As November rolls in, that means we have almost reached the end of the fall waterbird count. Even though there has yet to be snow that has stayed on the ground, the water and woods at the Point are dominated by winter species, including Long-tailed Duck, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, and Common Merganser. Winter finch [...]
It's hard to believe that only eight days are left in the fall field season. It's been unseasonably mild through much of the late season, but we've had some extreme weather again this week. High winds had high waves breaking on the lake today under a classic dark November sky (featured image). Although the [...]
Greater Scaup. Photo by Alec Olivier The recent week has continued to prove that October is the month for migrating waterbirds. Long-tailed Ducks continue to migrate in notable numbers, with several days over 1,000 recently. Slow days comprise around 200–300 Long-tailed Ducks, which for any other species is a great day. Common [...]
Our season is officially finished here at the Point, and we are sad to see it end. The last week of banding really saw things slow down. Honestly, though, this is kind of how you want it. It is tough to close nets when you are still catching a lot of birds. In total, [...]
Lark Sparrow. Photo by Chris Neri Highlights: Lark Sparrow & Boreal Chickadees A Lark Sparrow was present around the parking lot on October 30, but it was not seen the next day. There seems to be a small influx of Boreal Chickadees occurring in the Upper Peninsula, and there were two brief sightings at the Point this [...]
This week was much slower than the previous week, but there have still been some decent flights of waterbirds. As of the writing of this blog, the season total for Long-tailed Ducks is 36,438! This is the highest season total for the fall waterbird count, and this is likely due to the major windstorm [...]
We are in the home stretch of the fall banding season here at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory. The season officially ends the night of October 30. This past week brought us a couple of weather days, as well as some owls. Northern Saw-whet Owls continue to pass through the Point, with our best night [...]
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. Photo by Chris Neri Highlights: American Three-toed Woodpecker & Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. The epic season for vagrants seen by Waterbird Counter Alec Olivier out at the waterbird shack continued this past week. An American Three-toed Woodpecker made a brief appearance for Alec in the early morning on October 22. Unfortunately, all efforts [...]
Two species have dominated the past week. The first is possibly the rarest waterbird to be recorded on a waterbird count at Whitefish Point. On Sunday, October 16, a Bar-tailed Godwit briefly circled the pond at the Point and eventually headed west down Lake Superior. This is a mainly old-world species with a small [...]
Since our last blog post, the weather has really shown up at the Point. Out of ~84 possible hours we could have our nets open this past week, we were only able to open ~18 of those hours. The rest of the time, we were forced to keep our nets closed due to high [...]
