Somer's Point Evening Cruise

Last evening's weekly cruise through the Great Egg Harbor Bay produced a number of highlights, even though breezy conditions, and perhaps a low tide, possibly suppressed the number of birds seen. The Duke o' Fluke encountered both Night-Herons with regularity, as well as the two scarcer herons and quite a few southbound shorebirds, including 18 Whimbrel and 83 Short-billed Dowitchers. There were a few juvenile Osprey stretching their wings under the watchful eyes of their parents, and numbers of juvenile Laughing Gulls are also on the rise. Oh, and the number of Black Skimmers on Malibu Beach is just truly impressive- I hear that over 1,000 were counted there last weekend.

Trip list is included below.

Location: Great Egg Harbor Bay Cruise
Observation date: 7/28/09
Number of species: 42

American Black Duck 7
Double-crested Cormorant 9
Great Egret 54
Snowy Egret 36
Little Blue Heron 7
Tricolored Heron 6
Black-crowned Night-Heron 26
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 24
Glossy Ibis 28
Osprey 42
Clapper Rail 13
Black-bellied Plover 1
Semipalmated Plover 3
American Oystercatcher 23
Greater Yellowlegs 4
Willet (Eastern) 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 3
Whimbrel 18
Sanderling 6
Semipalmated Sandpiper 15
Least Sandpiper 3
Short-billed Dowitcher 83
Laughing Gull 792 (61 juveniles)
Herring Gull 188
Great Black-backed Gull 68
Least Tern 38
Common Tern 147
Forster's Tern 1
Black Skimmer 750
Rock Pigeon 3
Mourning Dove 2
Fish Crow 38
Purple Martin 6
Barn Swallow 4
Marsh Wren 1
European Starling 75
Seaside Sparrow 9 (counted by K. Rossner)
Song Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird 91
Common Grackle 1
Boat-tailed Grackle 54
House Sparrow 3

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)