Alas Poor Thayer’s, we knew you vaguely!

So Thayer’s has gone, reduced to a footnote in the taxonomic listings and not even afforded sub-specific status like Larus glaucoides glaucoides and Larus glaucoides kumlieni. I would really like that situation explaining as, to me a simple birder, it would have been logical to retain thayeri for simple recording purposes (always handy should there be future research), even if we can’t have just Larus and have to have it with Larus glaucoides in front of it.

The rationale for the lump seems to be that they (Thayer’s) have been found breeding with Iceland Gulls, well Kumlien’s Gulls actually as it is unlikely, but not impossible, that a Thayer’s and an Iceland would meet anywhere other than the winter feeding battleground of dumps, sewage outflows and fish processing plant waste pipes, long may they remain unregulated! I had always thought that interbreeding was not necessarily a barrier to full species status, if it was, surely we’d be rather reduced in species to say ‘Duck’ for all those anatidae that like to throw their darvic rings onto the table and take home something a little different. I also wonder how hard they looked for the definition of the interbreeding zone. I don’t know what the percentage of mixed pairs in the breeding range would need to be before the species pair became true but, presumably there are pure Thayer’s that only breed with pure Thayer’s so isn’t that a species?

I think, and I’ve said this before, the definition, no make that re-definition of Thayer’s Gull should have been considered before lumping. What makes a gull a Thayer’s, what suite of plumage and structural characteristics are required before you can ink it in? And why did we keep stretching the identification criteria to fit the bird? Now the lump has congealed, we will have thousands of good Thayer’s records that will only make eBird as Iceland Gull, each Thayer’s something of a missed opportunity to define a core range and the limits of dispersal and vagrancy. I suppose I could list again what I think makes a Thayer’s but you already know anyway, you are not the sort of birder to let a degree of difficulty stop you working out what you are seeing, why you can even identify silent Trail’s most of the time, just by looking at them!

I think that we in the field who look at gulls will keep on looking for Thayer’s in season, and probably calling them same in the privacy of our own Excel files. The lumpers and splitters on whatever committee is busy with such activities will still prevaricate endlessly, but most will largely ignore them and make the ID of those obvious, if shop-soiled species anyway, in much the same way that we do with Mew Gull (four species), Fox Sparrow (another four) and don’t forget Willets, eastern and western although I think we’d be better getting away from geographically orientated monikers and move to something more distinctive and accurate, Big Willet and Little Willet comes to mind.

Putting Thayer’s to bed, for now at least, here are a few shots – starting with the 2017 Pubnico bird found by Alix that also visited CSI; going through to pale end Kumlien’s. Remember, these are all Iceland Gulls right!

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Yellow-rump Season

Since I last posted, the birding has been busy without being spectacular. Gunning is here and so dawn is pretty easy to mark, it will calm down though, especially when Lobstering starts. Much of the bird activity has been around The Hawk, with pockets of mixed warbler flocks, dominated by Yellow-rumped. It always creeps up on me, Yellow-rumped Warbler season. I know it’s coming when I see the odd one then, boom, just about every movement in the depths of the bushes comes from a Yellow-rump.

With the Yellow-rumps at the moment are good numbers of Western Palm Warblers. eBird still yelps when you enter one, but really they are a relatively common migrant. I’ve been seeing up to five at time and even had them in the yard. For that reason they are the post header bird, my best shots of them so far.

 

Yellow-rumped, Black-and-White Warbler and Blue-headed Vireo below.

On Oct-12^th Johnny called with a Western Kingbird down on The Hawk. Two in a year may seem a bit greedy but I’m not complaining. It showed very well, a pale, washed-out bird that was very active off the wires right at the end of Hawk Point Road. Wire birds never pose very well so I spent more time trying to get it in flight.

 

Today (Oct-13) I started my birding in the yard. It was cold overnight and the warblers don’t stretch their wings until there is some warmth abroad so there really was no need to be anywhere else. Lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers were soon bouncing around, they never stop chasing each other plus any passing Blue Jays, Northern Flickers and even American Crows get the same treatment. I was about to go inside when I head a call, then saw a Pine Warbler in their midst, yard tick 162. Once inside I started to check my email and glanced up at the largest tree in the yard where a stunted jay sat. Once in the bins it resolved into a shrike not a jay and I called Sandra over to get a look. It stayed around the yard perhaps 15-20 minutes or so, allowing Mike to get here from Daniel’s Head. At one point it was being mobbed by a Chipping Sparrow, something I only added to my CSI year list on Oct-11^th!

 

It missed!

Going back to October-11^th and I found a couple of female/immature Indigo Buntings on The Hawk. They stuck around all day but were sporadic in their appearance, preferring the depths of the Alder scrub. Later the aforementioned CSI year tick Chipping Sparrow/s rocked up in the same place and there was another sparrow with them. Both Ervin and I were just leaving when the sparrows flew up into a roadside tree and Ervin started filling his camera card. I saw a peachy-flanked, plain-lored sparrow on one side of the tree while Ervin snapped the two Chippers on the other side. I’m sure it was a Clay-colored but, even though it would be a year bird, I’m not claiming it, not without a photo  and not with the two Chippers in the same tree to add a layer of mystery to the claim.

 

The one below is the yard bird.

The year lists on all fronts are doing ok, as you will see if you check eBird. In front in NS is Dave Bell, as predicted by me way back in May. He is based on the islands and they get a lot of birds and, unlike CSI, he can get to every spot to look for them whereas we can only cover around 5% of CSI at a best guess. We don’t do too badly though, but you just wonder what we do miss! I’m second in the list and Alix is third although we both have gaps that can be filled so I would expect us both to get near to 280 by the end of the year. I just hope any good birds don’t go dallying around the north or middle on NS but get their feathery cloacas down to the Banana Belt where they will be well enjoyed.

An immature Ring-billed Gull looking a bit weird. around the head/bill

Last Quarter

Now that we are into the last quarter of the year, migrants will become harder to find but there will be days that surprise. Here on CSI. warblers have been trickier to find than expected but perseverance has paid off although not with anything Like Blue-winged Warbler or Yellow-throated Vireo. Still it could be worse, it could be foggy. Obviously the weather plays a big part in the migrant scarcity, plus the fact that  only a tiny percentage of CSI is available to look at, so much great, bird harbouring habitat exists in yards and on private property.

I’ll lead with Orange-crowned Warbler, I’ve seen three this autumn so far and very smart they are too. I find that they are quite willing to come to pish, even more responsive to taped chips and, when they come, they hang around a bit.

 

Blackpoll Warblers have been around too, in ones and twos and generally inquisitive. These two different birds show how varied autumn birds can look. The last image had me double-checking the ID.

 

The upper two are the same bird, different angles. The below had me looking hard at it, I don’t recall seeing one quite like this but I’m sure it is a Blackpoll. In the field it looked more Blackpolly.

Shorebird numbers are petering out although we still have over 1000 birds around, just not all stood on the same bit of mud. Sanderling have moved in in large numbers and Red Knot have been using The Guzzle high tide roost during, well high tide actually! These shots show a few, one group containing a Hudsonian Godwit too.

 

On a short shopping trip to Yarmouth we lucked in on this American Bittern at Sunday Point again. Earlier we found a Bobolink at Chebogue Point. It was a bit camera shy, not surprising as the wind was howling and it would have needed legs like Sidney Crosby to grip those branches.

 

This Solitary Sandpiper fed on a small, roadside pool on CSI. I stopped for the shots but attracted the attention of three elderly gents who followed me in, flushing the bird. Without knowing what they were looking, they just walked right up to the pool side, it has happened to me before here, perhaps it is a local sport or maybe just that curiosity that sees drivers slow down traffic for a minor fender bender EVERYTIME!

 

This is our yard Merlin and one of our Mourning Doves. I know people don’t like to see this stuff but that is how they live and we do far worse to the wildlife than a hungry predator could ever do.

 

I’ll finish off with a few bits and pieces, comments attached.

Above, still a few Nelson’s Sparrows around, below a Philadelphia Vireo on The Hawk, CSI.

About, a Magnolia straggler, below, Least Flycatcher – last of the empids?

Above, a Chestnut-sided Warbler, below a smart immature White-rumped Sandpiper.

A very two-tone October Blue-headed Vireo.

Incidentally, I am in the process of updating the Cape Sable Island site-guide so if you already have it, you might want to get the new version when published shortly. There will be a limited window to do so.

Still writing my Thayer’s Gull post and now I have a meadowlark one to do too.

And to paraphrase Chief Brody from one of my favourite films, Jaws: “We’re gonna need a bigger ball of string!”

Nice Self-found

There is a great deal of pleasure to be derived through seeing a rare bird. Not just the bird, which can be visually stunning, but the back story; where it came from and why, where it might end up and how much effort would you have to make to see one in its own habitat using your own, limited human power of locomotion. The best though are self-found, always. There is frisson of excitement that cannot be defined when you lift the bins (or ear) and come across a rarity. When you have not found many the excitement can manifest itself in many ways including a deluge of expletives, I know, I was that potty-mouth once!

With maturity, that can only really gained from experience, you take things calmer, bit it is still a great feeling, to find that rarity, it is still a great feeling to self-find that patch or province tick too, even if rarity as a description, is only tenuous.

Wednesday-27^th, September dawned foggy, just like another 19 of the days in the month. I tried Daniel’s Head but it was a bust, too thick and so I went home. Later, outside the house it seemed to clear and so I started  thinking sea birds and headed out. The fog continued lifting and the sun was now shining on Barrington and  so I purchased a cup of coffee and set of for Baccaro in anticipation. How could you not have that feeling when heading for one of the premier sea watching spots in NS in sea bird weather? Optimism changed to pissed-ism as I approached the spot, the road was clear but the fog covered the gravel access track to the light and the deep bass of the foghorn told me what I already knew. Still, I was there so I’d better go and see whether there was any visibility at all, there wasn’t.

Sitting there like a lemon I decided to take a quick look from the grassy edge close to the sea then scoot back home. I just got out of the car when a harsh call heading my way told me what to expect, Caspian Tern. Out of the mist three birds came past, one still calling, and vanished into the murk, gone forever. I hadn’t even take the camera out of the bag and sod’s law, this happens. Caspian is one of my favourite terns, certainly in the top 50 (counting skimmers as mutant terns). Encouraged I set up with the camera just in case they came back or more went past. Caspian Tern was formerly a hole in my NS list, true I could go to Amherst in the summer butt…

Nothing happened for a while, then the fog began to clear and in ten minutes I could see Blanch, game on. I started scanning and it soon became clear that we had a sea watch. Below is a link to the eBird checklist, you don’t need an account to open it if you want the details. As it got brighter the light got trickier and so I went back to CSI and headed for Daniel’s Head hoping to get Northern Fulmar and Red-necked Phalarope on this year’s CSI list, I didn’t.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39427131

The story continues on September-28^th. We had some proper rain from late morning onwards, prior to that it had been, you guessed it, foggy! By late afternoon it was looking like the day would peter out but then the rain eased and I headed out. As I arrived the wipers were turned off and I set to watching in improving conditions. The first bird was a jaeger, and the second and the next seven! So I settled into my sea watching mode and started counting. Birds were everywhere, jaegers, shearwaters and Northern Gannets so there had to be my CSI year Fulmar somewhere. Stopping only to disappoint the mossies via liberal applications of Deet I counted 48 Pomarine Jaegers an two Parasitic. Cory’s Shearwaters came to 190ish while Greats numbers 200+ On the horizon it buzzed with shears and jaegers, all too far to call. After a while the jaeger-fest eased and I sought altitude so that I could get a better look at the rafts I was losing in the 2m swell. It didn’t take long to pick out the glowing white heads of the Fulmars, but try as I might there were no phalaropes to be seen. The checklist for that little sortie is below.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39452528

I had hoped for more of the same today (September-29^th) but no. The sea was glassy and the light too bright, not that I’m complaining, a dawn without fog was welcome. To be fair I had expected these conditions, something about the sunset on the 28^th told me were we were in for a change.

 

Not a lot else to report. There are a few warblers but you have to dig for them. I spent part of today looking for the Magnificent Frigatebird that sat on the diddy church on Seal Island on the 28^th. It might do the sensible thing and come to CSI. You can be sure I’ll tell you if it does.

The American Avocet remains, favouring Stumpy Cove, CSI at high tide. Don’t know where I mean, then download the free CSI site guide while you still can.

 

This smattering of warblers and vireo were at Bear Point, September-29^th.

 

Obscure shot of a Black-bellied Plover – I just like the action about it.

 

Distant Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the yard.

With the addition of the Caspian Terns my Nova Scotia year list is now 273. If only I had been year listing proper, then I would have gone for the 21 species I don’t have, all easily twitched, and would now be closing in on 300, that would have made quite a big NS year.

Best shot I could managed of passing jaegers.

Come Again

Now that the last of our staying guests have gone, it is time to reflect on what has been a lovely summer. We were concerned about our cats and whether they would be alright with strangers, otherwise they would have had to go outside. As it was the cats got on well with everyone and so no guests had to stay in the yard at any point. It does seem an age since Steve and Tor arrived, then went and then Sandra’s folks arrived, stayed a month and then went, then Liz and Steve, who came and went and now Howard and Kate, gone but barely forgotten. So it’s quiet now, just us two and the cats and any mice that managed to squeeze into the loft – stomping around like Elephants, oh and the Northern Flicker that hammers on the gutter, the seven Racoons that whoop and scream at night and Aragorn, the spider that lives in the Pump Room, yes, it is quiet now.

Yesterday (September-26^th) dawned foggy for the 19^th time in September but, unperturbed we went off to Blanche for a look. It was very quiet for migrants but this Merlin sat feet away. Looking at the photos I see two things. The reflection of me sat in the van taking its picture and the drooping left wing which explains why it ran off into the scrub after a while. It will probably die, as it was meant to, and will feed other organisms on their journey through life.

 

On September-25^th we were to be found at sea in the Bay of Fundy, once more whale watching. Logistics again placed us on the Petit Passage boat on a flat, calm and seemingly fogless day. The whales were again excellent and entertained our guests. My focus was more on seeing a skua that is being reported as Great (no skuas seen) plus anything else that flapped. The birds were a bit scarce, although the trip ignored a lot of whales (and birds) further out, instead preferring to hang with a small group that we are now on first-name terms with. It is the thing with whale trips that they stay a long time with the nearest whales but then the customers generally only go there once and only for the whales so it is hard to complain (much).

Bad shots of a Pomarine Jaeger.

Our wandering with them took us to Mavillette, under-watched but often surprising, we got some photo ops of Common Loons and an immature Black Guillemot – I was pleased to add this plumage to my set of reference photos.

 

Prior to Mavillette we’d done the Yarmouth hotspots tour. Chebogue was quiet but this American Bittern all but danced the Can-Can at Sunday Point, while Forchu could only come up with a distant Eastern Wood-Pewee. Back on home soil this Eastern Phoebe on The Hawk was island tick #231 for the year. Stepping back to September-23^rd and a great day was had despite the shite visibility. We’d headed off to Baccaro only to get a text from Diane telling us of a Lark Sparrow on The Hawk. That was followed up by news of four Dickcissels in the same spot, and so a brisk drive back was undertake and soon we were ticking the sparrow and three of the famous four in short order. Then the American Avocet showed nicely on The Guzzle with all of its Pectoral friends, completing a memorable morning.

As the sun rose, we retreated back to Dunblevin for drinks and tiffin. It backed on the back deck but a text from Angela soon had us looking skywards, hawks were abroad. Slowly kettles formed and we counted c70 Broad-wings along with Sharpies, Red-tailed an Osprey and a bunch of Kestrels. The action was fairly short-lived but big thanks to Ang for the text, we might have missed the action otherwise.

Doc-shot below of the Eastern Wood-Pewee.

Eastern Phoebe (above), one of the Broad-winged Hawks over the yard.

And so the summer and September wind down and we enter the season of biggies. No doubt there will be some road miles involved and, if those two dicks don’t start entering their nuclear codes we might get to the end of 2017 with new records to beat. I need another five species to better my CSI year list and 11 to better my NS one. There are possibilities, some might even be considered certs, but I take nothing for granted. Whatever happens, 2017 will go down as way better than 2016 and for so many good reasons.

Baccaro Seawatch.

North-easterlies with any beans in September are the cue to get out and see some sea birds. Clues were there on Wednesday Sept-20^th 2017 when there were ‘lots’ of Great Shearwaters off Daniel’s Head in the evening. Add to the mix a skua sp (probably South Polar but no photo, no ID in my opinion, why?, because they are not easy to call and I say that after having seen very many Great Skuas over the years). A few Pomarine Jaegers were also imvolved, along with the inevitable, distant jaeger blobs (no, not another form of alcoholic drink). I had intended to return to the same spot the next morning, expecting rain to go with the 60kmph gusts but, on the Thursday morning the rain had left the forecast so I opted for Baccaro.

Arriving at 07:10 the light was good enough to start straight away although visibility was probably on 4-5km. The first bird I put the bins on was a Pomarine Jaeger, game on! Expecting more of the same it was disappointing to see that the jaeger track was a little further out. The track is the general route species take when passing offshore. The jaegers were loosely associating with the very many Great Shearwaters, chasing the odd one but mostly one the move. Photography was not at all easy in such conditions and so I largely didn’t bother.

 

This is how close to shore many of the Great Shearwater were when I arrived.

I thought I’d add this of the skua. The skua is high right, middle is a Great Shearwater, left is a jaeger, looking at the length of the hand maybe a Parasitic.

At 07:43 this flew past with a Jaeger. At the time I thought it two Jaegers together (binocular view) and so grabbed the camera to get a doc-shot. Looking on the PC it is clear that this is a skua and my gut feeling is Great on overall bulk alone I tried playing with the originals but couldn’t prise any detail to support anything other than skua. Later I had another Skua attending a flock of shearwaters, (my impression, South Polar but no photo), so who knows? The main photo shows the only two images usable pasted together, same bird, not a flock!

A dark Jaeger is all!

These were well offshore and spread over several hundred metres of sea. Great Shearwaters in very impressive numbers.

For just over an hour the action was frenetic with packs of jaegers going through. Significant was the lack of Black-legged Kittiwakes although the odd one did show up later. Some of the jaegers were near enough to see goo detail such as breast bands, tails, wing flashes etc., and so it was possible to start sorting them out. One of the closest birds (relatively) was a pale, lightweight jaeger with white shafts to the outer primaries, attenuated back end, undertail barring that was just about visible, no breast band and a dusky, uncapped head. It could only be a Long-tailed Jaeger.

I did manage to find a few Cory’s in the wheeling mass of Greats but it was not easy, especially as the watch changed with the arrival of a short rain squall. The visibility became poor and the birds further out right on the edge of the mist. The weather then cleared and the birds became more visible again but they largely stayed well offshore making ID much harder. As the morning wore on the sun came out, the sea went glassy and that was that. Below are the totals for the watch and the awful photos with comments as appropriate.

Pomarine Jaeger, 38. Parasitic Jaeger, 18, Unidentified Jaeger 112, Long-tailed Jaeger, 1. Skua, 2. Great Shearwater, 1000 minimum, Cory’s Shearwater, 10 minimum. Manx Shearwater, 1. Black-legged Kittiwake, 5. Northern Gannet, 800 approx. Atlantic Puffin, 1. Common Tern, 12. Plus various shorebirds and local sea birds and sea ducks. Oddly no Sooty Shearwaters, Northern Fulmars or Razorbills.

Below, a couple more shots of the Olive-sided Flycatcher from The Hawk, eats big flies!

Below, Nashville and Prairie Warbler.

Below, tis the season for Belted Kingfishers, if only they’d sit still.

Fog Off!

Since September 6^th, we’ve had 10 days of fog starts down here on Cape Sable Island. When you draw back the curtains and see fog yet again it can be a little draining, for a birder, as one of the prerequisites for birding (bird watching) is watching. True you can ‘tick’ birds by listening to them but that is not the point, so fog off fog I say and stay fogged off for a while! Not that the visual impediment has stopped birds being found and even seen here, in fact the birding has been rather good around about CSI.

When we last spoke we’d had some nice birds drop by, well a few more have joined in since and so I thought I’d just update you. We in Nova Scotia are still waiting to see what hurricane Jose will do. It has been fannying around off Carolina for a while now with no real purpose. It might dissipate, it might join forces with Maria, the next in a line of hurricanes not quite reaching us, or is may hop across the Atlantic and deposit birds into Cornish bushes for the edification of tick-hungry UK twitchers. The likelihood here is that we will just get wet, however, if Maria and Jose decide to go for the Fujiwhara Effect, (and no that is not the shits brought on by sushi), then both storms will circle each other and head north-east. The Weather Underground blog sees this as a good thing as it takes both hurricanes  away from land because, as we in Canada know, nothing worth talking about is to be found north of Maine (unless it has oil!).

On the morning foggy Sept-17^th, Sandra and I headed to Pinkney’s Point where Alix had found a Mourning Warbler. They are scarce around CSI although I still hope to find one here. His was with a warbler flock and so there was hope in seeing it. Luckily it came out with the rest of the birds, not quite posing but at least showing well enough for both of us to get good looks. Year bird 269 and well within my self-imposed year tick range plus, Sandra had not seen one in Nova Scotia before so a double-whammy as it were.

Returning to CSI, Sandra expressed a desire to see a Warbling Vireo that I’d found the evening before (and post last post) so we headed into the grey towards The Hawk. The vireo was absent but the Blue Grosbeak and one of the Scarlet Tanagers remained. A circuit of The Hawk revealed little else and so we set off home. As we left The Guzzle, a bird on a wire up a driveway rang a bell and no, it wasn’t a Budgie! A quick back-up and there was a Western Kingbird, CSI tick #265. A few doc-shots were grabbed and then folk called. The kingbird stayed all afternoon but the light deteriorated and the shots are all at the mediocre range.

 

The first Warbling Vireo, The Hawk bird – most people got to see it.

The Blue Grosbeak in better light.

Above, a Prairie Warbler – below one of the Scarlet Tanagers in better light.

The finding shots of the Western Kingbird.

The next day (Sept-18^th) dawned foggy but, only patchy and so I set off to try to find a few more island birds. You won’t be surprised to know that I keep records per month and each month I try to beat my personal best. I started at West Head, Newellton and had some nice birds but nothing new.

 

West Head birds. Red-eyed Vireo above, Northern Parula below.

Above, Blackpoll Warbler from New Road, The Hawk, below, a Yellow Warbler from the same spot.

Then I toured the sites, seeing more nice birds and adding Blackpoll Warbler to month’s score. It was mid-afternoon when I got home and tallied up the day, 76 species and only two short of my best day on CSI (78 in May-2016) so what choice did I have but to go out again. I hadn’t seen the kingbird and now it was personal. I thought, with luck, I might get near 80 and so I started at Bull’s Head Wharf and fortune smiled, a Warbling Vireo came out in the gathering gloom. Next in sequence was Stoney Island Road where a Nashville Warbler peeped at me. Now for The Hawk.

 

The Bull’s Head Wharf Warbling Vireo. This one was a ‘second look’ bird but the whitish throat and lack of yellow on the chest points the way.

Below, a Camera-shy Nashville Warbler.

As is often the case, The Hawk was shrouded in fog and the Western Kingbird was still AWOL. I sat a while looking for a tanager but with no luck, I was just one species short of bettering my best day. Up near the legendary house #38 on New Road, a lumpy flycatcher sat on a dead twig, Olive-sided! Late in the month for it to be here but very welcome. I pulled over just as Clyde came along and he added it to his CSI list. I put the song on and the flycatcher landed on the wire in front of us for photos. As far as I know there have only been three records of Olive-sided Flycatcher on CSI ever, all this year.

The Olive-sided Flycatcher (rubbish name) from The Hawk.

More doc-shots of the Western Kingbird on the big day.

 

I headed back down Hawk Point Road, my intention being to find one of the Canada Geese that think West Head is the bee’s knees. Just by Smith Road, a flycatcher was sat on a wire, yay, Western Kingbird and a nice, round 80 species in the day bag. At Stumpy Cove, sensitively named and possibly twinned with Cripple Creek, I found the American Avocet roosting with big and little legs on the weed, not a day tick but nice anyway. Then a Great Cormorant came over to give me an even nicer  figure of 81 for the day. That should have been it but later, a calling Great Horned Owl in the yard later rather iced the day list cake.

Dreaming avocet dreams.

So there we are , an inadvertent big day. I feel the total is modest and I think I could do 100+ in the right conditions. For now I’ll settle on 82 and who knows, if those hurricanes do their stuff in our direction and we still have a house after, I might give it a more serious go.

For the bird nerds and in the new AOU taxonomic sequence, here is the list with numbers in brackets for relevant birds in a CSI context: American Wigeon (2), American Black Duck, Mallard, Green-winged Teal (49), Common Eider Surf Scoter Hooded Merganser (3), Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, American Avocet (1), American Oystercatcher (2), Black-bellied Plover, American Golden-Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Whimbrel, Hudsonian Godwit (4), Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, Stilt Sandpiper (1), Sanderling, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper (25), Semipalmated Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Wilson’s Snipe (2), Solitary Sandpiper (1), Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, Black Guillemot, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Common Tern, Common Loon, Great Shearwater (1), Northern Gannet, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Horned Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Northern Flicker, American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Olive-sided Flycatcher (1), Western Kingbird (1), Warbling Vireo (1), Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Common Raven, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, Gray Catbird, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, American Goldfinch, Black-and-white Warbler, Nashville Warbler (1), Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Myrtle Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Savannah Sparrow, Nelson’s Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak (1), Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird (14), Baltimore Oriole.