Migration Counts

This past week was bookended by two strong weather fronts, each bringing an interesting array of waterbirds to the area. A powerful cold front passed across the region on the morning of Aug. 17. Down-pouring rain and a strong southerly breeze met me upon arrival at the waterbird shack. After three hours of pelting [...]

The fall 2023 waterbird count got off to a strong start with some excellent weather and pleasantly warm temperatures for the first two days of the season. Many visitors to the Point this week (including myself) could be seen in short-sleeved shirts and shorts, enjoying the pleasant conditions. Waterbird migration so far has been [...]

The last week of the 2023 spring waterbird count has been defined by two things: the mosquito hatch and the Canada Goose molt flight. In their own right, both of these happenings are fairly remarkable natural phenomena.  We've got two periods of heavy Canada Goose movement at Whitefish Point. The first is towards the [...]

Late May is just a time of year that feels good. It’s sunny; it’s warm. Black flies and mosquitoes have emerged down in Paradise, but the Point is bite-free for a couple of days or so. It’s one of the few genuinely comfortable times we get at a place that, of all this continent’s bird observatories, [...]

When I get my first triple-digit Bonaparte’s Gull flight of the spring, that’s a harbinger: time to start going out for night flight. Today, May 10, 499 Bonys, delicate and ternlike, traveled north during the day’s count. I kept my word, loaded up around 8:30 p.m., walked down the beach towards the tip as [...]

Shack Talk: Sunrise It would be a stretch to say Leonard and I shared the sunrise on May 2, for the last week and a half has been mostly gray skies. I’ve risen — and the sun, I suppose, has too — but we haven’t really seen it. But, sunrise or not, Leonard was [...]