There was a pretty decent selection of birds for the last week of the count. Redpolls have been around the area frequently, there have still been a few grebes to count, and the recent duck species are definitely more of the “winter duck” species. A Great Black-backed Gull was seen on the 8th.
Some noteworthy numbers include 120 Bufflehead on the 9th, and 777 Long-tailed Ducks on the 10th.
The last of the eBird lists… 11/6 11/7 11/8 11/9 11/10
In the Fall of 2018, 29,034 waterbirds were counted, 17,632 of them being ducks/geese. It is likely that many of the cormorants and gulls that contributed to the count were counted more than once, so in reality the waterbird total would be smaller.
Here are McGulpin Point’s waterbird species totals for fall 2018…
Snow Goose – 1
Canada Goose – 1,725
Goose sp. – 6
Mute Swan – 13
Gadwall – 6
American Wigeon – 79
American Black Duck – 7
Mallard – 105
Blue-winged Teal – 51
Northern Shoveler – 7
Northern Pintail – 20
Green-winged Teal – 35
Teal sp. – 34
Dabbling Duck sp. – 42
Canvasback – 1
Redhead – 2,027
Greater Scaup – 96
Lesser Scaup – 91
Greater/Lesser Scaup – 131
Aythya sp. – 532
Surf Scoter – 4
White-winged Scoter – 759
Black Scoter – 22
Surf/Black Scoter – 61
Scoter sp. – 42
Long-tailed Duck – 5,255
Bufflehead – 340
Common Goldeneye – 173
Hooded Merganser – 9
Common Merganser – 554
Red-breasted Merganser – 1,521
Common/Red-breasted Merganser – 172
Duck sp. – 3,711
Red-throated Loon – 11
Common Loon – 328
Loon sp. – 13
Horned Grebe – 116
Red-necked Grebe – 617
Grebe sp. – 2
Double-crested Cormorant – 6,210
Great Blue Heron – 13
Great Egret – 19
Bonaparte’s Gull – 32
Ring-billed Gull – 1,988
Herring Gull – 500
Great Black-backed Gull – 3
Gull sp. – 107
Caspian Tern – 2
Common Tern – 15
Tern sp. – 4
Sandhill Crane – 1,377
American Golden-Plover – 1
Sanderling – 6
Least Sandpiper – 1
Peep sp. – 10
Spotted Sandpiper – 25
Greater Yellowlegs – 1
Shorebird sp. – 1
Also of note was a total of 682 Monarch Butterflies that were seen migrating south from McGulpin Point.
Although this was a below average season, it was definitely an interesting fall. I wonder what waterbirds will pass the straits next season!
