WEATHER: We woke up to a fresh inch or so of wet snow this morning. The walk out to the shack this morning was beautiful, the snow was sticking to every twig and blade of grass. Snow fell for the first several hours of the count but it eventually switched to rain and then finally ended about halfway through the day. Skies remained completely cloudy, visibility was never great, and the winds were moderate out of the south. Temperatures ranged from 2-5 Celsius.
OVERALL MOVEMENT: Today seemed a little slow, probably due to the south winds. About 1000 migrants were seen total and one species was seen every hour: Long-tailed Duck. The most numerous species was Long-tailed Duck with about 700 counted.
DUCKS & GEESE: The only dabbler species seen today were AMERICAN BLACK DUCK (2) and MALLARD. Scoter numbers were down; only 3 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS were seen. Otherwise, COMMON GOLDENEYE (about 40), BUFFLEHEAD (80+), COMMON MERGANSER (about 30), nearly 170 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS, and a single HOODED MERGANSER were tallied. Almost 700 LONG-TAILED DUCKS were counted.
LOONS & GREBES: Two COMMON LOONS, 6 RED-NECKED GREBES, and a HORNED GREBE were seen.
GULLS: A juvenile BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE was seen halfway through the second hour. It came wafting down along the beach through the snow, what a sight! This represents our third kittiwake this fall.
RAPTORS: A couple ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS came in off the lake. A MERLIN was also seen.
Some of the other species seen from the waterbird shack included SNOW BUNTING, COMMON REDPOLL, COMMON RAVEN, PINE GROSBEAK, AMERICAN TREE SPARROW, MOURNING DOVE, and DOWNY WOODPECKER.
WEATHER FORECAST FOR TOMORROW: Rain and snow is likely along with a light southeast wind. Temperatures should reach 40 F. Accumulation of 1/2 inch of snow is possible.
Thanks for checking in,
Cory Gregory
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