Well, there's no real reason to sugarcoat our disappointment over this past week's results. The weather is really starting to get the better of us. I don't remember a season in my previous 20 years of spring owl banding here when we had so many nights of unfavorable weather conditions at this point in [...]
The snow falls sideways here at Whitefish Point. Two miles down the road, I can look out my bedroom window and see a light snowfall drifting out of the sky, and it's the kind of snowfall that makes me think I am living inside the idyllic world of a snow globe. However, when I [...]
We feel like we're in repeat mode every time we sit down to write a blog this spring. The weather continues to be particularly unsettled, frequently limiting our ability to open the nets. The first thunderstorm of the year is currently passing over the Point as we write this. The first decent push of [...]
The gales buffeted the hawk shack for hours, and out on the deck, they rendered my spotting scope useless as it vibrated whatever I was seeing through it beyond recognition. However, it turned out that the scene unfolding before my eyes was best viewed through my own eyes. Optics of any kind only diminished [...]
The unsettled weather continues to be of significant negative impact on the season, but we have again seen little signs of hope since our last post. This past week we banded another 29 Northern Saw-whet Owls and caught another that was previously banded. On Sunday night, we heard the first two Long-eared Owls of [...]
This morning is different. Somehow my senses seem sharper, the world around me is magnified, and I am able to take in everything at once. Yes, the snow has stopped. Yes, it is warmer; the mercury in the thermometer has risen to 34 degrees Fahrenheit. Fog filters through the spruce forest, shrouding the snow-covered [...]
Ugh. Being part of the spring field staff at WPBO in March, you have to be prepared for the return of winter, assuming that winter has even shown any signs of leaving. After some signs of spring during the first week of the season, the weather this past week has been pretty brutal. Weather [...]
Many people visiting the hawk deck ask, "How do you keep count of the raptors flying by?" These days, my answer is, "On one hand." Alright, I may have had one day where I needed two hands and another day on which I needed more than two, but otherwise, one hand has been more [...]
The owl banding season has started relatively slowly, but a significant weather system pushing up from the south produced the first little push of the season over the last two nights. To date, we have banded 37 Northern Saw-whet Owls and caught three previously banded saw-whets. ~ Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley 2022 WPBO [...]
Greetings and salutations from Whitefish Point! The Hermit of the Hawk Shack, your Friendly Neighborhood Raptor Counter, known to many as Rich Couse but mostly as "that guy who stands out in the cold all day, every day, way up there on the hawk deck." has returned for a third thrilling spring season! I [...]
