The Hermit of the Hawk Shack
There is nothing like a gray day to set one's mind on a contemplative path and the first week of the hawk count certainly provided me with a string of them. Luckily for me, a [...]
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 [...]