Ahhh, the end of May — the mornings get earlier, and the nights get later; the sleep deprivation builds like the crescendoing peeper chorus back in the woods. One of the wonderful trials towards the end of the spring waterbird count is the phenomena of the evening waterbird flight. Though the end-of-season weariness is settling [...]
We’re hijacking the owl blog this week in the hopes of raising some funds for the WPBO Birdathon. Every spring since 2007, the field staff have dedicated a day in late May to try to document as many species as possible to raise money for the research we all believe in. It is stressful; I [...]
Something truly wonderful happened this past week. For the first time in what seemed like ages, I stepped out my door in the morning, and I heard birds singing. If I wasn't loaded down with a backpack full of hawk watching gear, I would have jumped for joy! It was the moment I had been [...]
There are two types of bad weather at Whitefish Point: bad weather with good birds, and bad weather with no birds. Yesterday (May 14), finally, the sky started spitting shorebirds. Yes, the sky also was spitting (and at times, pouring) 38-degree rain for the entire 8-hour count, but that is the typical tradeoff for a [...]
The recent weather patterns have had a significant impact on our nightly efforts, shutting us down some nights, but producing some nice little pushes during the breaks in the wind. The most exciting news is that shortly after posting our last update, we banded a Great Gray Owl, a male that hatched last year. The [...]
