The WPBO waterbird count for spring 2017 came to its scheduled end on May 31, though some species are still migrating, such as Red-throated Loons, 11 of which were seen on June 1. The highlight of the last three days of the official count period was the incredible influx of Canada Geese. There has always [...]
Marbled Godwit by Skye Haas The last week has been a good one for seeing big shorebirds at Whitefish Point. On May 22, not only did flocks of Whimbrel totaling 184 birds fly past the point, but we were twice visited by individual Marbled Godwits. The first flew by with a flock [...]
Yikes! I have some catching up to do with this blog! Here are some highlights from this May so far, beginning with the most recent: May 11 – A good morning flight of Long-tailed Ducks, with 325 passing by within the first three hours after sunrise. Morning clouds made for good viewing to the southeast [...]
Tuesday, April 25 started out with several reasonably close flocks of Greater Scaup flying past the tip of Whitefish Point. All but one of the five Lesser Scaup seen that day were nestled in these flocks of Greaters, making this tricky identification task a bit easier. While dabbling ducks were in short supply, a pair [...]
The waterbird count has been picking up steam over the last week with several new arrivals in just the last few days. Today (April 24) we saw the first Caspian Terns of the season and the first White-winged Scoter. Numbers of other species have been picking up too, such as Red-necked Grebe, 79 of which [...]
Here are the totals for all of the waterbirds counted during the standardized 8-hour count at Whitefish Point in Spring 2016 (April 15 – May 31): 1 Snow Goose 3697 Canada Goose (above average seasonal total) 4 Trumpeter Swan 3 Trumpeter/Tundra Swan 18 Wood Duck 4 Gadwall 1 Eurasian Wigeon (first WPBO record; present at [...]
White-winged and Surf Scoters, May 19, 2016. Photo by Ted Keyel. After many days of north winds, a break in the weather a few days ago gave us a big push of migrating waterbirds, most notably scoters. On May 19, there were 254 White-winged Scoters counted during the morning, almost all before 10 a.m. There [...]
Shorebird diversity at the point has been on the upswing the last few days, with Black-bellied Plover and Short-billed Dowitcher seen flying past the tip on Wednesday, May 11, and Semipalmated Plover and Dunlin spotted on May 12. While these species have already been seen in numbers downstate, it is always special to see them [...]
May 8 was a great day to experience Red-throated Loon migration at Whitefish Point. Flocks of as many as 12 birds flew by several times, and were observed not only from the waterbird count site, but from the parking lot and the hawk deck! One flock of four that flew over the lakeshore by the [...]
The first Piping Plover sighting of 2016 took place on May 6 when visiting Traverse City birder Pat O'Connor found one while walking the beach. I saw what I presumed was the same bird on the beach the following morning. I was a bit concerned when I saw it in flight later in the afternoon [...]