With the addition of Hannah Leabhart to the WPBO team as the official waterbird counter for the fall, I have spent more time in the woods over the past week while helping with the count as Hannah adjusts to her new role. My first project was fixing the bird feeder setup behind the Owl’s Roost. It’s been about a week since we cleared out the weeds, cleaned up and rearranged the feeders, and put out bird seed every day, and it has already paid off. We’re regularly getting chickadees at the feeders, and woodpeckers have been coming into the suet. We’ve had White-throated, White-crowned, and even Lincoln’s Sparrows coming in to get seed off the ground, and some Ruffed Grouse have been up near the feeders recently. Hopefully, activity at the feeders will continue to pick up, and visitors to the Point will enjoy lots of birds there this fall.

Besides the feeder birds, many songbirds passed through the Point last week. The night of September 20 was a particularly good night for songbird migration, and the woods were absolutely full of birds on the following morning. There were hundreds of Yellow-rumped Warblers darting through the trees, with a variety of other warblers mixed in, as well as a big influx of both Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets. We’ve started to get more winter finches flying over recently, such as Pine Siskin, Purple Finch, and Red Crossbill. A fairly uncommon (for the Point) Red-bellied Woodpecker also made an appearance on September 20 and 21. There have also been some flyovers of Bobolinks and a Dickcissel this past week. Additionally, we’ve had some exciting days on the waterbird count recently (Hannah will cover this in her posts), but the birding should continue to be pretty compelling here at Whitefish Point as we inch closer to October!

~ Clay Bliznick
2024 Fall Field Ornithologist

Featured photo: A Ruffed Grouse in the woods just behind the feeders. Photo by Clay Bliznick

A Downy Woodpecker visiting the suet feeders behind the Owl’s Roost. Photo by Clay Bliznick

Golden-crowned Kinglet posing nicely on the boardwalk out to the Point. Photo by Clay Bliznick

A female-type Red-bellied Woodpecker up on a snag near the WPBO parking lot. A good bird here! Photo by Clay Bliznick

You can keep up with the 2024 Fall Field Ornithologist by reading Clay’s weekly blog posts and following WPBO’s social media (Facebook, Instagram, and X).

Would you like to go birding with Clay? Join him for one of his WPBO Migratory Bird Walks this season. Learn more at wpbo.org/events.

Clay Bliznick, MS: 2024 Fall Field Ornithologist

Clay first took an interest in birds during a high school trip to Alaska, where he was struck by the flamboyance of magpies, the sleek, penguin-like appearance of alcids, and the sheer number of waterbirds residing along the coast. He dived headfirst into the birding world while an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky, spending every free second exploring his home state for exciting new birds and places. Afterward, he attended graduate school at Murray State University and wrote a master’s thesis examining the response of bird communities to environmental factors in Western Kentucky bottomland hardwood forest restorations. Most recently, Clay has been living in South Florida, where he’s worked closely with many charismatic birds, such as the Crested Caracara, Swallow-tailed Kite, and Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. Clay is excited to join the Michigan Audubon team at WPBO as a fall field ornithologist and is eager to observe the spectacle of bird migration in the Upper Peninsula firsthand.