Piping Plover

Fledge Day; Grebe Day!

Here are three bits of exciting news from WPBO this past week: 1. We received three juvenile Piping Plovers from the Great Lakes Piping Plover captive rearing program! Since 1992, eggs from nests compromised by storm surge, parent plover mortality, or “side chick” situations (yes, that’s exactly what you think it is!) have been salvaged, [...]

2020-07-28T14:05:15-04:00July 28th, 2020|Field Notes|Comments Off on Fledge Day; Grebe Day!

Zombie Chick is Zombie Dad!

...and, he has been since July 3. Hannah (who you’ll recognize as WPBO's summer assistant bander) and I were enjoying one of those rare times of the day that we’re both awake with an afternoon beach walk. We paused at the nest exclosure; when I’d been out earlier that day, the adult plovers were still [...]

2020-07-21T17:13:37-04:00July 21st, 2020|Field Notes|Comments Off on Zombie Chick is Zombie Dad!

The Hatch

There are certain subjects that dominate conversation around WPBO. Weather, migrations, and our latest spoils from out-of-town grocery hauls are trusty standbys. I’ve noticed, though, that we’ve added some summer specials to the mix, like the tenuous relationship between black bears and bird feeders, and the mosquito hatch.  This is, actually, my first full summer [...]

2020-07-07T15:07:46-04:00July 6th, 2020|Field Notes|Comments Off on The Hatch

WPBO’s 2020 Plovers-in-Residence

Piping Plover monitoring at WPBO has ushered in a change of pace for me: though I work just a few hundred yards from my old station at the waterbird shack, I now spend a good portion of my time intently looking at just two birds when, before, I spent my time intently looking for all [...]

2020-07-07T15:03:13-04:00June 23rd, 2020|Field Notes|Comments Off on WPBO’s 2020 Plovers-in-Residence

Bad Weather, Good Birding: WPBO Waterbird Count Update May 9-15

There are two types of bad weather at Whitefish Point: bad weather with good birds, and bad weather with no birds. Yesterday (May 14), finally, the sky started spitting shorebirds. Yes, the sky also was spitting (and at times, pouring) 38-degree rain for the entire 8-hour count, but that is the typical tradeoff for a [...]

2020-05-18T10:54:14-04:00May 15th, 2020|Migration Counts|Comments Off on Bad Weather, Good Birding: WPBO Waterbird Count Update May 9-15
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