Avalon Seawatch, 5 November 2016

It was a chilly morning at the seawatch with the temperature starting at 38 degrees and rising to 61. The west-northwest wind stayed calm throughout the day and the sun shone brightly with minimal cloud coverage. Visibility was very poor in the morning due to a thick haze on the horizon but it cleared towards the afternoon.

    Overall today was a great day! A total of 27,319 birds of 39 species were counted from the beach! This brings our season total up to 373 thousand individuals. Red Throated Loons were really starting to move and Northern Gannets plunged into the water in search of food throughout the day. Several Buffleheads and a Razorbill were also seen today. Attached is today's count and our seasons peaks and totals.

Species	Count today	Season total	Season maximum
			Count	Date(s)
American Oystercatcher	1	244	49	10/24/2016
American Wigeon	10	140	70	10/27/2016
Black Duck	21	715	246	10/24/2016
Black Scoter	12072	62267	12174	11/1/2016
Bonaparte's Gull	169	416	169	11/5/2016
Brant	302	1047	302	11/5/2016
Bufflehead	45	57	45	11/5/2016
Canada Goose	9	344	125	10/24/2016
Common Eider	5	26	5	11/5/2016
Common Goldeneye	5	5	5	11/5/2016
Common Loon	16	973	376	10/24/2016
dabbling duck sp.	38	45	38	11/5/2016
Double-crested Cormorant	2047	103251	10151	10/11/2016
duck sp.	13	38	17	10/31/2016
Forster's Tern	4	4051	490	10/6/2016
Great Black-backed Gull	13	544	48	10/21/2016
Great Blue Heron	1	387	213	10/24/2016
Greater / Lesser Scaup	29	150	31	11/2/2016
Greater Scaup	101	289	101	11/5/2016
Green-winged Teal (American)	969	5164	1758	10/27/2016
Herring Gull	26	755	100	10/21/2016
Horned Grebe	2	6	4	10/30/2016
Laughing Gull	410	16128	1592	11/1/2016
Lesser Scaup	89	162	89	11/5/2016
Mallard	10	83	32	10/24/2016
Monarch	2	608	381	10/24/2016
Northern Gannet	1331	17973	5320	11/1/2016
Northern Pintail	60	1950	668	10/18/2016
Parasitic Jaeger	5	136	20	10/27/2016
Razorbill	1	2	1	11/1/2016 11/5/2016
Red-breasted Merganser	15	54	16	11/1/2016
Red-throated Loon	988	2473	988	11/5/2016
Ring-billed Gull	5	597	131	10/24/2016
Royal Tern	11	1262	240	11/1/2016
scoter sp.	2614	14061	5825	11/1/2016
Shoveler	2	12	5	9/27/2016
Surf Scoter	2940	60853	10310	11/1/2016
Surf/Black Scoter	2873	15506	4115	11/1/2016
Wood Duck	65	588	207	11/1/2016

     Join us tomorrow for some more wonderful sea watching, sunrise to sunset, at 8th and 9th street beach in Avalon.