We also noticed the lack of ducks in northern Door Co. Our good friend, Joe Carpenter, lives at the junction of the Mink River and Rowleys Bay and told us a few days ago that he is concerned with the lack of ducks. He did notice over a thousand Redheads in the bay a few weeks ago, but they have moved way out in the lake. Roy & Charlotte Lukes Door County Egg Harbor, WI Read Roy's nature stories in www.ppulse.com > The Regulars> Door To Nature; and Outdoors In Door at http://doorcountyliving.com -----Original Message----- From: wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Daryl Tessen Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 7:47 AM To: wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [wisb] Kewaunee and etc Yesterday, Dec 2, I spent the morning covering the "northern" part of Lake Michigan. Starting in Green Bay where there are 8 Double-cr. Cormorants by the mouth of the Fox River, no pelicans which is in sharp contrast to previous years at this time. A Common Loon circled and landed in the bay while I was there. Algoma has some nice algae beach in the harbor but nothing on it. Only a few gulls (standard) and of course geese. Kewaunee has excellent algae covered beach, both in the harbor at the park and at the park just south of the harbor. Two Dunlins were present in the harbor. (These may be the same two that were there about a week or so ago.) Very few ducks were present in the harbor or on the lake. For that matter there also were only a few gulls present (standard Ring-billed and Herring). Point Beach SF was also very quiet, except for the Long-tailed Ducks. While a few were in closer to shore, the majority were out at the horizon. They took off at one point---flock after flock after flock. There are at least 1000 in the area, probably more. Only a few ducks were on the water or flying by. Three Glaucous and one Great-blacked Gull were in close to shore. (Probably the highlight was running into Charlie Geiger and birding with him.) Two Rivers had 7 Great Black-backed and one Glaucous Gull, plus the two standards. It may be due to the mild weather (until now) but it seems strange that in the past two days there were almost no rafts of ducks on the Lake. Even more curious, at least to me, I saw only 40 Greater Scaup between Harrington Beach and Cleveland on Tues, and only 4 flyby scaup on Wed. Where are the ducks???? Normally one would expect to see substantial rafts of divers, certainly at this early point in winter. The one exception is of course the Long-tailed Ducks. However the 1000 there yesterday, is a far cry from several years ago, when 15 to 30,000 could be seen off Point Beach SF. Is this pattern being noticed further north and south on Lake Michigan? 36 species for the morning of birding. I forgot to mention that two flocks of Snow Buntings passed by (heading north) while scoping the lake at Point Beach. Daryl Tessen Appleton, WI #################### You received this email because you are subscribed to the Wisconsin Birding Network (Wisbirdn). To UNSUBSCRIBE or SUBSCRIBE, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: //www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn. To set DIGEST or VACATION modes, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: //www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn. Visit Wisbirdn ARCHIVES at: //www.freelists.org/archives/wisbirdn. #################### You received this email because you are subscribed to the Wisconsin Birding Network (Wisbirdn). To UNSUBSCRIBE or SUBSCRIBE, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: //www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn. To set DIGEST or VACATION modes, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: //www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn. Visit Wisbirdn ARCHIVES at: //www.freelists.org/archives/wisbirdn.