Migration Counts

Many people visiting the hawk deck ask, "How do you keep count of the raptors flying by?" These days, my answer is, "On one hand." Alright, I may have had one day where I needed two hands and another day on which I needed more than two, but otherwise, one hand has been more [...]

Waterbird Highlights: The final days of the waterbird count (Nov. 5–15) were extremely favorable weather and bird-wise. We were surprised with several goodies, such as another immature Black-legged Kittiwake, several distant Snow/Ross's Geese, an immature Harlequin Duck, a second-winter Iceland Gull, a first-winter Glaucous Gull, and a late Double-crested Cormorant! During the final hour of [...]

Highlights: Sprague's Pipit & Townsend's Solitaire A hatch year Northern Goshawk. Photo by Chris Neri A Sprague’s Pipit found by Fall Waterbird Counter Mario Balitbit is very likely to be the rarest bird of the season. He first heard it as it flew by the waterbird shack on the afternoon of Nov. 6, but our [...]

Waterbird Highlights: This week (Oct. 29–Nov. 4), we had species of waterbirds, with our highlight being RED PHALAROPE and a few more BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE. The Red Phalarope showed briefly in the morning before being lost between the 5-foot+ high swells. Two of the three kittiwakes showed on the same day, while our latest immature kittiwake moved north [...]

Snow Bunting by Chris Neri Passerine migration activity at this time of year really comes down to the winter finches. Thankfully, we’ve had some nice finch flights this week. We documented some significant movements from different species on three consecutive days this past week. We had 1,087 Common Redpolls on Oct. 27, followed by 779 White-winged [...]

Waterbird Highlights: This week (Oct. 22–28), we had 26 species of waterbirds, with our highlight being gulls; BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE, Lesser Black-backed Gull, and an Iceland Gull (kumlieni). The kittiwake made a flyby appearance while the other two species of gulls hung out at the harbor and the Point. Lesser Black-backed Gull (Fall 2021) [...]

After an extended period of southerly winds and warm temperatures, the winds finally shifted, and at long last, it feels like late fall. American Tree Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos continue in good numbers. Joining them in increasing numbers this past week have been Pine Siskins and Purple Finches. Common Redpolls have arrived, and we had the first push of over 400 on Oct. [...]

Waterbird Highlights: This week (October 15–21), we had 36 species of waterbirds, of which half of the diversity were waterfowl. Of the 30,000+ individuals counted, 13% were dabbling ducks such as Mallard, Northern Pintail, and American Wigeon, and 78% were diving ducks such as Aythaya species, scoters, and mergansers. Long-tailed Ducks made 33% of the count [...]

A Peregrine Falcon preens its foot. Photo by Chris Neri Highlights: Brewer’s Blackbird and Forster’s Tern Four Forster’s Terns spent some time around the Point on Oct. 11, and a Brewer’s Blackbird was present on Oct. 14. A late Bay-breasted Warbler was present on Oct. 16 and 17. After a week and a half of unseasonably warm weather and [...]