Common Merganser by Skye Haas

Greetings folks, here is this week’s sightings report. It has been another decent week at the Point; the first part of the week saw some decent hawk and songbird flights though blustery north winds have quelled migration here for a few days. Still the weather is setting up for what could be a good couple days at the point. For those interested in learning a little more on how weather can affect bird migration check out this short video by Brandon Holden talking about this weekend’s weather and how it relates to migration in the Great Lakes region.

Even though the Waterbird Count is still a little more than a week away from starting, waterbird sightings have become more frequent in the last few days. A flock of 11 TUNDRA SWANS was a nice treat on the 3rd, the first of season GREEN-WINGED TEALS on the 2nd, with WOOD DUCKS and HOODED MERGANSERS appearing on the 4th. And an uptick of both COMMON GOLDENEYE and COMMON MERGANSERS was also noted this week. Other new arrivals were RING-BILLED GULLS on the 2nd and an AMERICAN WOODCOCK on the 3rd.

Rough-legged Hawk by Skye Haas

There have been a few great hawk flights this week with GOLDEN EAGLES and NORTHERN GOSHAWKS present on most days, and NORTHERN HARRIERS, SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS and ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS daily. Daily highs of 17 and 15 Rough-legs are hopefully only a precursor to come for these gorgeous tundra-nesting raptors. Some years, the season totals for this species can be in the thousands! RED-TAILED HAWKS have also have made some nice showings with over 50 birds counted on the 5th. A number of the boldly marked northern subspecies of RED-TAILED HAWK have been recorded this season.  And AMERICAN KESTREL was finally recorded for the season on the 2nd.

Northern Saw-whet Owl by Skye Haas

Fun to see for us diurnal birders was this roosting NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL found by the youngest daughter of a visiting family of birders on the 2nd. For more information on owl migration, please visit our owl banding blog here. A final bird-of-prey to report is of a NORTHERN SHRIKE was seen on the 2nd.

GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS returned to Whitefish on the 3rd and always delightful are the daily sightings this week of BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS. AMERICAN ROBINS have had big flights past the hawk deck in recent mornings with numbers into the hundreds on a couple of days this week. Very exciting was the first warbler of the season, a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER on the 3rd. Other new songbirds this week include DARK-EYED JUNCO on the 2nd, SONG SPARROW and RUSTY BLACKBIRD on the 3rd, and AMERICAN TREE SPARROW on the 5th.

Pine Grosbeak by Skye Haas

What surely this time is the last big push of PINE GROSBEAKS for the season was a flight of 64 on the 1st. COMMON REDPOLLS have staged big flights this week as well with hundreds of birds flying each day with a peak of 472 recorded on the 5th.

To see daily totals visit our live data feed at the Dunkadoo website or visit our eBird profile page.

*** Please note we have changed our owl banding visitation schedule:  Visitors may observe owl banding on Friday and Saturday evenings from dusk to midnight, weather permitting. Beginning at the end of April, the Owl’s Roost Gift Shop will be open on select Friday and Saturday evenings as well.  If you have a large group (5 or more), please call (517) 580-7364 or email events@michiganaudubon.org to make arrangements.