Sea Watch Thursday October 28, 2010

The middle of the day today was rather dull, and would have been nearly devoid of birds if not for the constant all-day movement of Gannets, and a few Scoter and Cormorant pulses. Outside that time period there was a good movement of Gulls, especially Laughing and Herring, as well as a few interesting ducks thrown in here and there including three different groups of Gadwall, and two groups of Blue-winged Teal. Another juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull came by at extremely close range, grabbed a large fish out of the water and was then harassed by a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull for a minute or more. Another immature LBBG was tallied a bit later.

Passerine wise, an American Pipit came over, and a very strange encounter with a completely unfamiliar passerine (presumably) well out over the water left Me and Cameron Cox completely dumbfounded, especially after it dropped onto the water, possibly plunging intentionally to its death.

The radar is going off at the moment, and tons of birds are flying over Cape May right now. If you're in the mid-Atlantic region you definitely want out be out birding tomorrow, as well as listening/watching tonight!

Total individuals counted: 10,491
Complete eBird list with counted species in bold:

Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 10/28/10
Number of species: 53

Brant (Atlantic) 39
Wood Duck 5
Gadwall 15
American Wigeon 5
Blue-winged Teal 8
Northern Pintail 19
Green-winged Teal 3
Greater Scaup 1
Lesser Scaup 2
Surf Scoter 3065
Black Scoter 335
Surf/Black Scoter 38
Red-breasted Merganser 3
Red-throated Loon 11
Common Loon 37
Northern Gannet 2095
Brown Pelican 2
Double-crested Cormorant 2695
Great Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 34

Turkey Vulture 4
Osprey 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Peregrine Falcon 3
American Golden-Plover 1
Semipalmated Plover 5
Ruddy Turnstone 2
Sanderling 400
Semipalmated Sandpiper 4
Least Sandpiper 3
Dunlin 650
Bonaparte's Gull 1
Laughing Gull 649
Ring-billed Gull 148
Herring Gull 961
Lesser Black-backed Gull 2
Great Black-backed Gull 84
gull sp. 1
Caspian Tern 12
Common Tern 3
Forster's Tern 67
Royal Tern 146

Rock Pigeon X
Tree Swallow 15
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling X
American Pipit 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 8
Savannah Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Boat-tailed Grackle 1
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 35
passerine sp. 1

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