Avalon Seawatch, 28 September 2016

Welcome to the Avalon Seawatch!

     The first week of the Avalon Seawatch was full of great birds, fantastic weather, and wonderfully supportive visitors! The majority of the species counted were Double Crested Cormorants (4,687), Laughing Gulls (2,916), and Black Scoters (420). There were also sightings of Humpback Whales, Dolphins, Jaegers, and Northern Gannets! Altogether, these past few days we have counted almost 10,000 individual birds! Attached below is a summary of todays count for September 28th.

S N S N S N Dark-bellied Brent Goose    2    -    Semipalmated Plover    2    -    Royal Tern    17    -    Greater / Lesser Scaup    3    -    Sanderling    48    -    Forster's Tern    42    -    Surf Scoter    3    -    Black Skimmer    4    -    Sterna spec.    5    -    Black Scoter    90    -    Laughing Gull    206    -    Arctic Skua    1    -    Great Northern Diver    1    -    Great Black-backed Gull    7    -    Merlin    1    -    Brown Pelican    1    -    Herring Gull    3    -    Bottle-Nosed Dolphin    12    -    Gannet    5    -    Lesser Black-backed Gull    2    -       Double-crested Cormorant    799    -    Caspian Tern    7    -

Totals: 1261 individuals, 22 species, 35:37 hours Present: Osprey 3, Turnstone 3, Sanderling 27, Dunlin 3, Laughing Gull 23, Great Black-backed Gull 36, Herring Gull 7, Hirundine sp. 200 Bold = Remarkable observation (scarce or rare species or large number)

     Overall, there has been lots of excitement at the seawatch with over 60 visitors eager to see migrating waterbirds. A big THANK YOU to all who came out this past week! We look forward to seeing you in the weeks to come, sunrise to sunset, at 8th and 9th street beach in Avalon!

Be sure to view our live data page at:
http://www.njaudubon.org/SectionCapeMayBirdObservatory/MigrationMonitoringProjects/LiveData.aspx