Sightings Update 10/10/2022

Highlights: Yellow-breasted Chat

A Yellow-breasted Chat was observed on the morning of October 10. Unfortunately, all efforts to relocate the chat were unsuccessful for everyone except the initial observer, including me.

Whether it’s the blogs for the spring owl banding, summer owl banding, or as the fall field ornithologist, I always try to center the content of the blog posts I generate on the birds. This week I cannot help but want to express my love for this time of year at Whitefish Point. Living here year-round is amazing, but it is also challenging. My fieldwork here effectively runs from mid-March to mid-November. The time between the end and start dates is typically dominated by surviving living in Lake Superior’s snow belt through the winter. When Nova Mackentley and I start the spring owl banding in mid-March, it is almost always with feet of snow on the ground. We ski or snowshoe miles each night. If we’re lucky, we have shoveled enough of the trails in the woods to have at least a month when we can get off the snowshoes and skis and simply walk the trails before the mosquitoes hit. When I start the summer owl banding season a month after the spring season ends, it is a mix of amazement with the opportunity to work with juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owls and the horror of dealing with the mosquitoes. As cool as it may be here relative to other places, sleeping during the day without air conditioning in July and August is often very difficult. As much as I love the summer owl banding season, I regularly think to myself, “Is it October yet?”

Here we are in early October. The first real cold fronts of the fall have hit this past week. The leaves and much of the other foliage are turning colors filling the woods with beautiful yellows, browns, and reds. We’ve retired our light summer gear and broken out our winter hats, flannels, coats, and gloves. The heat has been turned up, and heavy sleeping bags and down blankets are now on our beds. As for the birds, some early-season migrants are still straggling through as the mid-season migrants are peaking and the first late-season migrants have arrived. It is absolutely one of my favorite times of the year at Whitefish Point. Now for the birds, which is naturally what these posts are about.

The warbler migration is at its tail end; along with the expected late-season Yellow-rumped, Palm, and Orange-crowned Warblers, other recent warbler sightings include Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart, Northern Parula, and Tennessee, Blackpoll, and Nashville Warblers. Flocks of Golden-crowned Kinglets have regularly thrilled visitors as smaller numbers of Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers mix in with them. Ruffed Grouse have been seen daily. After a great week last week, sparrow diversity was a bit down this week. That said, White-crowned and White-throated Sparrow numbers have increased in recent days. We’re still waiting for the first big push of finches, but Purple Finch numbers have increased a bit, and the first Common Redpolls arrived recently, as have the first American Tree Sparrows.

Ruffed Grouse. Photo by Chris Neri

~ Chris Neri
2022 Fall Field Ornithologist

Featured photo: Pectoral Sandpipers. Photo by Chris Neri