Avalon Seawatch, November 21, 2010

Wow. What an incredible day today at the seawatch! Where to begin...

Well, 13,000 scoters, 9,700 Northern Gannets, a smattering of other ducks, and a couple thousand gulls would be a great day most every day at the seawatch. Add to that a record-breaking Red-throated Loon movement, and we had the recipe for a day that I will remember for a long time.

Red-throated Loons were moving at first light and continued straight through until after sunset. Early on in the day, the loons were flying quite high with groups of up to 60 or 70 birds. As the day wore on, they were flying a bit lower, but their numbers did not lessen. Of the ten full hours counted, 7 of these hours produced at least 1,000 loons! As far as I can tell, the day's total for Red-throated Loons (11,214) is the highest ever recorded in a single day at the seawatch!

Not surprisingly, lots of other birds besides all of the loons were migrating. In fact, a field of view devoid of birds today was hard to come by. A single Red-necked Grebe flying south was a highlight, as were three Northern Shovelers (uncommon at the seawatch), 19 Common Eiders, and 239 White-winged Scoters. A group of around 7 Purple Sandpipers flew by a few times today.

A special day.

An eBird list of species detected follows, with counted migrants in bold:

36,901 migrants today.

Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 11/21/10
Number of species: 42

Snow Goose 2
Brant 6
Wood Duck 4
American Black Duck 66
Mallard 13
Northern Shoveler 3
Northern Pintail 2
Green-winged Teal 22
Greater Scaup 6
Lesser Scaup 13
Common Eider 19
Surf Scoter 3563
White-winged Scoter 239
Black Scoter 8050
Surf/Black Scoter 150
Long-tailed Duck 11
Bufflehead 5
Hooded Merganser 16
Red-breasted Merganser 27
Red-throated Loon 11214
Common Loon 11
Red-necked Grebe 1
Northern Gannet 9717
Double-crested Cormorant 604
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 10
Sanderling 10
Purple Sandpiper 7
Dunlin 30
Bonaparte's Gull 5
Laughing Gull 185
Ring-billed Gull 1270
Herring Gull 667
Great Black-backed Gull 18
Royal Tern 9
Mourning Dove 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling X
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 1
House Sparrow 20