Abandon hope all ye who come here. That or something similar would be what I would have told any visiting birders at the Avalon Seawatch today. Luckily there were none to be found attempting to ogle this most unremarkable "flight."
Okay, okay, so a day at any other place in southern New Jersey in mid-November that included 22 Tundra Swans, 7 Purple Sandpipers, most of the expected species of seaduck, a Peregrine Falcon carrying large prey (Green-winged Teal maybe?) and dropping it out of respect for (fear of?) a Great Black-backed Gull, and hundreds of plunge-diving Northern Gannets would be a pretty darn good day. However a mid-November seabird count of 1,104 migrants from Avalon on a clear day isn't something one aspires to see.
Total individuals counted: 1,104
Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 11/17/10
Number of species: 40
Snow Goose 1
Brant 13
Tundra Swan 22
American Black Duck 1
Greater Scaup 5
Lesser Scaup 3
Surf Scoter 57
White-winged Scoter 11
Black Scoter 56
Surf/Black Scoter 12
Long-tailed Duck 4
Bufflehead 2
Red-breasted Merganser 8
duck sp. 12
Red-throated Loon 73
Common Loon 4
Northern Gannet 222
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 4
Bald Eagle 1
Cooper's Hawk 2
Peregrine Falcon 1
Semipalmated Plover 4
Ruddy Turnstone 3
Sanderling 10
Purple Sandpiper 7
Bonaparte's Gull 2
Laughing Gull 19
Ring-billed Gull 33
Herring Gull 461
Great Black-backed Gull 73
Royal Tern 8
Black Skimmer 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Tree Swallow 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
European Starling X
Savannah Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
Boat-tailed Grackle X
House Sparrow 25
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