Michigan Audubon Office: (517) 580-7364|birds@michiganaudubon.org

Migration Counts

Seasonal staff at WPBO conduct waterbird counts in the spring and fall and a spring raptor count. During the seasons, counts are conducted daily. Raptor counts run March 15-May 31 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Waterbird counts run April 15-May 31 and August 15-November 15, 8 hours starting at dawn daily during each season. The Hawk Deck and Waterbird Shack are accessible to the public, and you can follow this blog to get regular updates during the counting seasons!

North or Bust: Migration is on!

Four straight days of sunshine and superb raptor viewing has got me dancing jigs and whistling ditties on the ol' hawk deck. It truly would have been a perfect weekend to visit Whitefish Point for the annual Michigan Audubon Spring Fling, and probably one of the warmest and brightest in recent memory. Things have changed [...]

2020-04-28T08:55:32-04:00April 28th, 2020|Migration Counts|Comments Off on North or Bust: Migration is on!
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Spring Waterbird Count 2020: Elemental

At the staff house this week, there’s been an ongoing, friendly debate. Rich, WPBO’s hawk counter, believes that I, the waterbird counter, have the worse end of the weather deal. I don’t think that I do. While I am stationed on the windswept beach, it’s really not that bad. The waterbird shack — save for [...]

2020-04-27T10:44:58-04:00April 25th, 2020|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Spring Waterbird Count 2020: Elemental
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North Of The Wall

The trees speak. Through a concerted effort of mystical orchestration, they take the wind and turn its voice into their own. It is a language I cannot interpret; no matter how hard I try, the rustling of branches remains unfathomable, and the message simply dissipates in the breeze. Still, as I watch the horizon for [...]

2020-04-21T09:24:18-04:00April 20th, 2020|Migration Counts|Comments Off on North Of The Wall
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Spring Waterbird Count 2020: Overtures

Black coffee and bright wind maps: that’s how I start days, up here in Paradise. As I trace back towards the source of the colorful lines that flow past the Point, I imagine — and anticipate — the birds they might be ferrying. When this morning ritual is complete, I throw on my heavy layers [...]

2020-04-20T16:57:06-04:00April 18th, 2020|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Spring Waterbird Count 2020: Overtures
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The Hermit of the Hawk Shack

There is nothing like a gray day to set one's mind on a contemplative path and the first week of the hawk count certainly provided me with a string of them. Luckily for me, a watcher of the skies, my only limits were the clouds. Even so, my imagination takes me far beyond and if [...]

2020-03-23T19:15:28-04:00March 23rd, 2020|Migration Counts|Comments Off on The Hermit of the Hawk Shack
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Welcome to Paradise

Welcome to the Spring 2020 hawk watch. My name is Rich Couse and this season I will be your hawk counter, birdy blogger, and all-around Voice from the Hawk Deck at Michigan Audubon's Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, but first, a little about myself. A year and a half ago I moved from New England to [...]

2020-03-17T16:35:26-04:00March 17th, 2020|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Welcome to Paradise
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Lake Effect

Most hours of most days, the little flock of Snow Buntings are the closest thing to company out at the waterbird shack. They’re pretty good for that, actually--hardy birds that flit about the frozen beach, gleaning the sparse grass, giving happy calls even when the snow is so profuse I can’t see the lake. Watching [...]

2019-11-09T20:28:01-05:00November 9th, 2019|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Lake Effect
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