Seawatch - 27 September 2014

Observation time; 0550 - 1850

Observer: Skye Haas

Species Observed:

Northern Pintail – 4

Green-winged Teal – 110

Dabbler sp. – 2

Duck sp. – 15

Surf Scoter – 4

Black Scoter – 7

Common Loon – 2

Northern Gannet – 3

Brown Pelican – 1

Double-crested Cormorant – 803

Laughing Gull – 39

Caspian Tern – 2

Forster’s Tern – 14

Royal Tern – 3

Tern sp. – 5

Semipalmated Plover – 19

Sandpiper sp. – 4

Total: 1,037

A note from Skye:

It was a moderate flight today at Avalon. Green-winged Teal made their first decent yet humble push of birds, and the Cormorants continued a second morning of flying. A few more Northern Gannets were seen today, including a nice adult off the 8th street jetty. Peregrines have been seen the last few days hunting shorebirds along the seawall. There was a small morning Northern Flicker flight down the shoreline, but the non-waterbird that really caught my attention was the Ammodramus sparrow that came flying off the ocean. But alas, I could not tell what kind it was. There were still decent numbers of Tree Swallows passing by the count site, but I didn't see the huge flock that has been feeding at the Townsend's Inlet the last few days. A nice afternoon event was the Cobbs Creek Docent Program bring a group of students from Philadelphia. It was fun to see them checking out the seawatch and I ended up talking pine forest fire ecology with them for a few. Hopefully some of these kids will be coming back to Cape May Bird Observatory in a few years to be interpretive naturalists!  

[Peregrine Falcon. Photo by Skye Haas.]

[Tree Swallow. Photo by Skye Haas.]