Avalon Seawatch - October 4, 2011

[Caspian Tern hunting in front of the Avalon Seawatch on Tuesday. Photo by Tom Reed.]

Tuesday was a gorgeous day at Avalon, with morning clouds giving way to afternoon sunshine, accompanied by an increasing northwest breeze. A slow flight in the morning gradually picked up speed in the afternoon, with small flocks of scoters, cormorants and even egrets passing through by day's end. Seven species of waders were tallied for the day, though the "best" bird was undoubtedly the Sandwich Tern that flew south just beyond the 8th Street jetty early in the morning.

[This Northern Harrier was one of several to fly in from the ocean on Tuesday afternoon. Interestingly, most had full crops! Photo by Tom Reed.]

Passerines were few, but were highlighted by a few dozen Northern Flickers coming in off the ocean throughout the day along with at least one Cape May Warbler. Tuesday also brought our first full-fledged Monarch flight of the season, with 1,077 tallied between 9:30am and 5:30pm. All in all, a solid day at the seawatch.

The day's tally follows-

Canada Goose - 11
Brant - 27
American Black Duck - 6
Northern Pintail - 86
Green-winged Teal - 9
scaup sp. - 1
Surf Scoter - 12
Black Scoter - 77
dark-winged scoter - 7
Common Loon - 6
Northern Gannet - 15
Double-crested Cormorant - 1,502
Great Blue Heron - 56
Great Egret - 62
Snowy Egret - 135
Little Blue Heron - 6
Tricolored Heron - 2
Green Heron - 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron - 8
Laughing Gull - 478
Ring-billed Gull - 1
Herring Gull - 11
Great Black-backed Gull - 18
Forster's Tern - 54
Royal Tern - 46
Sandwich Tern - 1
Parasitic Jaeger - 1

(Total = 2,639)