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A late walk to the point yesterday resulted in have some nice looks at a Merlin. For two days now we have been visited by a large number of Black-capped Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches. This chickadee kept an eye on me while others came and went. One of the Red-breasted Nuthatches at the suet feeder.Continue reading “A great day at Whitefish Point”

The day started with a couple of species of moths on the deck. The Large gray pinion (Lithophane georgii) on the left is rather unusual here as is the darker Acadian swordgrass moth (Xylena phoracica) on the right. This spring is quite different from last year when we were having many more moths at theContinue reading “An early May morning at Whitefish Point”

I love scouring the sand dunes and old logs for lichens. A particular group that are both interesting and fun are those in the genus Cladonia. Many of them are what people know as “British soldiers caps.” These are small rarely more than 20-25mm tall and capped with red. Sometimes the British soldiers caps areContinue reading “Whitefish Point lichens”

Today is quite different from the past few, as the wind speed has increased and it has been raining off and on all day. While waterbird migration is increasing, hawk migration has essentially been shut down. This is one of the late afternoon Golden Eagles that passed directly over our cabin. A couple of yardContinue reading “A windy, rainy day at Whitefish Point”

The past two days have been absolutely wonderful as the sky always had hawks to watch. This morning the first hawks were shortly after 6AM and as of 6PM there are still a few passing. Sharp-shinned Hawks have dominated the numbers with over 1600 passing by in the last two days. The earliest Broad-winged HawksContinue reading “Days filled with hawks”

On a day where I failed to take one picture for a good reason – we spent the whole day watching birds. So, all of the photos for this post I took in previous years. One of the first new birds of spring here was a Pine Warbler. Early in the day Red-tailed Hawks dominatedContinue reading “Busy day at Whitefish Point”

A couple of Sandhill Cranes on out way to the point. A flicker above the feeders. Fox Sparrow at the feeders. American Tree Sparrows at the feeders. White-throated Sparrow at the feeders. Slate-colored Junco at the feeders. Song Sparrow at the feeders. A big and active day at the feeders. More tomorrow…

Starting tomorrow the weather will be improving for a good raptor flight. If you can get to the Point this weekend I would suggest that you do. Today started out with a fresh dusting of snow. By mid-day it had either blown away or melted. We are fortunate in that we see Merlins every day.Continue reading “A cold, but sunny and ultimately busy day at Whitefish Point”

Not every bird gets to migrate here. These feathers are from a junco that was probably taken by a Sharp-shinned Hawk. A male Purple Finch at our feeders, which are pretty safe from predators.since there are a lot of trees nearby to hide in. We are not worried about avian influenza since no waterfowl visitsContinue reading “A cool overcast day at Whitefish Point”

On overcast days with little migration happening it’s nice to go out and look at lichens. The photo on the left has at least five different lichens in it. The right-hand photo it dominated by a single species. All of these are waiting for identification since by major reference book is in Ann Arbor. AContinue reading “A cool misty day at Whitefish Point”