Last few days of waterbird counting have been fairly eventful. August 23 and 24 were slow compared to the first three days of the count, but I did have 5 Great Egrets on the 23rd. August 25 brought a nice diversity of ducks finally, with 5 species seen. On August 26, an unidentified jaeger species was seen harassing a Herring Gull and then flying west extremely fast. Due to distance, identification was nearly impossible. August 27 was rainy and visibility was low. On August 28, I had my best day of Red-necked Grebes thus far with 120 birds. In addition, I had an adult Pomarine/Parasitic Jaeger flying fairly close to shore. Unfortunately, my view of the jaeger was primarily of it flying directly away from me so I couldn’t visualize its tail streamers or body structure very well, which prevented me from making a definitive ID. Hopefully the third time is a charm and I will have another jaeger come by that I can actually identify.
August 23
Canada Goose – 35
Hooded Merganser – 1
Common Loon – 19
Red-necked Grebe – 10
Double-crested Cormorant – 113
Great Blue Heron – 1
Great Egret – 5
Turkey Vulture – 2
Northern Harrier – 1
Bald Eagle – 2
Merlin – 1
August 24 — Rainy and overcast
Canada Goose – 9
Mallard – 2
Common Loon – 8
Horned Grebe – 1
Red-necked Grebe – 1
Double-crested Comorant – 99
Great Blue Heron – 5
Green Heron – 1
August 25
Canada Goose – 25
American Black Duck – 1
Mallard – 7
Blue-winged Teal – 1
Redhead – 2
White-winged Scoter – 2
Common Loon – 17
Horned Grebe – 4
Red-necked Grebe – 46
Double-crested Cormorant – 146
Great Blue Heron – 1
Great Egret – 2
Turkey Vulture – 5
Northern Harrier – 1
Bald Eagle – 1
Least Sandpiper -3
August 26
Mallard – 1
Redhead – 2
White-winged Scoter – 3
Common Loon – 31
Red-necked Grebe – 37
Double-crested Comorant – 75
Great Blue Heron – 3
jaeger sp. – 1
Turkey Vulture – 9
Northern Harrier – 2
Bald Eagle – 5
August 27 — Intermittent rain
Mute Swan – 2
White-winged Scoter – 3
Common Loon -6
Red-necked Grebe – 13
Double-crested Cormorant – 156
Great Blue Heron – 1
Common Tern – 2
Spotted Sandpiper – 1
August 28
Canada Goose – 6
Mallard – 1
Common Merganser – 10
Common Loon – 29
Horned Grebe – 3
Red-necked Grebe – 120
Double-crested Cormorant – 119
Great Blue Heron – 1
Pomarine/Parasitic Jaeger – 1
Turkey Vulture – 2
Northern Harrier – 1
Bald Eagle – 3
