While it was mostly quiet in terms of songbirds and raptors, it was an exciting week for waterbird counting at Whitefish Point! Due to passing storm fronts and winds shifting to the NW, we had some favorable conditions for migration over the weekend. The birds did not disappoint, with our highest two waterbird counts [...]
Things started to heat up during the second week of the fall waterbird count at Whitefish Point. While some species from the first week, such as Piping Plover, have already departed, the influx of several new species kept things interesting. We had 32 waterbird species pass by the Point over the past week: three [...]
The first week of the fall count at Whitefish Point has officially wrapped up, and the waterbirds are starting to move. We had 29 species of waterbird pass by the Point during our counts this week, with the most numerous being Red-necked Grebes. Our peak day for them was 8/18, when the winds started [...]
Spring migration is coming to a close at Whitefish Point, but that doesn't mean the excitement is gone. Waterbird numbers have begun to drop, with only loons, mergansers, geese, and some shorebirds being reliable each day. One of the highlights at the season's end has been large pushes of Whimbrels; the evening flight on [...]
It's been an exciting week at the Point, with many of our later migrants starting to hit hard and many of our irregular migrants starting to show up. Our second wave of Canada Geese is in full swing, with over 3,000 individuals being seen over the last three days. White-winged Scoters are still passing [...]
Prevailing north winds have kept this past week fairly slow, with little changing in terms of species diversity. The numbers of White-winged Scoters and Long-tailed Ducks are slowly increasing, with the number of loons and grebes slowly decreasing. Red-breasted Mergansers have also begun to move in pretty good numbers, with May 13 netting 440 [...]
Plenty of birds have been migrating this week. Most days saw triple-digit numbers of loons, although none beat last week's high count. Many ducks seem to be tapering off this week, with only a handful of dabblers and scaup being seen each day. May 3 saw the biggest push of Bufflehead for the season, [...]
It's been a busy week for waterbirds! Despite the rainy weather, we have seen several big pushes over the last week. April 27 saw what will probably be the biggest push of scaup this season, with 656 birds (mostly Greater Scaup) passing the Point. This week also saw increasing numbers of White-winged Scoters as well as the season's first Surf [...]
Waterbirds are on the move! After several days of bad winds, April 23 finally brought some decent winds out of the south, bringing in some decent numbers of birds. On that day, 255 Greater Scaups, 108 Red-necked Grebes, 81 Common Loons, 24 Red-throated Loons, and numerous other species flew past Whitefish Point on their [...]
We are only a couple of days into the spring waterbird count and have already seen some significant movement at the Point. The first day of the count saw what is probably the last major push of Sandhill Cranes, 3,198 of them in a single day. The vast majority of the birds moved through [...]
