Highlights: Warblers - Chimney Swift - Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Blue Jay A Yellow-rumped Warbler hawking (catching flying insects on the wing). Photo by Charlotte R. Catalano Warbler migration has finally begun in earnest! Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, Yellow, Wilson’s, and Canada Warbler have all shown in the [...]
It hardly seems possible, but Whitefish’s Waterbird Count is nearing the end of its penultimate week. And, what a week it has been! Some of the migration moments I’ve been anticipating since season’s start have happened, and they’ve been well worth the wait. These include: The Scoter flight: this time of year, hundreds of White-winged [...]
Some days, the most peaceful moments of the waterbird count are about ten minutes before it actually starts. I like to arrive at the shack a little early: collect the first weather data, scan the lake and beach for resting birds--ease into things, you know. When the sun edges up over High Hills, time starts [...]
At this latitude, May is a high-octane month. Night starts later, day begins sooner, and I think we all flounder a bit as we try to keep up with all we want to see. When dusk falls, Long-eared Owls rise from the pines near the Point and often, I fall victim to the urge [...]
Eight hours most days, I stand on Whitefish Point’s cobbled beach. There, from whichever side of the waterbird shack is the lee side du jour, I make sweeping scans with binoculars and spotting scope. To the west is a stand of scrappy jack pines where, this week, a shrike has (albeit with different, more murderous [...]
A woodcock twitters overhead, squeezing one last display flight into a sky just beginning to color. You do claim this bird as your spring harbinger, I remind myself. It bears repeating--the morning’s commute starts as a cautious traverse across frozen melt puddles, then transitions to a postholing of sorts through still-deep snow. During the first [...]
Highlights: Firsts of the season: American Black Duck, Rock Pigeon, Eastern Phoebe, Rusty Blackbird, American Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow Passerines put on their first real show of the season on April 10. While covering for Krista Botting, the hawk counter, I observed 24 American Robin, 39 Red-winged Blackbird, 45 Common Grackle, and a Bohemian Waxwing [...]
Part of a flock of approximately 47 Common Redpoll. Photo by Charlotte R. Catalano Two Pine Grosbeaks atop a frost-covered Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana). Photo by Charlotte R. Catalano HIGHLIGHTS: Approximately 47 Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea) SUMMARY: Whitefish Point is still laden down with two feet of snow and below [...]
The hawk count has finally come alive! The slowdown began the final week of March. It continued into the first week of April, when 47 hours of ceaseless searching yielded a meager total of 23 raptors. Nothing changed through the second week of April, aside from the weekend’s blizzard dumping a fresh two feet of [...]
By Skye Haas, 2018 Spring Field Ornithologist And I thought there was little to report in my last update! Very little bird migration has occurred in April so far. Persistent north winds and frequent snow showers have plagued the research programs here at WPBO, and we have been setting some new late arrival [...]
