March, as I have been learning firsthand, can be a rather hit-or-miss time on the hawk deck. Diurnal migration is highly dependent on prevailing weather conditions, especially when it comes to early season short-distance migrants. The best conditions for a strong hawk

Golden Eagle photo by Skye Haas.

flight here are warm, sunny days, with moderate southwest winds. Or so I’ve been told. So far the winds have been predominantly from the north, and even on the days which they have switched around, still have most often had an eastward bent, bringing a stiff breeze off Whitefish Bay and doing little to encourage raptors to move up the Whitefish peninsula toward my outpost. I have even missed a few hours of counting over the past week due to freezing rain — not something raptors enjoy flying in!

Despite the less-than-favorable conditions, a number of birds have been moving through the area. Our raptor totals are up to 131 individuals representing seven species, with just under half of the total of those being Bald Eagles. Red-tailed Hawk and Golden Eagle are the only other hawks with double-digit counts, at 35 and 16 respectively. Of the raptors, I have found the Golden Eagles most captivating so far. I have had years in the past in which I just barely manage to snag one or two individuals, so getting to watch their majestic soaring on such a regular basis has been a real delight!

Sharp-tailed Grouse have been a fun regular appearance on the hawk count, with up to six individuals present on some days. Photo by Gary Palmer.

Perhaps the most interesting migratory event I’ve witnesses since the start of the season came on the morning of the 23rd. This date brought my first Canada Geese, Mallards, Common Mergansers, Killdeer, and Red-winged Blackbird of the season — all great harbingers of spring. But the part by which I was most captivated was the active migration of Pine Grosbeaks early in the day. Up to this point this species had been tallied more days than not, but had typically been just foraging, making their fabulous noises, and generally bumming around the area all day long. On the 23 though they were clearly on a mission! Within the first two hours I counted 51 individuals, nearly doubling our not-insubstantial season total, but the neat thing was their behavior. All of the birds on this morning were engaged in active flight, moving northeastward out toward the point, and even stranger for what is normally such a vocal bird, they seldom made a peep. Pine Grosbeak is historically known as an early migrant, and in the four days since this event they’ve been detected on only one, so it makes me wonder whether I’ve seen just about the last of them already.

Rounding out our raptor totals are eight Goshawks (all immatures so far), seven Red-shouldered Hawks, two Merlins, and a lone Sharp-shinned. The most common species tallied remains Common Redpoll by far, with a total of 1,331 birds tallied, comprising 48.3% of the count total to date. Check out all of the data for yourself here at the official Whitefish Point eBird page!