Seawatch - 25 October 2014

Observation time: 0616 – 1819

Observer: Skye Haas

Canada Goose – 25

Brant – 101

Wood Duck – 8

Northern Pintail – 8

Green-winged Teal – 67

Ring-necked Duck – 2

Greater Scaup – 6

Lesser Scaup – 3

Scaup sp. – 10

Duck sp. – 141

Common Eider – 3

Surf Scoter – 3,165

White-winged Scoter – 3

Black Scoter – 1,402

Dark-winged Scoter – 1,216

Long-tailed Duck – 3

Red-throated Loon – 30

Common Loon – 54

Loon sp. – 2

Horned Grebe – 2

Northern Gannet – 1,564

Brown Pelican – 12

Double-crested Cormorant – 10,465

Great Blue Heron – 14

Laughing Gull – 214

Bonaparte’s Gull – 19

Herring Gull – 20

Lesser Black-backed Gull – 1

Great Black-backed Gull – 20

Black-legged Kittiwake – 1

Caspian Tern – 2

Common Tern – 6

Forster’s Tern – 230

American Oystercatcher – 4

Royal Tern – 14

Parasitic Jaeger – 5

Black-bellied Plover – 38

Semipalmated Plover – 6

Ruddy Turnstone – 4

Greater Yellowlegs – 1

Red Knot – 18

Sanderling – 200

Dunlin – 64

Dowitcher sp. – 4

Spotted Sandpiper – 1

Purple Sandpiper – 3

White-rumped Sandpiper – 1

Semipalmated Sandpiper – 2

Calidris sp. – 1

Total: 19,185

A note from Skye:

Heya folks, Sorry to be away for so long, its been a crazy week with surprise trips to the dentist, friends in town and the 65th Autumn Birding Weekend at the Cape so I've just not been able to keep up with blogging this week. But hopefully this brief hiatus is over and lets just get down to whats been happening at Avalon lately. Early week saw some huge scoter movements- I had ten thousand scoters in 3 hours on Wednesday morning and the day before Tom recorded an amazing 36,595 scoters on the 21st! Holy moly it was impressive! Over the next few days some later season birds have made an appearance with Black-legged Kittitwake being seen the last three days in a row. Purple Sandpipers are now on the rocks in front of the seawatch as well. Passerines have been borealesque with lots of Yellow-rumps, but other North Woods goodies like Winter Wren, Rusty Blackbird, Juncos, Purple Finch and Pine Siskin have been seen the last few days. And yesterday saw what could be our big day for Common Loon with 235 counted. 

Its been a real treat this week, my good friend Max Henschell and former Whitefish Point waterbird counter alumni has been visiting and today we were treated to a heck of a Northern Gannet show. Just under 1600 were recorded; there was never a moment that these modern day pterodactyls weren't cruising by the watch. Also notable were a couple of Common Eiders, some drake Long-tailed Ducks and a good selection of gulls and terns. Non-waterbirds were also bumping and combined waterbird, raptors and passerines came to 81 species today! Also very cool yet all too brief was some unknown species of whale sighted northeast off the 8th Street Jetty. 

A list of non-waterbirds:

Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Norther Harrier, Bald Eagle, Rock Pigeon, Morning Dove, Tree Swallow, Northern Flicker, Peregrine Falcon, Eastern Phoebe, Tree Swallow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, American Pipit, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Boat-tailed Grackle, House Finch, Pine Siskin, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow. 

Common Loon. [Photo by Skye Haas.]

Northern Gannet. [Photo by Skye Haas.]