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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Week 13 was the final week of the fall waterbird count, with two days to spare. This will be my last blog post (unless we see something phenomenal in the last two days). With our total numbers for the week (4,278 birds) compared to early September, we are beginning to see migration tapering off. [...]
This week, we had some unfavorable weather both for the birds and the birders, with our first truly cold days, a few days with strong southerly winds, and lots of rain. We experienced quite a drop in numbers with three particularly slow days mid-week, and it was pretty uneventful overall. We added one new [...]
Week 11 was a productive week for the waterbird count. We added some exciting new species and had some remarkable numbers! On 10/24, we experienced a large push of over 2,000 Aythya ducks, this time with Redhead outnumbering the scaup. Our biggest day yet was 10/27, with over 6,000 waterbirds counted; Long-tailed Ducks were [...]
Another week of above-average temperatures has made birding at the Point very enjoyable. We had many new high counts for the fall this week, as well as a few new exciting birds around. Our first new high count was 244 Mallards on 10/18; they were the most plentiful bird that day, which seemed a [...]
This week of the waterbird count was my favorite so far! With many visiting birders and many exciting birds to be seen, there was quite a shift in species numbers this week. In particular, I was excited to see large numbers of Long-tailed Ducks, with 579 on 10/14 and then 1,396 on 10/15. We [...]
Week 8 of the waterbird count started off strong with some nice northwest winds; 10/3 was our biggest day so far this fall, with 2,765 waterbirds counted! As wind speeds increased throughout the week, our waterbird numbers decreased, with just a few hundred counted on some later days. On our more intense days, we [...]
