11 September 2007

Highlights: PARASITIC JAEGER (1), BLACK TERN (4)

WEATHER: Moderate winds out of the S and SW gave us cloudy skies and several batches of rain showers. In fact, the count had to be cut 20 minutes short due to a large cell of thunderstorms closing in on the waterbird shack. Temperatures were cooler today and ranged from 11-18 Celsius. Visibility suffered from the rain but in between showers, the lighting was excellent.

DUCKS & GEESE: It was a rather active day! Dabblers didn't seem to have much of a problem flying in the rain so small flocks were pretty consistent throughout the day. MALLARDS were the most numerous with 60+ while AMERICAN WIGEON and BLUE-WINGED TEAL were almost tied at around 40 each. Other species tallied included NORTHERN SHOVELER (5+), GADWALL, AMERICAN BLACK DUCK, NORTHERN PINTAIL (4), and GREEN-WINGED TEAL. Several GREATER SCAUP and 2 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS were also seen.

LOONS & GREBES: The count today had loons outnumbering grebes. 35+ COMMON LOONS and 3 RED-THROATED LOONS passed by while a HORNED GREBE and 20+ RED-NECKED GREBES were seen.

SHOREBIRDS: It was a slow day for shorebirds with 3 species seen. A small flock of SANDERLING were present on the bay shore along with 1 SEMIPALMATED PLOVER and a couple LEAST SANDPIPERS.

JAEGERS/TERNS: A juvenile, pale intermediate-morph PARASITIC JAEGER made two passes by the point today. It was first seen attacking gulls near the point before it went out of sight to the north. An hour or two later, it came back from the north and chased a gull from the beach over land and literally was directly above us! Superb looks! Another highlight came mid-count when 4 juvenile BLACK TERNS came east along the beach and foraged near the point for nearly an hour.

Some other birds tallied from the shack included RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, CEDAR WAXWING, BALD EAGLE (2), and NORTHERN HARRIER.

It looks as if tomorrow will have a chance of sprinkles and light north winds.

Cory Gregory
arcticory@gmail.com
Waterbird Counter