Avalon Seawatch, 26 November 2016

The day at Avalon started out cloudy and mild.  Visibility offshore was great, however inshore the visibility was poor.  Winds blew from the NNW pushing birds out to sea further, which made observing them challenging.  The total count for the day was 3,471 birds of 20 different species.  The most common birds seen today were black scoter, double-crested cormorant and red-throated loon. Dolphins and a group of 3 snow buntings continue to be present daily.

Notable observations include a group of 18 oystercatchers flying south, and an Icelandic gull!  The Icelandic gull cooperatively hung out on the beach right in front of the jetty.  This type of gull breeds in the arctic and generally winters along the coast of the New England states; annually a few of these gulls make their way to south to New Jersey.

Join us between 8th and 9th street in Avalon, sunrise to sunset everyday.  Below is the full data collected today at seawatch:

Avalon Seawatch count for 11/26/2016
Species	Count today	Season total	Season maximum
			Count	Date(s)
American Oystercatcher	18	291	49	10/24/2016
Black Scoter	1185	157585	15583	11/24/2016
Bonaparte's Gull	1	1758	795	11/14/2016
Brant	65	2283	305	11/23/2016
Double-crested Cormorant	489	141264	10151	10/11/2016
Great Black-backed Gull	5	701	48	10/21/2016
Great Blue Heron	4	394	213	10/24/2016
Greater Scaup	2	582	101	11/5/2016
Herring Gull	2	1444	197	11/24/2016
Hooded Merganser	2	161	80	11/22/2016
Iceland Gull	1	1	1	11/26/2016
Laughing Gull	26	19133	1592	11/1/2016
Northern Gannet	25	46835	6143	11/24/2016
Red-breasted Merganser	2	325	101	11/24/2016
Red-throated Loon	779	46277	7293	11/24/2016
Ring-billed Gull	84	5733	1515	11/22/2016
Royal Tern	5	1435	240	11/1/2016
scoter sp.	18	34203	6858	11/7/2016
Surf Scoter	411	83728	10310	11/1/2016
Surf/Black Scoter	347	28844	4115	11/1/2016