Spring migration is coming to a close at Whitefish Point, but that doesn't mean the excitement is gone. Waterbird numbers have begun to drop, with only loons, mergansers, geese, and some shorebirds being reliable each day. One of the highlights at the season's end has been large pushes of Whimbrels; the evening flight on [...]
With just two nights of banding left, the spring season has all but concluded. This week, we banded 45 more owls: 44 Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) and one Long-eared Owl, bringing our spring total to 902 owls banded, plus 55 previously banded owls being recaptured. We thank all of you who supported and encouraged [...]
The 2024 WPBO Raptor Count is drawing to an end. Although the last day of count is May 31, the four remaining days are unlikely to change the overall picture as the hawk flight significantly slowed down this week. The Sharp-shinned Hawks are almost through, with only a handful still recorded daily, and some [...]
Life has been moving slowly at Whitefish Point for the Piping Plovers, but that’s nothing to complain about. That was how I intended to start this update until Friday afternoon. My days would start with observing lonely males like Of,YB:X,Y/O and Lover Boy foraging about, making scrapes, and calling for a mate. In the [...]
It's been an exciting week at the Point, with many of our later migrants starting to hit hard and many of our irregular migrants starting to show up. Our second wave of Canada Geese is in full swing, with over 3,000 individuals being seen over the last three days. White-winged Scoters are still passing [...]
It was another week of productive nights. We banded 92 more owls: 81 Northern Saw-whet Owls, 10 Long-eared Owls, and one Barred Owl. We're happy that the Long-eared Owls have yet to stop migrating entirely for the season; they often stop abruptly at this time. We're hoping that the saw-whets continue in decent numbers through [...]
The tip of Whitefish Point was enveloped in heavy fog for most of May 17 and 18. The morning of May 17 was bright and sunny, and a large kettle of Broad-winged Hawks began forming west of the deck. Low clouds already obscured a part of it, and then fog rolled in from the [...]
The Great Lakes Piping Plovers are starting to return to Whitefish Point. The first three days of my surveying painted the picture of a bachelor’s paradise. X,-:O,- aka Lover Boy. Photo by Stephanie Owens Males like ((X,-:O,-) (Green dot)) have seemingly determined their territory, and spend the days scraping and parallel walking [...]
Prevailing north winds have kept this past week fairly slow, with little changing in terms of species diversity. The numbers of White-winged Scoters and Long-tailed Ducks are slowly increasing, with the number of loons and grebes slowly decreasing. Red-breasted Mergansers have also begun to move in pretty good numbers, with May 13 netting 440 [...]
It has been an interesting and reasonably productive week. In last week’s owl update, we expressed our hope that the late May push of Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) that we often experience would occur this spring and might even start earlier this year. Thankfully, saw-whet migration did pick up this past week, including the [...]
