The first several days of the waterbird count coincided with the biggest Sandhill Crane flights ever recorded at Whitefish Point. After a plague of bad weather that lasted for over two weeks, the cranes took advantage of the powerful warm fronts and migrated in huge flocks to the Point. What was striking to a few of us long-time Whitefish birders were how many cranes just hauled right over Lake Superior to Canada; typically, Sandhill Cranes are hesitant to cross large bodies of water, needing warm thermals to help stay aloft. But apparently the weather delays to getting to the breeding grounds was too much and those cranes wanted to go!
Sandhill Crane by Skye Haas
The opening day of the count had a little over 2000 Cranes counted, but the next day a little over 4900 cranes were counted- this single day total is almost double of what was the previous high for a season total! And it didn’t stop there. The next day nearly 3500 were counted, and the two subsequent days after that another thousand each! Currently the season total is just over 15,000 cranes, a shockingly high count. Almost easy to forget that this was a bird that had been nearly extirpated from Michigan in the last century!
Redhead by Skye Haas
It’s not been all cranes though. On the 16th, a Great Egret was seen, the first since 2012. Ducks continue to trickle by with both Scaup, Redhead, Northern Pintail, Mallards and Green-winged Teal being recorded.
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