Long-tailed Jaeger

The day all came down to a minute or so around 9:30 am when an adult Long-tailed Jaeger cruised on past the point, just far enough out to keep me from getting a picture, to give me my second jaeger species so far in August. Other highlights for the day included the first 2 Red-throated Loons for the season and my first Caspian Terns for the point this season. The picture below was taken in Alaska but its just to show I do know what an adult Long-tailed Jaeger looks like in real life.

Apart from the aforementioned highlights the day wore on pretty slow with only a handful of birds seen in the afternoon and a near miss on a nap from your truly. Comfortable temps in the mid-70s, a nice breeze out of the south, and weary eyes from hours of little activity nearly got the better of me but I managed to stay awake till the bitter end. To the delight of the vacationers and locals the weather forecast is for similar weather all weekend long, those of us at the shack might have a slightly different take on the weather outlook however.

Red-necked Grebes continued with 156 seen today while all other waterbirds amounted to a total of about 50 birds with 8 Blue-winged Teal and 7 Common Terns leading the pack. Common Loon numbers dropped to only 3 and a pair of Horned Grebes late morning were the only of their species noted. Shorebird numbers were actually up from previous days with the 24 Sanderlings accounting for most of the increase while 4 Ruddy Turnstones continued and 7 Buff-breasted Sandpipers were newly arrived.

Typical raptors again showed well at the shack this morning chasing exhausted birds in off the lake while common birds seemed to be preparing to move as small flocks of Blue Jays, Common Ravens, and Chipping Sparrows were noted in the jack pines.