Friday, September 3, 2010

3 Jaeger day



While moderate to strong SW to W west winds dominated today and storms passed all around, though most missed the point to my benefit, the number of birds passing through again dropped from previous days. As seems to be the case when the birds stop moving that's when jaegers appear off the point, so it was no surprise and perhaps a bad omen that I was graced with at least three today with two being clear cut Parasitics and the third undoubtedly also a Parasitic but at a distance which made a 100% decision difficult.

With the drop in overall bird numbers Red-necked Grebe again took the top spot with a grand total of 48 birds seen today, Canada Geese stole the second spot with a group of 17 early on, and Common Loon rounded out the top three with 15 throughout the day. Small numbers of dabbling and White-winged Scoters continued to pass by today and a single Red-throated Loon also flew past early this afternoon.

Common Terns were again present but in much smaller numbers with a total of 9 seen while shorebirds continue in small numbers including newly arrived Ruddy Turnstone and Pectoral Sandpiper, the later being the first of the fall.

Passerine migrants continue to reduce in numbers and while small numbers of the more common warbler species were seen the diversity and total abundance was not large. The current weather outside and the forecast for the near future looks very promising so hopefully tomorrow's post will have better news to report.

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