Spring Owl Banding 2020 Begins
The start of the season is always an exciting time, but we have to admit that when mid-March still feels like the dead of winter our enthusiasm is affected. Thankfully, conditions are not too bad [...]
Welcome to Paradise
Welcome to the Spring 2020 hawk watch. My name is Rich Couse and this season I will be your hawk counter, birdy blogger, and all-around Voice from the Hawk Deck at Michigan Audubon's Whitefish Point [...]
Lake Effect
Most hours of most days, the little flock of Snow Buntings are the closest thing to company out at the waterbird shack. They’re pretty good for that, actually--hardy birds that flit about the frozen beach, [...]
The Season of Long-tailed Duck
To the Inuit of Nunavut, the arrival of the Long-tailed Duck (or in their language, aggiarjuk) heralds spring’s coming. Traditional songs exalt the event--”When we have survived the worst and the future looks promising, the [...]
Waterbird Count Recap: 18-25 October, 2019
Gale-force winds (temporarily) felled the shack this week... October is an easy month to love at the Point. Each morning, I gear up in the parking lot, entertaining unrealistic fantasies of what might [...]
Waterbird Count Recap through 17 October
On a brisk morning at the Point, one finds the mind and body to be in conflict. While the body craves the shelter that comes from huddling on the south side of the counter’s shack, [...]