A new day

Today may not have been the best waterbird migration day nor the best day in the woods this Fall but after the past few days it sure seemed like it was. A big boost in the overall numbers was the re-appearance of Canada Geese flocks and sparrows added some diversity to the woods, in the end it was just nice to see something was moving up here once more. Tomorrow's forecast is for similar weather, the avian forecast to-be-determined however.

Skeins of Canada Geese coming south from the Hudson/James Bay region made up almost half of today's birds with 243 counted and easily outdistanced Red-necked Grebe (62) for the most common bird of the day. Coming in third was Green-winged Teal with 29, one ahead of Common Loon which increased from the past couple days to 28. Other waterbirds rebounded a bit as well with a single American Black Duck, 14 White-winged Scoters, 2 Red-throated Loons, and 2 Horned Grebes also seen today.

Shorebird numbers were better than recent days with new arrivals including an American Golden-Plover than came in during the last hour of the count and 3 Buff-breasted Sandpipers that arrived around noon. Also found today was a Wilson's Snipe that was flushed from the dune vegetation close to the shack. An unknown Jaeger species passed by on the lake early in the morning and small numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls and Common Terns were again present along the point.

Passerines were in much larger numbers today around the point with the expected mid-to-late Fall mix of American Pipits, Horned Larks, Savannah Sparrows, and Lapland Longspurs now present on the point for the second straight day. In the woods American Robins and Yellow-rumped Warblers were in the largest numbers while 9 other warbler species were found including a late Yellow and a female-type Black-throated Blue. Other birds present included numbers of Golden-crowned Kinglets, Hermit Thrushes, a House Wren, and solid sparrow numbers which included 2 Field, 2 Vesper, a Swamp, and a few Lincoln's among the more regular species.