Red Throated Loon
Friday, I started surveying Spruce Grouse. The study was mainly on habitat thickness used by Spruce Grouse. We saw one female, which we got really close to. Friday, I went to Whitefish point. I got 5 big year birds and 3 were lifers! The first was a blue headed vireo, in a bog, on the point. My family came back to look for the blue headed vireo and found a roosting barred owl. Although it wasn't a big year bird, it was neat to see. My next lifer was a Red Throated Loon that I spotted from the waterbird shack. We saw nothing else until dusk on the hawk platform. The first thing we saw was an American Bittern. Then, we saw another American Bittern being followed by a either a Long or a Short Eared Owl! Soon after, we saw another owl, that I identified as a Short Eared Owl. There was also a Long Eared Owl identified by the banders. We also heard Eastern Whip-poor-wills. Everyone else left but me and Jason B. Jason is researching owl migration at the platform. The banders and everyone else radioed in a Great Horned Owl behind us. We looked around, and finally spotted it sitting in the top of the tree. While Jason was taking the weather he yelled out,"HUGE OWL!" We jumped on the dunes looking for it for 10 Minutes but weren't able to find it. We left and were told they caught a Northern Saw Whet Owl. While we were in the owl banding lab, Jason came and told us there was a Great Grey Owl by the boardwalk. He went to take a phone call and flushed it. It was a lifer for me and a good amount of the people there. We watched him for about 40 minutes. That was my 6th species of owl for the day! Sunday, I surveyed Spruce Grouse again. We saw a total of 4 and one was displaying! They jumped up and down on the tree branches and made a thumping noise.