Observer: Skye Haas
Species counted:
American Black Duck - 10
Northern Pintail - 7
Green-winged Teal - 1
Surf Scoter - 64
White-winged Scoter - 2
Black Scoter - 204
Red-throated Loon - 2
Common Loon - 7
Nothern Gannet - 11
Double-crested Cormorant - 898
Great Blue Heron - 37
Black-crowned Night Heron - 4
Laughing Gull - 56
Caspian Tern - 8
Forster's Tern - 87
Royal Tern - 24
Parasitic Jaeger - 7
Jaeger sp. - 3
Calidris sp. - 130
Total: 1,562
A note from Skye:
Like all days at the sea-watch, it was a fun day, though not nearly as hectic as yesterday's big flight. Actually it kind of slow at times, but that was fine with me, there is always something of interest bound to show if you just give it enough time. Cormorants were way down from yesterday and they didn't even barely make an appearance until the 8th hour of the count. All three scoter species were present again, though the majority of them were northbound birds. A little too early in the season for the back and forth there guys! 10 Jaegers came by and our moment of drama on the high seas were when three Parasitics attacked a Forster's Tern, driving it repeatedly into the water- I thought they were going to kill the poor thing, but eventually left it be to continue on their migration. I ended up staying 20 minutes past sundown as a heron flight developed right before sunset.
Lots of Monarchs, Darners and Wandering Gliders came off the ocean in the afternoon, as did falcons- we ended up having 19 Peregrine Falcons today. At one point there were four terrorizing the jetty shorebirds which included an impressive 1500+ Sanderlings. The first Dunlin of the season was seen today, and 3 probable Purple Sandpipers flew by in the rain early in the day, but did not stop on the jetty for a positive identification. Oh well, more to come with that species.
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| This juvenile Peregrine Falcon practiced its hunting skills by chasing a large group of shorebirds in front of the Seawatch. [Photos by Skye Haas.] |
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