SEO saves the day

A Short Eared Owl salvaged a relatively quiet day on Saturday, this is quite a scarce bird at the Point i believe. It was seen flying in off the lake before disappearing low towards the harbour. I'm lucky in that i get to see them on the coast in the winter near where i live, and sometimes up on the moors in the summer too. The count was quiet due mainly to fog for about half the day. Luckily i was kept company by Ken and Dan for most of it which helped me keep me sanity...well almost.

Lark Sparrow at the shack

Looks like the southerly winds did the business last night, combining with a bit of rain to bring down the birds. The walk to the shack was agonising this morning, as it was obvious from the large number of birds calling that lots of birds had arrived overnight. However, i'm a pro, so i soldiered on to the shack, nonetheless trousering Philadelphia Vireo, Least Flycatcher and Cape May Warbler on the way without breaking stride! Goodness knows what got missed this morning.
Clementine was again on the case, picking out a Piping Plover which was swiftly reported to myself. On having a look at the bird through the scope, it appeared to have no bands. 3 shorebird spp were also reported. A few hours later, a couple of lads from the PP Project base at Vermilion Point called in to say hi. We directed them towards the PP, and lo! there was another one with 2 Least Sandpipers. This bird was banded. Local birder Ken got some shots to read the bands and also photographed a Ruddy Turnstone, as well as a couple of new warbler spp.
The waterbird flight was fairly quiet, with about one third of the birds being uncountable due to the fact that they were flying the wrong way. I am more and more convinced that loons just like a headwind to provide some lift. Rather like swans, they're heavy but powerful birds and need a headwind to fly into. Their powerful pectoral muscles can provide the forward thrust no problem. The 747s of the bird world!
Our best day for Long Tailed Ducks this spring was on Wed when no less than 585 flew past the Point. That was also our best day for Surf Scoter with 19. Bonapartes Gulls have also started to pick up the last few days. Today was our best day for Red Throated Loons for a while with 27, although Commons were quite few. But best of all was a Lark Sparrow which spent most of the afternoon with a White Crowned and a Savannah feeding on Nyjer seed scattered about 20 yards from the shack. I understand this is less than annual at the Point, so is surely the same bird which had been present at the HQ until a few days ago?

Phew what a scorcher!

Mergansers continue to go through in good numbers, 260 today. L T Duck are continuing to pick up with 79, likewise Scoters, with 36 White Winged plus 4 Surf which were spotted by Jason while doing the Hawk Count, who radioed us then Chris picked them up. Go team! Conversely, loons and R N Grebes staged a no-show, with only 48 and 7 respectively the whole day. Gulls are beginning to go through now, around 80 each of Herring, Ring Billed and Bonapartes. I spent some time after the count looking for passerines and got extremely excited when a B T Blue Warbler passed through the scrub - as we say in Britain, "Phew What A Scorcher!" This was followed by Nashville, Black and White and B T Green - another gem with its' glowing yellow cheek patch.
Don't forget to send in your pledges for our Bird-a-thon, all proceeds go to support the research work here at WPBO.
Finally it's worth mentioning that the Owls Roost Gift Shop will be open from midday tomorrow, and 10 am on Thursday.
Tata for now.

Here's the photo - what a cracking little bird.

Click to zoom in.
Thanks to David at MTU for the shot.

Piping Plover back...

... but apparently a different bird again. A banded bird was found by local earlybirder Clementine and successfully twitched by a keen group of student ornithologists and their tutor from Houghton. The bands were studied through scopes and camera from a respectful distance and the combination was something like:
R leg: orange over red
L leg: blue pink blue pink
Hopefully photos will emerge giving greater detail, but in the meantime that may be enough to establish its' life history which would be fascinating to me.

Waterbird passage was virtually non-existent today, though a female Snow Bunting found by the Ornithology Class showed down to a few feet and may be another bird that has come temporarily south on these northerlies. Unfortunately it appeared to have a slightly injured wing and may have had a close shave with the male Merlin that spent most of the day out on the point. Hope he doesn't take to eating plovers...

Otherwise, still waiting for the migrant flood. Any day now...

Where have all the birds gone?

Well we're having a spot of weather up here at the moment. Even seasoned UPers tell me that it's exceptional. Strong northerlies and snow have put paid to migration; Common Loons are the benchmark species, and were very few today; yesterday "just" a hundred or so. As you may have read last night, i saw 3 Piping Plovers in the same scope view on the beach yesterday, what looked like a pair and a single. I've reloaded that post as i was hoping to add a nice photo which Jason's promised to let me use - if we can figure out the technology! One bird appeared to be display flighting at one point. However today there was no sign, although in the arctic conditions i'm really not surprised. I'm sure they're just a little further south on a slightly less exposed section of beach, feeding away and waiting for the winds to change again. Hopefully they'll return in the next couple of days. Can i politely ask all folks to keep a good distance from these nationally endangered birds and allow them to raise a family, thanks. I've been a bit unwell the last couple of days and have appreciated having Jason and Chris to step in where necessary, though i don't appear to have missed a great deal. Apart from the Glaucous Gull i mentioned last night which i saw landing at the tip (a 2nd winter/summer - "blotchy" plumage and pale eye - according to a young chap from SW Michigan who got nice and close to it), 3 Bonaparte's were attempting to ride out the storm in the slightly calmer waters in the lee of the point. Of note was the good number of Red Breasted Mergansers again two days ago - 236, this being my highest count so far.
Apparently my birding friends back home are having exactly the same experience as us - north winds and zero migration. The weather forecast for here is looking similar for the next couple of days before winds swing round to the east, hopefully releasing the floodgates and allowing a tidal wave of migrants to pour through.
That's the theory anyway....

5/7/10 - Piping Plover!

And not just one, but three! One of which was banded.... I'll do a bit of research when i get a chance and get back to you, and with a full roundup of the last couple of days too - today and yesterday were quite quiet but there were a few interesting things, such as the Glaucous Gull, plus the Merganser flight is finally starting to pick up. For those statistically minded, tune in tomorrow!
Nighty night.

5/5/10

Well the loons just kept on coming... no sooner had this seasons record been set than it was smashed. No fewer than 490 loons migrated through today, comprising 324 Commons; a fantastic 54 Red Throated, and 112 un ID'd. And it was really nice to see the Red Breasted Mergansers finally getting going with 159 of those. Red Necked Grebes had a better day than the recent average with 84, likewise the White Winged Scoters with 25. And still plenty of time for all those species to keep on flying by.
Just goes to show what a southerly wind can do!

It was a bit bonkers today as far as loons were concerned - 435 in total (273 Common, 43 Red Throated and 119 un ID'd) being by far the biggest count of the Spring so far. Interestingly, the loons were still going strong when i had to call it a day after my 8 hours were up - darn! Wish i coulda stayed til dark... The other interesting sighting was 4 first summer swans which flew by. I got a good look at one side-on through my scope and it was a definite Trumpeter, even better views than the one a couple of weeks ago that had Tom "Big Sit" Bartlett cursing that he hadn't got a shot. In comparison to the Tundra Swan which i saw near the start of the count, this was much larger, heavier and had the jizz of a Mute Swan with which i'm very familiar, but had a large all-black bill lacking any orange or yellow. The head was also large and triangular and reminded me of a Whooper. I was kept company today by a flock of 46 American Pipits, another bird whose call i'm trying to commit to memory for that Fall encounter on my side of the pond! 124 Red Necked Grebes were nice to see too, though unfortunately no sign of the reported Le Contes Sparrow this morning which was apparently seen yesterday evening near the path to the shack. I did however connect with the Lark Sparrow which Chris found in our back garden - another first for me.
A big thank you to our newest member of the team, resident volunteer Jason who stood in for me on what turned out to be quite a quiet day yesterday - a particular thanks for not seeing anything too rare! That would really have spoilt my day off! It was nice to get my fix of Buffalo down at the Yukon and a couple of brewskis.

Another good loon day, with a total of 143 including 12 Red Throated. One was actually on the water for a change, but as soon as i found it in my scope it dived! These things can swim a long way under water, and by the time i relocated it, it was calling before it then flew onward - only the second time i've heard one call, the last one being in Scotland many years ago. The supporting cast included a distant Caspian Tern over the harbour, 1 W W Scoter, 8 LT Duck, 11 D C Cormorant and 7 Killdeer. A stunning Nashville warbler was singing behind the feeders at first light, what a gorgeous bird!
Yesterday was foggy for most of the count and it was impossible to count any birds until it cleared. Loons could be heard calling, but i didn't know if it was one loon calling ten times or ten loons calling once! I stayed at the shack nonetheless, though the calls of songbirds in the nearby pines were like the songs of sirens trying to tempt me away.
After a long while the fog started to clear from over the trees and while checking for loons taking the "short cut" across the point behind the shack I noticed a distant Buteo without a red uppertail. Zooming in revealed a different pattern on the underside of the body and in particular two pale crescents near the ends of the upperwing. A quick look in my new Peterson (thanx Jim!) and i was extremely excited to discover it was a Red Shouldered Hawk! My first ever. I grilled the next folks to arrive and they reported that one had been seen earlier from the hawk watch.
One Wilsons Snipe was flushed from the path through the dunes just before the shack at first light. Interestingly, its' call was noticeably different from that of Common Snipe, with which it was lumped until recently. These days, splits are often based on DNA and vocalisations, and this one certainly sounded more "squelchy"! I'll be listening out for one on my local marshes next fall, though getting a description like that past the local rarities committee could be difficult!