Seawatch - Tuesday, October 17, 2017

SO.MANY.BIRDS.  Over 21,000 birds, in fact!  Today was quite the busy day; it started out slow with poor visibility because of the haze over the water (due to warm water meeting cool, 44 degree air) with northwest winds, but ended the day with excellent visibility, warmer temperatures, and easterly winds.  The morning was overall slow, with only several thousand birds by noon, but then the winds shifted and the scoters started moving.  

Around 14,000 Black Scoters and 5000 Surf Scoters headed south within the last 5 hours of daylight.  Numerous other species were mixed in, including a total of 17 White-winged Scoters, and a smattering of scaup, Green-winged Teal, Gadwall, a shoveler, Mallard, American Black Duck, pintail, wigeon, and a Common Eider.  

Also notable today was the first push of Red-throated Loons, with six birds in different stages of molt, some still in their breeding plumage!  Another highlight of the day was an adorable Golden-crowned Kinglet that flew in off the dunes behind me and landed on the arm of my chair, while I was sitting in it!  

For some photos that illustrate how great the migration (and lighting) was this afternoon, check out Andrew Dreelin's eBird checklist.  Despite being his day off from being an Interpretive Naturalist, he came up to the Seawatch to enjoy the spectacle of visible waterbird migration.

https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39984437

Looking ahead: Saturday, the 21st, is looking to be an excellent day for our Fall Festival!  Light east and southeast winds should have the birds close to shore and moving in numbers, especially given the date!  The migration will only pick up from here, however, so don't let the winds stop you from coming to the Seawatch!

To see today's totals, check out Trektellen: http://trektellen.org/count/view/1747/20171017

To see the whole season's totals, use this link.  Notice we are nearly to 100,000 birds as I write this!

http://trektellen.org/site/totals/1747/2017