Red-breasted Merganser by Kate Redmond

Calvin’s totals for the recently-completed fall season once again describe the massive movement of birds past our study site location. Totals for each species are:

• Red-breasted Merganser - 119,489 
• Ring-billed Gull - 17,069
• Double-crested Cormorant - 12,107
• Canada Goose - 7,104
• Greater Scaup - 4,664
• Herring Gull - 4,441
• Common Merganser - 2,214
• Lesser Scaup - 1,908
• Mallard - 1,888
• Long-tailed Duck - 1,517

Total for all migrants - 186,972 (This is a final, overall tally.)

Highlights for this fall:

Multiple Pomarine Jaegers, Parasitic Jaegers, a Swainson’s Hawk, several Black-legged Kittiwakes and Franklin's Gulls. It was once thought that jaegers were not reliably present along the western Lake Michigan shore; our watch data shows that to have been an incorrect assumption.