Migration Counts

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 [...]

The first three days of the 2022 fall waterbird count started with excellent weather. By 8 a.m. on Aug. 17, I was counting in my t-shirt — a first for me! Even though this was great weather to be out in, waterbird migration was almost non-existent. Waterbird highlights these first three days was a [...]

May 22. Over the course of 8 hours, 655 Long-tailed Ducks (this spring’s peak flight, to date) rose, like apparitions, from The Gap. The Gap is terminology we use to point out waterbirds flying through the stretch of water bounded by Ile Parisienne and Ontario’s mainland — e.g., “there are two Red-throated Loons flying [...]

Spring migration has this accompanying urgency: many of the shorebirds and waterfowl that pass WPBO’s waterbird count are headed to arctic tundra. Up there, the days are long — but the season is short: the span of days within which to establish a territory and raise up the next generation is acutely finite. Accordingly, migration [...]

The most exciting event at WPBO's waterbird count this week has been the big loon push. This is, for me, a favorite part of spring. The loons are the vanguards of the opening migration floodgates. They signal the onset of a month that passes — like the white wedge on the outer limits of [...]