The weather turned chilly with an overcast sky and the wind was coming in from the north-west. The tide was extremely high and other than over 100 Laughing Gulls, one lone Ring-billed Gull and two Black Skimmers, we had few shorebirds on the beach. There were Boat-tailed Grackles on the wires and some saw a lone Bald Eagle fly by.
The orange buoys had Cormorants, Royal Terns, Forster's Terns and two Herring Gulls. The rock jetty's had Ruddy Turnstones, Willets, and a lone Sanderling along with more Royal Terns.
A walk out to the boat ramp yielded a Clapper Rail that answered a call and a few Lesser Scaup, 4 Red-breasted Mergansers (two flew by, giving the group a look at their wing pattern in flight) and 3 Common Loons.
Other species seen were Brown Pelicans, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Great Blue Heron, Yellow-rumped warblers, and Dunlin (seen by a few).
Afterwards, 15 of us had dinner at the Hardwood Smokehouse BBQ.
And a good time was had by all....... Ken S.