Day by day seawatching!

I promise I'll answer the 6 weeks of un-answered e-mails sometime soon! I swear!

Some quick and easy blog material for a while. Daily totals of all bird species observed, to give you an idea of what it was like (plus some notes on the weather).

The first 3 days:
!!!


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Location:     Netitishi Point
Observation date:     11/10/10
Notes:     Light NE winds, mostly sunny.
Number of species:     28

Brant     6
Lesser Scaup     12
White-winged Scoter     15
Black Scoter     5
Long-tailed Duck     65
Common Goldeneye     9
Red-breasted Merganser     75
Ruffed Grouse     1
Bald Eagle     1
Rough-legged Hawk     15
Sanderling     80
Dunlin     6
Ring-billed Gull     320
Herring Gull     50
Dovekie     1
Black Guillemot     2
Downy Woodpecker     1
Gray Jay     5
Common Raven     7
Horned Lark     1
Black-capped Chickadee     1
Boreal Chickadee     4
Lapland Longspur     1
Snow Bunting     20
Pine Grosbeak     8
White-winged Crossbill     6
Common Redpoll     1
Hoary Redpoll     20


Comments (written today):  wow!!! A Dovekie in the first hour of watching. What are the odds? And 2 Guillemots? 3 alcids of 2 species in the same day?

The weather didn't seem great for a large movement, but little did we know, there was actually a good number of birds moving - considering!

- overly pale Lapland Longspur, that was also acting odd (stayed in tall grass, gave very poor views). Had me excited for a while....

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Location:     Netitishi Point
Observation date:     11/11/10
Notes:     WARM!!! South winds. 10/12 degrees?! Built the waterbird shack out of driftwood.
Number of species:     24

Lesser Scaup     1
White-winged Scoter     1
Black Scoter     2
Long-tailed Duck     4
Red-breasted Merganser     15
Northern Harrier     1
Sanderling     80
Dunlin     4
Ring-billed Gull     100
Herring Gull     20
Glaucous Gull     1
Downy Woodpecker     1
Northern Shrike     1
Gray Jay     3
Common Raven     4
Horned Lark     5
Black-capped Chickadee     4
Boreal Chickadee     4
Lapland Longspur     2
Snow Bunting     15
Pine Grosbeak     6
White-winged Crossbill     6
Common Redpoll     4
Hoary Redpoll     12


Comments (written today): Nothing like super warm temps and a lack of birds to keep you entertained. I spent most of the day in a t-shirt building our "fort" out of driftwood. Pictures will follow!!!

Lots of shorebirds and ring-billed gulls for James Bay in mid Nov!

First Glaucous Gull on the trip, a nice adult. I think that the lack of Ice in Hudson Bay was the reason we never really had a good gull migration (plus wind direction problems.
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Location:     Netitishi Point
Observation date:     11/12/10
Notes:     Strong 40/50kmh SW wind. 5 degrees. Mostly cloudy
Number of species:     20

Lesser Scaup     8
White-winged Scoter     1
Black Scoter     2
Long-tailed Duck     8
Red-breasted Merganser     35
Sanderling     80
White-rumped Sandpiper     4
Dunlin     1
Ring-billed Gull     40
Herring Gull     20
Dovekie     1
Gray Jay     1
Common Raven     1
Horned Lark     5
Boreal Chickadee     1
Brown Creeper     1
Snow Bunting     15
Pine Grosbeak     1
Common Redpoll     10
Hoary Redpoll     10

Comments (written today):  really good looks at this days Dovekie. What an odd bird! It's funny how you can get a good bird like this on a fairly slow day.

Most observations of Hoary Redpolls (106 total!) were of small flocks flying in from far offshore!!! Do they migrate over water intentionally? Or did they get lost out there at night?
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More soon!