Sea Watch Wednesday November 10, 2010

After a slow start to the day, Seawatch got cranking for the afternoon. There weren't huge numbers of birds visible, but the diversity was very good, and a couple of species put on their best showings of the year as of yet. I made sure to say "visible," however, because much of the flight was very distant, and some birds were just barely in view as shimmer on the horizon, leading me to believe that the NW wind pushed some of the flight far enough off shore to be out of view. Despite this, notable numbers of several species were tallied from the 7th Street Parking Lot, including White-winged Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser, and American Black Duck.

The flock sitting in front of the jetty contained 19 Common Eiders throughout the day, in addition to the scores of Surf and Black Scoters. Also hanging out in the neighborhood were at least 3 Purple Sandpipers easily viewable from the watch at times. A mixed flock of Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches came by in the later afternoon, and may have come off the water. A bit earlier (but also in the afternoon) a flock of 26 Passerines came off the water that eluded identification, but seemed to be of the small-medium sized finch variety. Last but not least, an adult or subadult Parasitic Jaeger flew by during hour number eight; it's getting to be on the late side (although another few can still be expected this season) for this species, and any Jaegers seen from this point forward warrant extra scrutiny to make sure they aren't (or are, hopefully) Pomarine.

Total Individuals counted: 9,647

Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 11/10/10
Number of species: 52

Brant (Atlantic) 48
Wood Duck 1
American Wigeon 1
American Black Duck 211
Mallard 5
Northern Shoveler 4
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 44
Greater Scaup 10
Lesser Scaup 12
Aythya sp. 10
Common Eider 19
Surf Scoter 2496
White-winged Scoter 141
Black Scoter 1911
Surf/Black Scoter 211
scoter sp. 245
Bufflehead 6
Hooded Merganser 2
Red-breasted Merganser 114
Red-throated Loon 273
Common Loon 13
loon sp. 1 (Red-throated/Pacific.)
Horned Grebe 2
Northern Gannet 990
Double-crested Cormorant 1499
Great Blue Heron 12

Turkey Vulture 2
Cooper's Hawk 3
Black-bellied Plover 2
American Oystercatcher 15
Willet (Western) 2
Ruddy Turnstone 1
Sanderling 100
Purple Sandpiper 3
Dunlin 50
Laughing Gull 32
Ring-billed Gull 224
Herring Gull 1077
Great Black-backed Gull 26
Forster's Tern 12
Royal Tern 5
Parasitic Jaeger 1

Rock Pigeon X
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 1
European Starling X
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 1
Boat-tailed Grackle 5
House Finch 2
Pine Siskin 20
American Goldfinch 30
Finch sp. 26
House Sparrow 10

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