Sea Watch Tuesday October 20, 2009

photos copyright Doug Gochfeld This Bald Eagle grabbed a bit more than it could handle and had to drop this fish shortly afterwards...probably in favor of finding an Osprey to pillage

Yet another Brown Pelican in what has been a record setting season for them at the Avalon Seawatch

Another interesting day at Avalon (when is a day up there ever uninteresting?), from another good moving day for Gannets to a nice early off-the-water flight of passerines (mostly Yellow-rumped Warblers, but also a few American Pipits, Kinglets, and Palm Warblers). We also had some rare-for-the-seawatch waterbirds, including 3 Little Blue Herons, 8 Tricolored Herons, and a Blue-winged Teal. Later in the day a female Common Eider cooperatively sat on the water just off the seawall impressing the few visitors that were present.

eBird list follows with migrant waterbirds in bold:

Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 10/20/09
Number of species: 67

Brant 16
Canada Goose 9
Wood Duck 30
American Wigeon 8
American Black Duck 6
Northern Pintail 11
Green-winged Teal 42
Common Eider 4
Surf Scoter 1200
White-winged Scoter 1
Black Scoter 815
dark-winged scoter sp. 47
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Red-throated Loon 13
Common Loon 47
Northern Gannet 796
Brown Pelican 12
Double-crested Cormorant 2319
Great Cormorant 4
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 68
Snowy Egret 9
Little Blue Heron 3
Tricolored Heron 8
Turkey Vulture 10
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 4
Northern Harrier 1
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Black-bellied Plover 8
Semipalmated Plover 5
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Ruddy Turnstone 1
Sanderling 65
Least Sandpiper 1
White-rumped Sandpiper 1
Dunlin 12
Laughing Gull 31
Ring-billed Gull 12
Herring Gull 20
Great Black-backed Gull 34
Caspian Tern 2
Common Tern 1
Forster's Tern 83
Royal Tern 36
Rock Pigeon 2
Mourning Dove 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Tree Swallow 750
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 8
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling X
American Pipit 4
Cedar Waxwing 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 95
Palm Warbler 5
Savannah Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 1
Northern Cardinal 4
Indigo Bunting 1
Boat-tailed Grackle 6
House Sparrow X