Today was an incredible day at the seawatch! Despite the southerly winds, large numbers of cormorants, scoters, gannets, loons, and all other manner of water birds decided that today was the day to move. Cutting right to the chase, 61,666 migrants were counted today when all was said and done.
The day started with a nice loon movement early, along with some Northern Gannets. Soon enough, Double-crested Cormorant numbers started to build, along with decent numbers of both Black and Surf Scoters. Cormorant numbers eventually faded, but the scoter numbers kept fairly steady until the middle of the afternoon, when the floodgates opened. Huge mixed flocks of scoters and other ducks started pouring past the seawatch. Over 43,000 scoters were counted today! Lots of fun!
Highlights today were many: 2015 Green-winged Teal, 34 Ring-necked Ducks (including a pure flock of 27), 15 White-winged Scoters, 1 Bufflehead, 3 Horned Grebes, 2 Parasitic Jaegers, and 3 Bonaparte's Gulls.
I would be remiss to not mention the help that I received throughout the day with the count. Special thanks go out to Nick, Gail, Doug, and Andy. Thanks to all!
I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings since birds were still flying well after sunset tonight.
A list of species detected follows, with counted migrants in bold:
61,666 migrants today.
Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 10/24/10
Number of species: 61
Brant 76
Canada Goose 5
Wood Duck 161
American Wigeon 35
American Black Duck 197
Mallard 6
Northern Shoveler 10
Northern Pintail 129
Green-winged Teal 2015
Ring-necked Duck 34
Greater Scaup 13
Lesser Scaup 25
Surf Scoter 26795
White-winged Scoter 15
Black Scoter 14349
Surf/Black Scoter 2089
Bufflehead 1
Red-breasted Merganser 11
Red-throated Loon 114
Common Loon 56
Horned Grebe 3
Northern Gannet 1454
Brown Pelican 18
Double-crested Cormorant 13815
Great Cormorant 6
Great Blue Heron 26
Turkey Vulture 5
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Black-bellied Plover 20
Semipalmated Plover 15
American Oystercatcher 30
Ruddy Turnstone 5
Sanderling 20
Least Sandpiper 2
Dunlin 30
Bonaparte's Gull 3
Laughing Gull 14
Ring-billed Gull 17
Herring Gull 4
Great Black-backed Gull 3
Forster's Tern 13
Royal Tern 103
Parasitic Jaeger 2
Rock Pigeon 25
Mourning Dove 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 5
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 40
Yellow-rumped Warbler 15
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird 4
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 25
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