October at Whitefish Point: day-1

A beautiful start to our October visit to the cabin. Lots of migrants this morning. The dominant birds were Pine Siskins, Purple Finches, Juncos, White-throated Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows and crows. There were a few odds and ends as well such as Fox Sparrow and White-crowned Sparrow.

I managed to sit in the rocker on the upper deck, just below the Raptor Roost tallying birds at my own personal migration watch.

Around 9:30am we decided to head off to Vermilion Point in search of the Vermilion Flycatcher.

We weren’t half way to the harbor before seeing this female Ruffed Grouse. That was a nice way to start to little adventure.

The colors are changing, slowly but surely. While many of the maples have already turned red, droping many leaves, some were still mixed green and red.

Giant sundew, also called English sundew (Drosera anglica) is surprisingly common here.

The big bog and fen at Vermilion – a favorite spot to look for interesting plants and birds in the spring and summer.

More tomorrow…