Sea Watch Wednesday November 24, 2010

It wasn't an extremely overwhelming flight at Avalon today, but there were migrants moving all day. Part of the reason for some birds going undetected was the strength of the NW winds. There were birds at and well beyond the limit of conjecture, notably Scoters, Red-throated Loons, and Cormorants. Red-throated Loons moved in large numbers for the first hour after sunrise but settled down into a rate of a bit over 100/hour for the middle of the day before picking up again late with over 1,000 passing in the last two hours (and some were still flying south as it became too dark to see). Other movers of note were Common Eider, which put on a nice showing of 23 migrants, Herring and Ring-billed Gulls (especially early, Ring-billeds especially seem to move in numbers after temperature drops), and Great Egret (16 individuals in 2 separate groups late in the afternoon, a notablenumber for late November). Two other sweet highlights were two Common Goldeneye winging by relatively close during the second hour, and a smallish Parasitic Jaeger harassing a Ring-billed Gull until it dropped its food. On the non-avian front, at least one Dolphin (presumably, and apparently, a Bottlenose) was hanging around the inlet for a few hours, at times coming very close to the 7th street parking lot where the count takes place.

Finally out of nowhere, and in the thick of the late Red-throated Loon push, Bonaparte's Gulls made an extemporaneous strong movement very late in the day, and if not for the falling light and distance of the birds there would have been a good opportunity to peruse them for non-BOGUs. Alas, there's always tomorrow for that, because at Avalon you really never know what's going to happen (especially with variable light NE-SE winds and a chance of showers for a bit, as is forecast for tomorrow).

Total individuals counted: 7,142

Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 11/24/10
Number of species: 55

Brant (Atlantic) 6
Canada Goose 4
Wood Duck 3
Gadwall 3
American Black Duck 43
Mallard 11
Northern Shoveler 1
Green-winged Teal 22
dabbling duck sp. 22
Greater Scaup 3
Common Eider 23
Surf Scoter 418
White-winged Scoter 13
Black Scoter 787
Surf/Black Scoter 177
scoter sp. 254
Long-tailed Duck 8
Bufflehead 4
Common Goldeneye 2
Red-breasted Merganser 25
duck sp. 72
Red-throated Loon 2807
Common Loon 6
Northern Gannet 902
Double-crested Cormorant 103
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 16

Turkey Vulture 6
Bald Eagle 1
Cooper's Hawk 3
Merlin 1
Black-bellied Plover 7
American Oystercatcher 8
Red Knot 2
Sanderling X
Purple Sandpiper 1
Dunlin X
Bonaparte's Gull 228
Laughing Gull 7
Ring-billed Gull 371
Herring Gull 775
Great Black-backed Gull 18
Forster's Tern 2
Royal Tern 2
Parasitic Jaeger 1

Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren X
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 1
Northern Mockingbird X
European Starling X
warbler sp. 1
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 2
Red-winged Blackbird 4
Boat-tailed Grackle 1
House Finch 2
House Sparrow X

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