Upward trend continues

.Light NW winds and blue skies make for pleasant hawk watching, albeit with birds mostly distant on the southeastern end of the Point. Monday was again an improvement over the previous day, both in quality and quantity. Especially mid-afternoon was nice, with 6 Peregrine Falcons in about an hour's time. Other raptors counted include 10 Bald Eagles, 4 Northern Harriers, 27 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Red-shouldered Hawk, 118 Broad-winged Hawks, 22 Red-tailed Hawks, 6 Rough-legged Hawks, 3 Golden Eagles, and 1 American Kestrel.

A little flock of four Magnolia Warblers were seen as flyovers over the platform. Also seen as flyover a breeding plumage adult male Lapland Longspur. Heard singing today was a Black-throated Green Warbler. Two Caspian Terns flew by in the afternoon.

The next two days look very promising, weatherwise. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and predict 1) that the hawk watching - and the overall birding for that matter - will be outstanding on Whitefish Point those two days, and 2) that Tuesday will probably have the greater numbers, but Wednesday possibly the bigger surprises...

For Tuesday, conditions will be downright good. Expect birds to be directly overhead and probably not too high right over the platform (as opposed to 'over the harbor', where most of the flight has been of late). It looks like we're in for a lot of rain Wednesday, but also very strong SSE winds, and who knows some southern rarities... Everything will depend on how much rainfall we will get, and in which part of the day. I guess Tuesday is more or less guaranteed to be good, while Wednesday is more of a coin flip: it may turn out a dud, or it may just be fantastic...