This past week featured the most exciting and dynamic migration activity so far this season at Whitefish Point!
Pileated Woodpecker in active migration passing by the Waterbird Shack. Photo by Mike McBrien.
The dabbling duck diversity is coming into full swing, with some nice flights of wigeon and pintails. This past week also featured the first pushes of diving ducks and scoters. Loon numbers are slowly building and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. Shorebird numbers are tapering off, but a decent diversity is still being seen on the beaches around the Point daily.
Many lucky birders seized the opportunity of a cold front passing through on Saturday morning and were fortunate to experience one of the best flight days this fall so far. Saturday was an incredibly diverse day, with nearly 90 species observed at the Point. The day was highlighted by a strong flight of Common Terns and Red-necked Grebes, with both species breaking 700 birds for the day. We also observed the first triple-digit flights of American Wigeon and Redhead this fall, which came with the pleasure of sifting through these flocks for other prairie-breeding ducks. A juvenile Sabine’s Gull was the major highlight of the weekend. This delicate, Arctic-breeding gull spent some time on the water with a Bonaparte’s Gull directly off the waterbird shack before lifting up and heading southeast.
This immature male Harris’s Sparrow stopped by the Point this past weekend. Photo by Mike McBrien.
On the other bird sightings front, fall migration is ramping up, and some classic fall rarities are beginning to appear. A Red-headed Woodpecker was spotted moving around the Point with some migrant Blue Jay flocks on Sept. 14. A putative Cave Swallow (a rare migrant visitor from the Southwest) was photographed in a huge swallow flight on Sept. 15. Visiting birder Skye Haas found the fall’s first Harris’s Sparrow on Sept. 17. It delighted several visitors on Sunday afternoon in the thickets around the Owl’s Roost, and later on, in the open lawn around the Shipwreck Museum. Black-backed Woodpeckers have been moving into the area, with a couple observed in active migration, along with multiple migrating Pileated Woodpeckers pushing through.
~ Mike McBrien
2023 Fall Waterbird Counter
Featured photo: Flock of Common Mergansers flying by the Point. Photo by Mike McBrien
