On the bright side of things...

Well on the bright side today I stayed dry, and that about covers the bright side. From the start it looked pretty bleak and the birds just never got going today with strong southeasterly winds prevailing all morning long. A few brave souls attempted southern movements but the final tally was just over 100 Red-necked Grebes and less than 100 other birds with Common Tern (40), Common Loon (8), and Horned Grebe (8) topping the other list. The day's best bird was a Black Tern which passed by around noon, while only 11 ducks were counted for the day, with 6 Mallards being tops among them.

The point's shorebird flock seemed to have made good use of the night as only a few birds remained today with the only potential new arrivals being 4 Buff-breasted Sandpipers which could be a re-appearance of the same group as a few days ago.

Non-waterbird sightings were nearly as rare today though accipiters put on a good showing with a single Cooper's and 2 Sharp-shinned making passes of the point, several Northern Harriers came in off the lake mid-morning, a Cape May Warbler posed in the closest tree to the shack early on, and a very lost Ruby-throated Hummingbird made a pass by me on the point before quickly returning to the trees he left.

The forecast is for storms and western/northern winds so hopefully things will get going again soon.

Both the weather man and I were right, sign of the apocalypse?

I drove to the point and then walked to the shack in a cold, dark rain, I ended the day with a sunburn, go figure. The day started off ugly with the back end of the system that pushed west across the UP bringing rain, light fog, and no birds, but after about 30 minutes it began to clear and everything changed. As the morning went on the clouds dispersed, the wind lessened and shifted to the north/northwest, and the birds began to flow under ever-sunnier skies which means both the weather man's prediction and my prediction, based on his prediction, were correct, eerie. Tomorrow's forecast is for rain and southerly winds so lets hope the meteorologists aren't accurate for two straight days.

After a rough first hour of the count which accounted for under 25 birds and no Red-necked Grebes the dam began to burst with nearly 500 Red-necked Grebes in the second hour and then over 850! in the third hour, numbers declined throughout the rest of the day but the total count ended at 2155, a slight increase over Tuesday. Common Loon numbers were again steady with 16 moving past while duck diversity was significantly better than previous days including the season's first Gadwalls, Northern Shoveler, and Greater Scaup.

Shorebird diversity was slightly higher with 9 species as Black-bellied Plover and Lesser Yellowlegs were replaced by a Spotted Sandpiper, a Ruddy Turnstone, and 2 Buff-breasted Sandpipers while Baird's continued to be the most common at 26 individuals. Tern numbers were higher than previous days as 25 Common Terns passed by the point with a couple unidentified Sterna Sp. passing by mid-morning.

Other birds noted today included a pair of Broad-winged Hawks in the early afternoon and a clear turnover in migrant passerines on my walk back from the shack which included a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, 3 Red-eyed Vireos, and numerous warblers (Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Palm, Black-and-white, Wilson's, and Canada).

South winds are not my friend

Second day on the job and I'm already complaining about something, bad sign for November. The winds today came out of the south/southwest all morning long at speeds up to 20-25 MPH making the movement of birds to the south all the more challenging, although they seemed to be better at moving against the wind than the few Monarchs that were attempting to move south today. The weather man says a shift to western and then northern winds tonight though so maybe that will re-open the floodgates.

As expected Red-necked Grebes still led the count with close to 300 birds (or 1700 less than yesterday) passing by while White-winged Scoter and Blue-winged Teal held the #2 and #3 positions respectively. Seasonal firsts included 2 Surf Scoters mixed in with the White-wingeds and 3 Horned Grebes mixed in with the Red-neckeds while the Common Loon numbers held steady at 15 for the day and a Black Tern floated past around 11 a.m.

Counting shorebirds was made all the more difficult as the incessant hunting by Northern Harriers, then Northern Goshawks, and then Merlins left the birds a wee bit wary as the day wore on. Still the flock contained a Black-bellied Plover, a Lesser Yellowlegs, up to 8 Sanderlings, and up to 29 Baird's Sandpipers at different points throughout the day.

Other birds noted throughout the day included an ever increasing flock of swallows over the point itself comprised mainly of Cliff but also containing Tree, Bank, and Barn, that grew into the low hundreds by the afternoon, a number of raptors (most of which were chasing the shorebirds), and a few chips from the forest along the walk out that materialized into Tennessee, Nashville, Yellow-rumped, Palm, and Canada Warblers.

Its just some more Red-necked Grebes

So I finally made it to the point yesterday after a few days of disagreements between myself and the rear differential on my pickup, I thought he should work, he disagreed, so we decided to part ways in Flagstaff, AZ. Anyway I made it here just in time to find a Parasitic Jaeger on the point last evening and get myself ready for the count this morning.

The morning's count started off with wind and a serious threat from rain but it seemed Mother Nature favored the USA this Tuesday as the inclement weather all stayed north along the Canadian shoreline. Which meant nicer weather but way too much heat shimmer for my liking. Despite the wind and "heat" the morning turned out nicely as a strong mid-to-late morning push of Red-necked Grebes contributed to a nice count of 2,017 by the time I left with a trickle still moving past. Also on the point this morning were 4 Buff-breasted Sandpipers among the smattering of Semipalmated Plovers and Sandpipers, Baird's Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers, and Sanderlings.

Other waterbird numbers were relatively low with 19 White-winged Scoters and 18 Common Loons topping the non-Red-necked Grebe list while 5 Bonaparte's Gulls and a single Common Tern broke up the Ring-billed/Herring Gull monotony.

Non-waterbirds around the point this morning included dueling juvenile Northern Goshawks, a Merlin trying to dine on the shorebirds, a Bald Eagle successfully dining on a fish, and a few birds in the trees that would prefer to remain nameless.

Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

The official count wasn't that great today, with rain during the first five hours. Despite this, a good number of migrants were coming in off the lake. This included a bat that had me fooled for awhile. The highlight were 7 Black Terns, 5 of which were in non-breeding plumage, that kept passing around the point in the rain. 5 species of raptors and several swallow species were seen as well. Official results:

Mallard-3

Common Loon-9

Red-necked Grebe-23

Great Blue Heron-1

Semipalmated Sandpiper-9

Bonaparte's Gull-7

Black Tern-7

This evening was a lot better, with the highlight being the Parasitic Jaeger that Scott found. It stayed close to the tip around 5 minutes, chasing the gulls, before finally heading towards the harbor. Quite exciting!

White-winged Scoter-4

Common Loon-1

Red-necked Grebe-162

Grebe Sp.-4

Semipalmated Plover-1

Awesome Start!

5 minutes into the count a Whimbrel started calling and was briefly seen, beginning a great day. The rest of the hour was decent, but at the start of the second hour things just kept coming and coming, including a ridiculous amount of White-winged Scoters this early in the season. Tons of waterfowl were specks in the scope, and if you include all the dabbler, grebe, and waterfowl sp., with the numbers below, then over 1,000 waterfowl were seen today. There was hardly a breeze until the last couple hours of the count.

Mallard-13
Blue-winged Teal-23
White-winged Scoter-232
Common Goldeneye-1
Common Merganser-3
Red-breasted Merganser-1
Common Loon-18
Red-necked Grebe-418
Black-bellied Plover-1
Semipalmated Plover-1
Whimbrel-1
Least Sandpiper-1
Bonaparte's Gull-6
Caspian Tern-1
Common Tern-4

Went back for a couple of hours this evening, but didn't have anything spectacular.

White-winged Scoter-1
Common Loon-1
Red-necked Grebe-24
Sanderling-5

Toodle Pip

Well it's time to bid you a very fond farewell. I've had a thoroughly smashing time and am hoping to return at some point next year so will hopefully see some of you then.
Thanks to everyone who's helped make my stay so enjoyable, whether keeping me company at the shack, having me round for dinner and drinks, taking me birding, or just generally being an
all-round good egg.

The 2010 Spring waterbird count at Whitefish Point totalled 19,395 individual birds. The five most abundant species were: Common Loon (3542), Long Tailed Duck (2996), Canada Goose (2645), Red Breasted Merganser (2688), Sandhill Crane (1316), and White-winged Scoter (1215). You can get the full write up in the WPBO newsletter The Migrant - please continue to support the observatory in whatever way you can.

Tata for now,
Mike.

Both photos by K. Mettie Jr. - click on them to enlarge

It's a bit like buses...

... you wait for ages then two turn up at the same time.
On Tuesday i was back at the shack having a busmans holiday, when i was approached by a couple who asked for directions to a site for Red Crossbills. Jerry told them of a good spot, and they went off to check it out. A bit later they stopped by the accomodation building and told Chris they'd just found a Kirtlands Warbler! A mad dash ensued (always lots of fun) and within 15 minutes we were watching the bird. It gave a great performance, singing away and approached to within about 10 feet at one point - a real stunner. The photo above is "digibinned"!

Great views were also obtained of the crossbills, then we had a team visit to Seney NWR where Chris was able to lure a calling Yellow Rail a little closer by tapping 2 pebbles together. We then finished the evening with a lovely dinner at the Ole Forest Inn, where the waitress reminded us of the actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. Some cocktails were imbibed before it was time to head back to the HQ - all in all a great day. Waterbird count totals to follow soon.

Sunday May 31st - Finishing with a bang

Well the last day of the count was a good one, fog at the start hampered the count but may have grounded a few migrants. 2 Franklins Gulls were swimming on the lake while feeding on floating insects, then a Saw Whet was seen flying in off the lake and landing on a log on the beach. Shortly after, a Pacific Loon went through. So not a bad way to end the season! Loons and Canada Geese were still going through in good numbers in fact. I'll be posting the season totals fairly soon, so stay tuned for a bit longer - i've got a feeling most species were below average, but we'll see.
Thanks to everyone who came to see me at the shack, it was always nice to have visitors. Thanks to Jason for standing in for me a couple of days and allowing me to have some time off, and a big thanks to Phil for helping out with the count for the last two weeks, it was nice to be able to dash off if a good bird was found nearby!

5/30/10 - Bird-a-thon

Here's a view from the beach in the evening (it's zoomed in quite a bit).

Sunday was Bird-a-Thon day so we were up well before first light and down to Vermilion where Bittern, Sedge Wren and Olive Sided Flycatcher were all nailed on call. Crossbills showed well after sun up, with a Field Sparrow heard by Chris being a rare bird for the area. Next we tried a trail for Spruce Grouse, no joy but a Ruffed was photographed by Libby. Then out to the waterbird shack where Phil had been counting. A Yellow Rail had just been found by Tim Bearwald - 10 minutes later and i would have been on the spot as it ran by! No further sign despite extensive searching. A nice scattering of shorebirds along the beach included a Willet. Nice to see the Piping Plovers have started to lay a clutch of eggs. Finally tally around the 120 mark i believe - not bad on what was a fairly quiet day birdwise.