Migration Counts

Our eBird October Big Day was a success with 66 species within a 24-hour birding period, and this total was decent with these less than ideal migration conditions. We were hard-pressed for waterfowl diversity/abundance, but we were able to pull out some decent waterbirds like an adult Parasitic Jaeger. Other non-waterbird highlights during the [...]

As for waterbirds, the most notable species this week were Willet, Forster’s Tern, and Parasitic Jaeger! The Willet stayed in the Point’s pond for a few days while the tern and the jaeger passed through the area.  Willet Forster's Tern Parasitic Jaeger One of the highlight non-waterbird finds this week [...]

Highlights: Ash-throated Flycatcher (pictured above), LeConte’s Sparrow, and Black-backed Woodpecker This past week has been a little bit of déjà vu, but we’re not complaining. The season’s second Ash-throated Flycatcher was found on the evening of Oct. 2 and continued all day on the third. Previous to this fall, there were only two ash-throated records, one from [...]

Waterbird Highlights: This week (Sept. 24–30) marks the halfway point for the 2021 fall waterbird count! The waterbird species and composition have changed significantly since the start of the count; fewer shorebirds and higher numbers of diving ducks. This visual from Dunkadoo provides a general overview of what we have seen over the past seven weeks. [...]

LeConte's Sparrow (left) & Harris's Sparrow (right) Highlights: Sedge Wren, Harris’s Sparrow, LeConte’s Sparrow, & Black-backed Woodpecker Songbird activity in the woods has been particularly good the last few days. Warbler migration may be winding down, but we've continued to see good numbers, along with decent diversity this week. The sparrow migration has [...]

Waterbird Highlights: Here are some notable sightings during the sixth week of the waterbird count (Sept. 17–23). We spotted 47 species of waterbirds, of which 19 (+1 taxa) were waterfowl (Anseriformes). The level of abundance per day is sporadic, but there have been some exciting mixed flocks of dabbler ducks and diving ducks during [...]

WPBO's third Ash-throated Flycatcher I'm just going to start by acknowledging that flipping my schedule from night to day, plus some technical issues on my part has me playing catch up on blogging. There's nothing for it at this point but to just jump in.  There have already been some exciting vagrants this [...]

Waterbird Highlights: During this week’s count (Sept. 10–16), the count had 50 species of waterbirds, and 19 of these species were shorebirds! A Buff-breasted Sandpiper still managed to make an appearance throughout the count while intermixed between other Calidris shorebirds. One of the final birds for the count this week was a fantastic stopover of a Stilt Sandpiper in the [...]

Waterbird Highlights: During this week’s count (Sept. 3–9), the count had 42 species of waterbirds! Aug. 5 was an exciting day where we had 32 of the 42 species of waterbirds seen during the count. There were quite a few highlights that day, such as large numbers of Pluvialis plovers (Black-bellied/golden-plover sp.), several Black [...]