Migration Counts

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. Photo by Chris Neri Highlights: American Three-toed Woodpecker & Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. The epic season for vagrants seen by Waterbird Counter Alec Olivier out at the waterbird shack continued this past week. An American Three-toed Woodpecker made a brief appearance for Alec in the early morning on October 22. Unfortunately, all efforts [...]

Well, I have often been fortunate enough to see many of the vagrants that have been seen at the waterbird count during my falls here. However, this week I missed one of the rarest birds ever to be documented at WPBO. Therefore, I'm not posting it here, but I will leave it to Waterbird [...]

October continues to produce great flights in the last week. Aythya numbers continue to dominate the flights, but there have also been good numbers of scoters and dabblers as well. A large flight on Oct. 8 produced over 1,000 Aythya, with 900 of those being scaup. There were also 270 American Wigeons on Oct. [...]

Highlights: Yellow-breasted Chat A Yellow-breasted Chat was observed on the morning of October 10. Unfortunately, all efforts to relocate the chat were unsuccessful for everyone except the initial observer, including me. Whether it's the blogs for the spring owl banding, summer owl banding, or as the fall field ornithologist, I always try to center the content of [...]

Spotted Towhee. Photo by Chris Neri Harris's Sparrow. Photo by Chris Neri HIGHLIGHTS: Spotted Towhee, Nelson's Sparrow, Lark Bunting, Harris's Sparrow. The Point's second Spotted Towhee was found on October 1 and seen again briefly in the late afternoon on the second. The Point's fourth Nelson's Sparrow was found on September [...]

Pacific Loon. Photo by Alec Olivier Waterbird migration has finally started to heat up this week. September 26 was the first big day since 8/30. Oddly enough, the first three hours of the count of 9/26 were fairly slow. It seemed like it was going to be another slow day when the [...]

The weather this past week has been particularly variable, including south winds, strong north winds, and periods of rain. The birding has naturally also been significantly different daily, reflecting the varying weather patterns. As we mentioned last week, warbler migration has been winding down, but there are still occasional flocks that contain some diversity. [...]

Waterbird migration in the last week has still been fairly slow. There have been several days with good grebe flights, with 199 on 9/19 and 254 on 9/21. The season total for Red-necked Grebes remains just over 4,000. American Wigeons have started moving in decent numbers, with 63 on 9/19 and 130 on 9/22. [...]