Fall is picking up speed at Whitefish Point. It rained every day of the count this week, but always briefly enough that it didn’t slow the birds down! We enjoyed our first mixed dabbler flocks of the season, along with some other first-of-season birds. The dabbling duck flocks this week were dominated by American [...]
Since the last post, we’ve been experiencing some tumultuous weather here at the Point, at least for early September. There’s been a lot of cold and strong winds out of the north, with the Saturday (Sept. 6th) winds gusting up to 35+ miles per hour. Scattered storms have also coincided with much of the [...]
This week the fall waterbird count was full of highs and lows. On the slowest day, we tallied only 16 species of birds. Later in the week, we were surrounded by hundreds of terns and flights of songbirds, recording 53 species on August 31st. This sense of never knowing what a day will hold [...]
Another week has passed here at Whitefish Point and migration has been picking up across the board, with abundant waterbirds, songbirds, and raptors throughout the week. While we haven’t had the numbers to rival last week’s Red-necked Grebe count, we’ve had plenty of new arrivals at the Point, several species moving through in high [...]
The fall count has just begun, but already this week has produced what is sure to be one of the most memorable days of the season. It was one of those days at Whitefish Point where there are birds everywhere you look. There were thousands of waterbirds zipping by, the flight calls of warblers [...]
It’s only been a couple days, but it’s already time for another field ornithologist blog update! Fortunately, there’s plenty to talk about after the weekend weather provided us with abundant birding thrills here at the Point. Frank will cover several of the highlights with more detail in his next waterbird blog, but over the [...]
Frank (the waterbird counter) and I have been up at Whitefish Point for a little over a week now, kicking off the WPBO fall 2025 count season with some exciting changes and fun birding highlights. Among these changes is a new fall count; a morning flight survey up on the raptor deck focused on [...]
Another season of waterbird counting is officially underway at Whitefish Point! Our work started the day before the count on August 14th. With the help of some dedicated local volunteers we moved the waterbird ‘shack’ to its fall vantage point. This structure will serve as an important windbreak and refuge for the waterbird counter [...]
Whitefish Point It’s safe to say that the 2025 Piping Plover nesting season has come to a close for Whitefish Point, as it has for many other sites in the Great Lakes. Remaining fledglings near their departure for wintering grounds, and only a few late nesters will stay until the end of August. The [...]
Whitefish Point The 2025 Piping Plover breeding season is coming to a close, and we are on the last few pages of the book. Our three wild chicks have been flying for around for two weeks now. They appear novice as you watch them performing short clumsy flight bursts, but they’ve been traversing around [...]
