This week was much slower than the previous week, but there have still been some decent flights of waterbirds. As of the writing of this blog, the season total for Long-tailed Ducks is 36,438! This is the highest season total for the fall waterbird count, and this is likely due to the major windstorm [...]
Two species have dominated the past week. The first is possibly the rarest waterbird to be recorded on a waterbird count at Whitefish Point. On Sunday, October 16, a Bar-tailed Godwit briefly circled the pond at the Point and eventually headed west down Lake Superior. This is a mainly old-world species with a small [...]
October continues to produce great flights in the last week. Aythya numbers continue to dominate the flights, but there have also been good numbers of scoters and dabblers as well. A large flight on Oct. 8 produced over 1,000 Aythya, with 900 of those being scaup. There were also 270 American Wigeons on Oct. [...]
Waterbird migration continues to get better during the first week of October. On Oct. 6, the season's biggest day occurred, with a highlight being the major goose flight — 1,308 Canada Geese were counted, with the majority being counted in the last hour. A single Cackling Goose and two snow/ross's geese were mixed in [...]
Pacific Loon. Photo by Alec Olivier Waterbird migration has finally started to heat up this week. September 26 was the first big day since 8/30. Oddly enough, the first three hours of the count of 9/26 were fairly slow. It seemed like it was going to be another slow day when the [...]
Waterbird migration in the last week has still been fairly slow. There have been several days with good grebe flights, with 199 on 9/19 and 254 on 9/21. The season total for Red-necked Grebes remains just over 4,000. American Wigeons have started moving in decent numbers, with 63 on 9/19 and 130 on 9/22. [...]
It's hard to believe, but the first month of the fall waterbird count is already over. Roughly 13,000 waterbirds have already gone past the Point on their journey to their wintering grounds. The top three species so far have been Red-necked Grebe (3,558), Blue-winged Teal (1,492), and Common Tern (1,195). Most species have yet [...]
Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Photo by Alec Olivier Waterbird migration in the last week has been almost non-existent, with the slowest day of the season occurring on Sept. 2, which was the only day of the season without at least one Red-necked Grebe. Sept. 7 was the first day where there was a noticeable [...]
This season's waterbird count continues to get better, with the last week producing many great birds. The best bird was a Say's Phoebe that I found flycatching in the trees behind the waterbird shack. Other good birds include the third Great Egret for the fall count on Aug. 28, a flock of 18 Hudsonian [...]
Thanks to Robert Lawshe for setting up the Merlin pole! Photo by Alec Olivier The second week of the fall waterbird count continues to get better. Currently, the primary species migrating are Red-necked Grebes, Common Tern, and shorebirds. Bonaparte's Gulls have been doing very well so far, with a season total of [...]
