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!

Ice Out, Birds In: Waterbird Count Week 2

Eight hours most days, I stand on Whitefish Point’s cobbled beach. There, from whichever side of the waterbird shack is the lee side du jour, I make sweeping scans with binoculars and spotting scope. To the west is a stand of scrappy jack pines where, this week, a shrike has (albeit with different, more murderous [...]

2019-05-01T16:05:55-04:00May 1st, 2019|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Ice Out, Birds In: Waterbird Count Week 2
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Tales from the Hawk Shack

There was an amazing Red-tailed Hawk show this past week complete with a leucistic and two dark morphs! Watching them made me realize how long individual Red-tailed Hawk can stick around throughout the day. It was interesting to see so many kettle far out, then break up and fly past the hawk deck, then come [...]

2019-04-23T20:50:54-04:00April 23rd, 2019|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Tales from the Hawk Shack
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The Crossing: First Week of the Waterbird Count

A woodcock twitters overhead, squeezing one last display flight into a sky just beginning to color. You do claim this bird as your spring harbinger, I remind myself. It bears repeating--the morning’s commute starts as a cautious traverse across frozen melt puddles, then transitions to a postholing of sorts through still-deep snow. During the first [...]

2019-04-22T10:37:45-04:00April 22nd, 2019|Migration Counts|Comments Off on The Crossing: First Week of the Waterbird Count
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A Week of Firsts

The last week of March and the first week of April were pretty slow for migrating raptors. A few birds each day, but nothing truly spectacular in terms of numbers. However, April 5 and 6 brought a few different birds to the Hawk Deck. With the majority of raptors seen so far being eagles or [...]

2019-04-08T18:54:44-04:00April 8th, 2019|Migration Counts|Comments Off on A Week of Firsts
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The Voices of Corvids

It continues to amaze me how versatile the vocal range of the American Crow and the Common Raven can be. Every day I am met with several of each species, whether they are resident, stopping over for a few days, or just passing through on their migration flight. Those individuals who alight on the tops [...]

2019-04-02T18:13:45-04:00April 2nd, 2019|Migration Counts|Comments Off on The Voices of Corvids
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A New Season

The new WPBO hawk counting season began March 15, and I was excited to get started right away. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas, greeting us with high winds and few birds those first couple days. Despite a slow start, a few good flights have come through already. I’ve had an awesome flight of Bald [...]

2019-03-25T21:38:13-04:00March 25th, 2019|Migration Counts|Comments Off on A New Season
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Ducky Days Continue at the Point

With just over a week left in the season, the makeup of migrants counted from the waterbird shack has continued to change. Long-tailed Ducks are still being seen in triple-digit totals regularly, and are by far the top species counted with a current total of 20,960, but they no longer dominate each day’s flight quite [...]

2018-11-06T19:48:02-05:00November 6th, 2018|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Ducky Days Continue at the Point
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Big Day and a Very Rare Visitor

Watching waterbirds is always an unpredictable endeavor, and can be quite the exercise in patience. The past week has held great examples of the days that make the seemingly endless hours of tedium all worth it. Last Tuesday began with a strong flight of Aythya and Scoters, along with an great smattering of dabblers for [...]

2018-11-06T19:06:57-05:00October 27th, 2018|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Big Day and a Very Rare Visitor
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First snow on the waterbird count!

Today was the first day snow fell on me during the waterbird count! I saw snow across Lake Superior in Canada’s Algoma Highlands on September 29, over two weeks ago, and Saturday was the first day I brushed off my car before heading to the Point for sunrise, but today’s precipitation was my first opportunity [...]

2018-11-06T19:07:32-05:00October 15th, 2018|Migration Counts|Comments Off on First snow on the waterbird count!
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Waterbird Count Halfway Point!

The season is just past halfway through, the weather has certainly changed, and with it so has the diversity of migrants being seen on the WPBO waterbird count. Perhaps the biggest constant this season has been the Red-necked Grebes. Though their peak day of 2,954 was well over a month ago they haven’t stopped yet, [...]

2018-11-06T19:08:34-05:00October 7th, 2018|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Waterbird Count Halfway Point!
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