It was quite cold and windy this morning at the seawatch. However, with 2 pairs of socks, 4 pant layers, 7 shirt layers, a balaclava, and gloves with handwarmers, it was downright tolerable to be outside counting migrants. Unfortunately there was some intense heat distortion, and this along with some snow flurries and the strong northwest winds pushing birds futher offshore all added up to less than ideal conditions for observation.
Some geese were moving throughout the day, along with a handful of Red-throated Loons and Northern Gannets. Long-tailed Ducks put in a good showing with 78 counted. The bulk of the birds moving today were gulls: Bonaparte's Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, and Herring Gulls were all moving throughout the day.
An eBird list of species detected follows, with counted migrants in bold:
1,560 migrants today.
Location: Avalon Seawatch
Observation date: 12/14/10
Number of species: 40
Snow Goose 115
Brant 16
Canada Goose 119
Gadwall 2
American Black Duck 17
Mallard 6
Northern Pintail 6
Common Eider 25
Surf Scoter 9
White-winged Scoter 1
Black Scoter 4
Surf/Black Scoter 63
Long-tailed Duck 78
Bufflehead 1
Red-breasted Merganser 12
Red-throated Loon 151
Common Loon 2
Horned Grebe 1
Northern Gannet 76
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Killdeer 21
Ruddy Turnstone 4
Sanderling 5
Purple Sandpiper 20
Dunlin 15
Bonaparte's Gull 286
Ring-billed Gull 270
Herring Gull 287
Great Black-backed Gull X
Rock Pigeon 16
Mourning Dove 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
European Starling 75
American Pipit 2
Song Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 6
House Sparrow 10
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