Today was a very exciting day at the seawatch. Lots of Double-crested Cormorants (10,441), and the first real push of scoters for the fall. There was a fairly constant movement of birds today until about 3:30 pm, when a shift in winds caused all sorts of migrants to suddenly move. All of a sudden we were inundated with cormorants, Black and Surf Scoters, and insects (Monarchs, Common Buckeyes, dragonflies, etc). It was a lot of fun, with the biggest flocks of scoters by far this season migrating past in beautiful late afternoon light. Things are starting to heat up at the seawatch!
Other highlights included 4 Parasitic Jaegers, 2 White-winged Scoters, 3 Great Cormorants, a Ruddy Duck, and another (3 for the year so far at the seawatch!) Yellow-billed Cuckoo coming in off the water in the morning.
A list of species detected follows, with counted migrants in bold:
14,164 migrants today.
Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 10/9/10
Number of species: 56
Snow Goose 24
Brant 148
Canada Goose 184
American Wigeon 8
American Black Duck 128
Mallard 1
Northern Pintail 226
Green-winged Teal 259
Surf Scoter 287
White-winged Scoter 2
Black Scoter 1502
Surf/Black Scoter 200
Ruddy Duck 1
Common Loon 35
Northern Gannet 409
Brown Pelican 5
Double-crested Cormorant 10441
Great Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 8
Turkey Vulture 10
Osprey 10
Northern Harrier 3
Cooper's Hawk 1
Merlin 2
Peregrine Falcon 8
Semipalmated Plover 15
American Oystercatcher 20
Ruddy Turnstone 4
Sanderling 40
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Dunlin 20
Laughing Gull 242
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull 29
Caspian Tern 5
Common Tern 1
Forster's Tern 6
Royal Tern 9
Black Skimmer 1
Parasitic Jaeger 4
Rock Pigeon 2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Tree Swallow 40
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling X
Yellow-rumped Warbler 7
Palm Warbler 2
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
House Sparrow X
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