Four friends of mine from Joisey were in town this weekend for the Maine Audubon Pelagic trip that was cancelled (tough to argue with that call based on the weekend’s weather). My friends needed their seabird fix, so this morning David, Ben, Blake, Inga and I headed to the Lobster Shack at Dyer Point in Cape Elizabeth for a bit of land-based seawatching.

The rain was tapering off, and the fog was being held at bay, so visibility was not too bad at all for most of the time – not good, but hey, we could see birds. Plus, we were under a porch – not in the pouring rain. And, there were a decent amount of birds passing by. There were lots of close-up Northern Gannets, and numerous flocks of Scoters – especially White-wings using the tail wind to head south. David spotted one Jaeger but his lousy directions (just kidding buddy!) did not allow the rest of us to get on the bird.

Here’s the totals for the morning:
Start: 7:30am. NE 24, heavy rain, fog, poor visibility.
End: 10:00am. NE 18, drizzle, light fog, moderate visibility.

Common Loon: 13
Northern Gannet: 100+
Double-crested Cormorant: 17
Great Cormorant: 2
Canada Goose: 37
American Black Duck: 18
Mallard: 2
Northern Pintail: 1
Green-winged Teal: 1
Common Eider: 5 (heading south, dozens more on water)
Surf Scoter: 121
White-winged Scoter: 302
Black Scoter: 67
Unidentified dark-winged Scoter: 45
Unidentified Scoter: 40
Unidentified duck: 19
UNIDENTIFIED JAEGER: 1
Laughing Gull: 5
Bonaparte’s Gull: 3
Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls
Black Guillemot: 3