A three-day cold front set in at the beginning of the week, producing three fun days of late-season waterbird movement. Each day was a little bit different, but as the winds switched southward towards the end of the week, we were left enjoying large flocks of winter finches and Snow Buntings with fewer waterbirds [...]
This past week brought another stretch of turbulent fall weather to Whitefish Point. Tuesday the 21st opened with heavy rain and strong south winds that made birding a challenge, but conditions changed dramatically as a cold front swept through midweek. From Wednesday through Friday, temperatures hovered in the low-mid 40s, though the wind chill [...]
The weather this week continued to be pretty mild with warm conditions and frequent south winds. Things got mixed up a bit on the 19th with a rush of 20-30mph NW winds, but even these conditions didn’t quite bring the scoters and Long-tailed Ducks we’ve been waiting for. White-winged Scoter with Red-breasted Mergansers. [...]
This past week brought a stretch of unsettled and often windy conditions to Whitefish Point. Wind direction seemed to come from every corner of the compass, with sustained winds over 20 mph from both the northwest and southeast on multiple days and lighter westerly and southwesterly winds in between. There was even a gale [...]
This week on the waterbird count, we had it all. There were big flights of diving ducks, a trickle of scoters and Long-tailed Ducks, three different Sabine's Gulls, Harlequin Ducks, and a thrilling Whitefish Point rarity! The first of two great Aythya flights this week was on the morning of 10/8. It was our [...]
This past week brought a true mix of fall weather to Whitefish Point. Temperatures hovered mostly in the mid-40’s to mid-50’s, though Wednesday morning (Oct. 8th) dipped into the 30’s. Strong southeast winds dominated much of the week, but shifted to the north for a day beginning Thursday night (Oct 9th) before swinging back [...]
October started with a bang at Whitefish Point. Early in the week, we had a continuation of warm weather and southerly winds. Even with these conditions, some waterbirds were moving, including a couple of very notable arrivals. Then on October 6, the temperature dropped nearly 25 degrees and the wind started blowing out of [...]
We’ve now hit early-October here at Whitefish Point, and we’re right in the middle of fall migration. Besides the huge uptick in waterbird migration that Frank will cover in his blog, the last of the early-season migrants are giving way to more sparrows, finches, and other mid-fall species. The week was characterized by a [...]
Numbers are picking up at the waterbird count! We’ve had 18 species of ducks this week and multiple days with over a thousand individuals. The bulk of the birds have been Greater Scaup, Redhead, American Wigeon, and Northern Pintail. The composition of the duck flocks can change day to day, and often the birds [...]
