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 [...]
Whitefish Point is a great place to learn the immature plumages of the Bald Eagle. Several immature eagles are often seen over the area daily; they are one, two, three, or possibly four years old. Naturally, no juveniles (a bird in its first plumage) are observed in the spring; they have not hatched or [...]
Plenty of birds have been migrating this week. Most days saw triple-digit numbers of loons, although none beat last week's high count. Many ducks seem to be tapering off this week, with only a handful of dabblers and scaup being seen each day. May 3 saw the biggest push of Bufflehead for the season, [...]
Things picked up a bit this past week, but the owl migration has remained relatively slow. We banded 58 owls this past week, 25 of those occurring on May 5. The Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) numbers started dropped off on April 16, and we hit a double-digit night on May 5 for the first time [...]
On the morning of May 4, I spotted large flocks of birds high in the air on the way to the observation deck — they were Blue Jays migrating over the Point in the hundreds. I don't believe I have ever seen that many Blue Jays at once! Immature Sharp-shinned Hawk. Photo by [...]
It's been a busy week for waterbirds! Despite the rainy weather, we have seen several big pushes over the last week. April 27 saw what will probably be the biggest push of scaup this season, with 656 birds (mostly Greater Scaup) passing the Point. This week also saw increasing numbers of White-winged Scoters as well as the season's first Surf [...]
The owl migration has been unexpectedly slow this past week. Since banding 16 owls on April 24, we have only banded nine more. This is typically within the period of peak owl migration at WPBO, and we have had a few nights of good weather conditions. We’re at a loss as to why the [...]
The week of April 23 to 29, we had highs and lows. As many as 1,024 raptors (most of them Broad-winged Hawks) were observed at the Point on April 25, and as few as nine on April 29. Wind direction seems to be the decisive factor on most days. For example, on April 27, [...]
Waterbirds are on the move! After several days of bad winds, April 23 finally brought some decent winds out of the south, bringing in some decent numbers of birds. On that day, 255 Greater Scaups, 108 Red-necked Grebes, 81 Common Loons, 24 Red-throated Loons, and numerous other species flew past Whitefish Point on their [...]
The owl migration slowed a bit this past week but remained steady. After the record night of 71 Long-eared Owls (LEOW) on April 9, we have not banded more than 18 LEOW on a given night. We're seeing a few more of last year's young mixing in with the adults, but that transition has [...]
