October Lake Watch Results

This autumn, as in past years, I have been counting birds migrating over Lake Michigan from shoreline overlooks at Hoffmaster State Park and Lake Harbor Park.

September, unusually warm, had been very slow for waterfowl, but numbers quickly increased when the temperatures cooled at the end of the month.

In October, I accrued 17.5 hours, and recorded the following 43 species (3184 individual birds):

Canada Goose - 24

Wood Duck - 2

Gadwall - 298 (60 on Oct. 12)

American Wigeon - 70

American Black Duck - 4

Mallard - 152

Blue-winged Teal - 64

Northern Shoveler - 7

Northern Pintail - 4

Green-winged Teal - 16

Canvasback - 26

Redhead - 48

Greater Scaup - 6

Lesser Scaup - 703 (243 on Oct. 7)

Surf Scoter - 18 (first on Oct. 2)

White-winged Scoter - 6 (first on Oct. 15)

Black Scoter - 4 (Oct. 14)

Long-tailed Duck - 427 (first on Oct. 9)

Bufflehead - 4

Common Goldeneye - 1

Common Merganser - 12

Red-breasted Merganser - 104 (first on Oct.7)

Red-throated Loon - 6

Common Loon - 45 (29 on Oct. 30)

Horned Grebe - 26

Double-crested Cormorant - 275

Bald Eagle - 1

Northern Harrier - 1

Red-tailed Hawk - 1

Merlin - 1

Sanderling - 2

American Woodcock - 1

Bonaparte's Gull - 626 (218 on Oct. 14)

Ring-billed Gull - 106

Herring Gull - 23

Glaucous Gull - 1 (Oct. 22)

Great Black-backed Gull - 1 (Oct. 23)

Caspian Tern - 1 (Oct. 15)

Common Tern - 2

American Crow - 46

Horned Lark - 3

American Pipit - 8

Snow Bunting - 8 (first on Oct. 23)

The biggest surprise was an American Woodcock flying east low over Lake Michigan to the dunes at 10:21 a.m. on October 23.  Earlier that morning, an adult male Northern Harrier also flew east over the lake while closely pursued for a full minute by an immature Herring Gull.

Many passerines, only a few of which I could identify to species, also flew east against headwinds to the dunes on various days.  Most successfully navigated the gull gauntlet; some did not.

I occasionally see bats doing the same.  A Red Bat on Oct. 8 was the last.

- Brian Johnson