Bears and Birds, well bears at least

The morning's highlight was a young (discussion on whether he was this year's or last year's offspring never amounted to a final consensus) Black Bear which made two short trips down the path and out to the edge of the jack pines this morning. He must have heard the Blueberry Festival was this weekend and wanted to make sure he had a chance to get in on the action.

In other news today we saw more birders than birds pass by the point under increasingly sunny skies and light-moderate N winds. The day saw the fall's first Sandhill Cranes pass overhead and a Surf Scoter early on but it remained slow most of the day with Red-necked Grebe(163) and Common Tern (31) leading the day's waterbird counts. Also passing by were 7Common Goldeneyes, 9 Common Loons, 2 Horned Grebes, 7 Bonaparte's Gulls, and 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, while continuing shorebird numbers were down markedly from yesterday with less than 10 Baird's Sandpipers about and only a scattering of the shorebird species from recent days.

Passerine numbers were again low while raptors were in evidence throughout the day as 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks, a Northern Goshawk, 2 Merlins, and a juvenile Peregrine Falcon hunted what birds were on the point during the morning and afternoon.

The weather forecast remains poor for a big migration event in the near future but that can only mean the numbers will be building until the weather turns in their favor, at least I hope that's what it means.

Both photos courtesy of David Bell.