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.]

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