Today was a really interesting day at the seawatch. The waterbird flight was naturally overshadowed by the passerine flight in the morning, with incredible numbers of birds fighting to get back to land and running the gauntlet of Peregrine Falcons, Merlins, American Kestrels, and gulls. Loads of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Dark-eyed Juncos, other sparrows, Northern Flickers, and American Robins came in off the water. Highlights were a Saltmarsh Sparrow(!) that sat on the jetty for a few seconds before flying off, and an Eastern Meadowlark. Nine Northern Harriers were spotted, including a beautiful adult male. Two bats (species unknown) were seen over the water as well.
Oh, and it actually wasn't a bad day for waterbirds, either. The count total was a very respectable 21,093 migrants. Double-crested Cormorants were moving in nice numbers all day, and a few thousand scoters made a late day push. Highlights were 4 White-winged Scoters, 7 Gadwall, 2 Long-tailed Ducks, and a beautiful late afternoon wading bird flight of 24 Great Blue Herons, 59 Great Egrets, 4 Snowy Egrets, and 16 Black-crowned Night Herons.
A list of species detected follows, with counted migrants in bold:
21,093 migrants today.
Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 10/29/10
Number of species: 72
Brant 236
Canada Goose 53
Wood Duck 116
Gadwall 7
American Black Duck 11
Mallard 1
Northern Pintail 32
Green-winged Teal 30
Greater Scaup 1
Surf Scoter 6389
White-winged Scoter 4
Black Scoter 1662
Surf/Black Scoter 2120
Long-tailed Duck 2
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Red-throated Loon 115
Common Loon 76
Northern Gannet 309
Double-crested Cormorant 9503
Great Cormorant 1 local
Great Blue Heron 24
Great Egret 59
Snowy Egret 4
Black-crowned Night-Heron 16
Turkey Vulture 15
Osprey 2
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 9
American Kestrel 1
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 3
Black-bellied Plover 18
Semipalmated Plover 5
Killdeer 1
American Oystercatcher 30
Ruddy Turnstone 3
Red Knot 6
Sanderling 15
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Dunlin 5
Bonaparte's Gull 2
Laughing Gull 136
Ring-billed Gull 40
Herring Gull 16
Great Black-backed Gull X
Forster's Tern 18
Royal Tern 56
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove 1
Northern Flicker 8
Tree Swallow 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Hermit Thrush 7
American Robin 20
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling X
American Pipit 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 300
Palm Warbler 2
Chipping Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 2
Saltmarsh Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 3
Swamp Sparrow 6
White-throated Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 20
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 30
Eastern Meadowlark 1
American Goldfinch 15
House Sparrow 30
No comments:
Post a Comment