Birds of prey are charismatic. With their interesting behavior and captivating presence, it’s easy to understand how they attract this attention. Though Whitefish Point is not known for large numbers of migrating fall raptors, we see our share of them pass through. If a sweep of the horizon turns up empty, we often start looking [...]
Seasons are marked by change. Be it fall colors, winter snow, or spring blossoms, we anticipate the treasures they bring into our lives. The wildlife around us is constantly in motion as their lives are dictated by these annual cycles. For birds, we associate every season with a behavior. Spring means northbound migration, summer means breeding, [...]
One of the most overlooked families of birds is Laridae, the gulls. Many times I’ve heard, “There’s more than one kind of seagull?” Common birds are often overlooked; their presence is taken for granted, and not much attention is given to them. Think of the European Starling, a widespread, common bird (which, unfortunately, is also [...]
In the past month, we’ve seen a lot of changes at the fall waterbird count. While getting snowed on, it’s hard to imagine that, just a month prior, there was a suite of shorebirds working the shoreline, that we had a tropical visitor in the form of a frigatebird, and that the dabblers outnumbered the [...]
This coming Saturday, Oct. 17, is October Big Day! This is an annual project from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to celebrate birds and birding. Participation is simple: see birds and record them in eBird. A goal of October Big Day is to have 25,000 participants. With interest in birds and birding quickly growing worldwide, this seems like [...]
A surprise for many visitors to the waterbird count is how distant the birds are. While the handful of loons that pass overhead and chickadees that venture inside the waterbird shack defy this statement, they are few compared to the thousands of birds flying a quarter mile or more from the shoreline. How we identify [...]
The term “rare bird” transcends the birding community. Defined as “An unusual or exceptional person or thing,” we refer to a wide array of the unexpected with this wordage. As far as we’re concerned here at the fall waterbird count, the rare birds we’re looking for are those birds who we don’t regularly expect to [...]
It’s abundantly clear that Whitefish Point is a great spot for birds. While the geography is the central factor which steers the diversity we experience at the fall waterbird count, the habitats offered by the point play a significant role. Many birds are specialists. With roughly 10,000 known species on the planet, it’s of obvious [...]
September 15 marked one month since we started the waterbird count this fall. If you look at the data we’ve collected thus far, you might see some trends emerge. Some species have largely departed, some are beginning to show up in numbers. While a few of these changes happened quickly, like the gigantic flight days [...]
Pomarine Jaeger by cotinis on Flickr There are few words that can bring immediate focus to a group of avid birders. Typically we’re occupied with scanning the horizon, looking in every direction, actively listening for chips and chirps and in general trying to take in everything from every angle. The more eyes and [...]
