Seawatch - November 7-11, 2018

This past week was another great week, full of thousands and thousands of birds!  Several days consisted mostly of distant birds thanks to westerly winds, but Friday the 9th had strong east winds that allowed for lots of very close birds! 

Northbound + southbound totals:

Wednesday: 14,353
Thursday:    21,915
Friday:         22,143
Saturday:       9,267
Sunday:       10,266

Wednesday the 7th had a nice push of 2400+ Red-throated Loons and a nice 89 Bufflehead, but was otherwise dominated by many distant north and south bound scoter flocks, with a decent total of 4500+ southbound scoters.

Thursday the 8th had 12,000 southbound scoters thanks to more northly winds, a late push of 4440 Double-crested Cormorants, and over 1100 Laughing Gulls.  37 White-winged Scoters was a nice increase in White-winged numbers, as was 52 Long-tailed Ducks.

Friday the 9th had an excellent 22,000 birds thanks to strong 20mph east winds. 15,000 Black Scoter, 3300 Surf Scoter, and 42 White-winged Scoters were tallied, demonstrating how excellent of a flight there is in early November on east winds.  71 Greater Scaup, a few Redhead, and over 100 Green-winged Teal highlighted some of the diversity this day.  Our morning flight counter, Andrew Dreelin, stopped by (as it was his day off), and he took some phenomenal photos that really showcase the close proximity of the primary flight line.  CHECK IT OUT!

Saturday the 10th was much slower, with only around 3500 scoters, mostly very distant, but highlighted by 4 Tundra Swans, over 100 Bufflehead, and 1700 cormorants.

Sunday the 11th was busy in the morning and slow for the rest of the day, but the day was really carried by an excellent 588 Bufflehead, 143 Long-tailed Duck, 10 Horned Grebes, a Pied-billed Grebe, and two more Tundra Swans.  There was also an nice evening scoter flight during the last 1-2 hours of the day, dominated mostly by Surf Scoter.  Remember, the morning (and sometimes the last hour before sunset) is always the busiest, and coming out midday could make you think that the Seawatch doesn't have many birds!

Another week at the Seawatch, another 70,000 birds!  Make sure to get on out soon while we are still at our peak!  East winds or the morning after a cold snap should be very fruitful!