Avalon Seawatch, 4 December 2016

The day began clear and cool this morning.  Winds were low, and blowing from the northwest.  Despite the northwest winds, which usually yield a lower bird count, we had a decent flight.  We saw the highest number of scoters for the week, and we had a late season flight of cormorants.  In addition, red-throated loons rushed by steadily throughout the day.  A highlight for the day was seeing a group of 32 snow geese fly overhead.  This was our single day maximum for snow geese so far this season!

The total number of birds counted at Avalon today doubled the total number of birds for the whole week.  In total, 9,367 birds were counted today, with the top three species being double-crested cormorant, red-throated loon, and black scoter.  Check out the data below for the full list of what was observed today.

Join us everyday, sunrise to sunset, between 8th and 9th street in Avalon.

Avalon Seawatch count for 12/4/2016
Species	Count today	Season total	Season maximum
			Count	Date(s)
American Oystercatcher	12	312	49	10/24/2016
Black Duck	52	1366	246	10/24/2016
Black Scoter	1655	167597	15583	11/24/2016
Black-bellied Plover	1	276	114	10/13/2016
Brant	13	2397	305	11/23/2016
Bufflehead	21	3401	1803	11/21/2016
Canada Goose	21	1189	316	11/22/2016
Common Loon	5	1377	376	10/24/2016
Double-crested Cormorant	2079	146430	10151	10/11/2016
Great Black-backed Gull	4	769	48	10/21/2016
Greater Scaup	2	683	101	11/5/2016
Green-winged Teal (American)	35	7352	1758	10/27/2016
Herring Gull	9	1501	197	11/24/2016
Hooded Merganser	1	168	80	11/22/2016
Laughing Gull	3	19184	1592	11/1/2016
Long-tailed Duck	7	336	144	11/22/2016
Mallard	2	185	58	11/22/2016
Northern Gannet	431	51409	6143	11/24/2016
Red-breasted Merganser	6	485	101	11/24/2016
Red-throated Loon	1984	56445	7293	11/24/2016
Ring-billed Gull	63	6253	1515	11/22/2016
scoter sp.	783	36991	6858	11/7/2016
Snow Goose	32	67	32	12/4/2016
Surf Scoter	729	87582	10310	11/1/2016
Surf/Black Scoter	1417	32016	4115	11/1/2016