Cormorant grouping on the south west corner of Great Race Rock.
This year on Dec 27, the North East swell was too significant to allow the Ecoguardian to launch the station boat to pick us up for the Christmas Bird Count, so Alex Fletcher completed it on his own. Due to the high winds, there were very few birds remaining on the island but he did get a good count of those there by walking around the island. From remote camera 1 I was able to see the two concentration of gulls and the one group of Cormorants on the main island.
This picture is included to help in identification.
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- General shot of gulls on the southwest side of the island
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- General shot of the gulls on the north- east side of the island
Alex got some good pictures of the gulls and it seems that most if not all are Thayer’s Gulls.
Thayer’s gulls on the north-east corner of the island
Thayer’s Gulls photo by Alex Fletcher
See the Christmas Bird Counts at Race Rocks back to 2001:
Christmas Bird Count 2015
bald eagle: 3 A, 2 J
Cormorants: 174
black oyster catchers: 40
Thayer’s gulls 192
Buffleheads 2 (1 pair)
Black turnstones: 29
Dunlin: 2
Harlequin Duck 1
Marine mammals:
Northern sea lion: 76
Cali sea lion: 40