Monday, October 12, 2009

October 12, 2009- Long-billed Dowitcher

It was another cool fall day with overcast skies and temps in the lower 40's. Light rain began to fall with about an hour and a half left in the count and continued until the end.

Waterfowl: Long-tailed Ducks made their first decent push of the year with 271 seen. Red-breasted Mergansers were the second-most common migrating waterbird with 172 seen. Sounds like late fall doesn't it?? Numbers of scoters dropped way off from the weekend with only 8 White-wingeds and a Surf and Loon numbers were lower as well with 14 Common and 2 Red-throateds. A few dabblers and Horned and Red-necked Grebes also went by.

Shorebirds: The shorebird season is not over yet!! An excellent day with the highlight being a LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER. The bird was in a flock of 7 Black-bellied and 1 Golden Plover and was heard calling as the flock buzzed the tip several times. Unfortunately they did not land despite the pools present at the tip. This is only the 4th record of this species for the point and the 2nd fall record. Chris got a few pictures of the dowitcher which can be seen on the sightings blog. A Greater Yellowlegs and a Dunlin also stopped by in the morning, both of which were first for the season.

Gulls/Terns: 4 Bonapartes Gull's flew by today. Hopefully a sign of more on the way.

Other: Not much else interesting to report besides a Pileated Woodpecker flying out near the shack for a quick but nice look.

Tom Prestby
Waterbird Counter

1 comment:

WPBO said...

Dude, order your camera.
Neri