[NatureNS] Duncan's Cove seawatch

Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 16:32:12 -0300
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
From: Blake Maybank <maybank@ns.sympatico.ca>
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Return-Path: <naturens-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
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27 Oct 2007

Hans Toom and I spent 0930 - 1100 at Duncan's Reef, at Duncan's 
Cove.   We'd gone to check for landbird migrants, and with the 
southerly wind had not expected any seabirds to be moving.  But when 
we ventured out along the shoreline at Duncan's Reef, there were 
streams of gannets passing by, and as we stopped to count them we 
were pleased and surprised to also encounter a good variety of other 
seabirds in migration.   Here is our count:

Red-throated Loon  -  7
Common Loon  -  4
Northern Gannet  -  2500++
Double-crested Cormorant  -  15
Great Cormorant  -  2
Greater Scaup  -  3
Common Eider  -  600  (400 migrating, 200 in local flocks)
Harlequin Duck  -  5
Oldsquaw  -  13
Black Scoter  -  10
Surf Scoter   -  12
White-winged Scoter  -  25
Red-breasted Merganser  -  4
skua sp.  -  1
Black-legged Kittiwake  -  2
Black Guillemot  -  4
Atlantic Puffin  -  8

On Duncan's Reef proper there was a lone Purple Sandpiper, the first 
I've heard reported this autumn.   A dozen Snow Buntings were feeding 
nearby, and a lone longspur flew south overhead.   The Ipswich 
Sparrow that Hans found four days earlier was still present.   The 
woods were almost migrant-free, but there were three Hairy 
Woodpeckers in active flight, acting as if they were recent arrivals 
off the ocean.

Afterwards we made a brief stop at Chebucto Head, where, in addition 
to many more gannets, we had 10 Surf Scoters and a single 
Razorbill.   Sandy Cove was very quiet, with two Semipalmated Plovers 
the only highlight.

The seawatch was definitely the highlight of the morning.  Duncan's Reef rocks!

Cheers, and good birding,



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blake Maybank
maybank@ns.sympatico.ca

Editor, "Nova Scotia Birds"

author, "Birding Sites of Nova Scotia"
http://maybank.tripod.com/BSNS.htm

144 Bayview Drive
White's Lake, Nova Scotia,
B3T 1Z1, Canada

(902) 852-2077  


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