After a slow Friday warm-up, Monday arrived in full force, and then some. Our team tallied a staggering 22,952 birds during the morning count, with 50 species on the page. Conditions were near ideal, with gusty southwest winds, and temperatures that started in the upper 40s, but hit 71 by noon. The blackbird flocks unleashed today.
Some of today’s biggest movers included:
- 7,900 Sandhill Cranes, streaming along the lakefront. A great start for the season.
- 7,248 Red-winged Blackbirds, classic early-spring traffic.
- 5,008 Common Grackles, March is a time that they can match 1:1 with the Red-wings.
- 1,701 American Robins, heading to a neighborhood lawn near you!
- 137 Greater White-fronted Geese and 6 Snow Geese, nice geese variety.
A Northern Shrike was called out as the day’s standout. Seeing a shrike during a longshore count is always a moment. Michael Topp’s shots of Sandhill Cranes and a Snow Goose give a good sense of how impressive the migration looked from the tower. Bluebirds and smaller passerine movement filled in the mix, alongside the large, noisy flocks of starlings and blackbirds.
Early March at the dunes can be dominated by blackbirds and cranes, and this morning was a textbook example. The huge crane movement is a reminder that the Lake Michigan corridor is one of the Midwest’s migration superhighways. We have approximately 100,000 cranes in the eastern flyway, and the Dunes tower really hits home the importance to a large percentage of the population. Over the next few weeks we expect diversity to climb, with more cranes, more waterfowl, raptors, shorebirds, and eventually big waves of warblers.
Check out yesterday’s full checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S307807875 and you can check out the March eBird Trip Report at https://ebird.org/tripreport/485020
Tags: longshore flight survey
