2024 Waterbird Count Week Four

Time flies when you’re counting waterbirds! We are a month into the waterbird count and if you blinked you may have missed it. This week had less than favorable weather conditions but as we are getting through September, small numbers of migrants are starting to come through the Mackinac Straits.
Week 4 has brought us some very fun first arrivals for the count. White-winged scoter (3), American black duck (1), American golden plover (1), and Baird’s sandpiper (4) were all recorded for the first time this fall. We also noticed high counts of redheads (20), red-breasted mergansers (494), common mergansers (50), and common goldeneyes (22).
This week saw substantially fewer common loons (38) than previous weeks. This is partially due to the poor weather days that occurred this week. We also noted less horned grebes (5), red-necked grebes (12), and Canada geese (529) than in previous weeks. This was also the first week of the count where no common terns were detected, as these birds have already migrated away. Heavy fog on September 13th and 14th could also be a factor into these lower numbers.
Ring-billed gulls (501) have been pouring through the straits this past week. And with them have been some Bonaparte’s gulls (2). But the highlight of the week had to have been the return of the red-throated loon (2). These birds popped by early on in the count during a storm and haven’t been seen until this past week.