Avalon Seawatch - October 21, 2011

Friday featured action at the beginning and end of the day, headlined by oodles of cormorants early, along with an excellent evening flight of egrets and herons. The photo below probably sums up the day best.

[This mixed flock of Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Herons and Little Blue Herons made for a colorful yet small portion of the nearly 600 herons and egrets that passed by
the Seawatch today. Photo by Sam Galick; click to enlarge.]

Totals:
Brant - 85
Wood Duck - 1
American Black Duck - 14
Northern Shoveler - 9
Northern Pintail - 2
Green-winged Teal - 8
Greater Scaup - 5
scaup, sp. - 2
Surf Scoter - 102
Black Scoter - 187
dark-winged scoter - 24
Common Loon - 64
Horned Grebe - 1
Northern Gannet - 284 (174 over the first two hours)
Brown Pelican - 1
Double-crested Cormorant - 3,739
Great Blue Heron - 44
Great Egret - 378 (New seawatch single-day record. A substantial flight of egrets started shortly before 2pm and continued through sundown.)
Snowy Egret - 147
Little Blue Heron - 13
Tricolored Heron - 10
Laughing Gull - 234
Ring-billed Gull - 12
Herring Gull - 9
Great Black-backed Gull - 117
Forster's Tern - 11
Royal Tern - 63
Parasitic Jaeger - 5

(Total = 5,571)