Avalon Seawatch, 1 December 2016

The weather, albeit much better than yesterday, began cloudy and chilly with low winds that increased in speed as the day progressed.  The wind blew from the west throughout the day, a direction that generally yields lower bird counts, which proved to be true today.  The total individuals counted today was 4,451, with the top 3 species being red-throated loon, double-crested cormorant, and northern gannet.  There was a nice variety of shorebirds present today.  37 black-bellied plovers flew by, and nearly 100 of both sanderling and dunlin were hanging out.  Notable moments from the day was a female eider that flew by for a great close up look, and 6 tundra swans that flew south late in the day!

The chart below reflects the data collected today.  Only 3 weeks of the sea watch left!!! Join us until then, sunrise to sunset, between 8th and 9th street in Avalon.

Avalon Seawatch count for 12/1/2016
Species	Count today	Season total	Season maximum
			Count	Date(s)
Black Duck	7	1283	246	10/24/2016
Black Scoter	70	165314	15583	11/24/2016
Black-bellied Plover	37	275	114	10/13/2016
Bonaparte's Gull	2	1853	795	11/14/2016
Bufflehead	1	3348	1803	11/21/2016
Canada Goose	23	1168	316	11/22/2016
Common Eider	3	67	9	11/19/2016
Common Loon	5	1363	376	10/24/2016
Double-crested Cormorant	1628	143736	10151	10/11/2016
Great Black-backed Gull	4	757	48	10/21/2016
Green-winged Teal (American)	1	7278	1758	10/27/2016
Herring Gull	1	1485	197	11/24/2016
Long-tailed Duck	1	281	144	11/22/2016
Northern Gannet	325	50604	6143	11/24/2016
Red-breasted Merganser	6	462	101	11/24/2016
Red-throated Loon	1999	52438	7293	11/24/2016
Ring-billed Gull	24	6148	1515	11/22/2016
scoter sp.	24	36008	6858	11/7/2016
Surf Scoter	167	86539	10310	11/1/2016
Surf/Black Scoter	97	30308	4115	11/1/2016