Went out to Cape Hateras to scout around for sanderling. It was
kind of breathtaking standing out on the point of the spit which
formed the cape with the gulf stream a few miles further out. The
sea was really choppy, however the skies were filled with birds. The
numbers were staggering:

Tens of thousands of double-creasted cormorants. There was a
constant stream of birds flying back inland - all day I was there.
The CBC counts reckon on around 50-60,000 birds there. I'd say this
would be a bit on the low side.

Thousands and thousands of gannets (third most numerous bird).
thousands of birds were plunge diving with thousands more battling
their way up the coast, heading into a NE wind - well almost a gale
!!!

Tens of thousands of Bonaparte's gulls - all along the coast from
the Cape northwards. Perhaps tens of thousands is a bit of an
understatement - probably the most numerous bird.

Hundreds of red-throated loons, all along the coastline. Lots of
common loons (dozens rather than hundreds). Heaps of horned grebes.

6 razorbills - difficult to pick out form among the waves. There
were a lot of murres. These six were the only ones I got a good
enough look at to ID properly.

Thousands of ring-billed gulls, dozens of Froster's terns, 20 - 30
willet along the shore.

Phew !!!!! It was literally impossible to count anything, there was
so much activity I could not even comprehend where or how to start
!!!!!

The Outer Banks - not the Grand Banks as I erroneously reported
when I departed from Seattle - shame on all you Americans for not
pointing out my error ;-) are basically one big sand dune.
Vegetation is relatively sparse, but there are some stretches of
maritime conifer forest comprised mostly of long-leaved pine but
more importantly juniper. The juniper forest and just about any
piece of scrub has a yellow-rumped warbler in it or more accurately
- 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 ..... I literally must have seen thousands
of yellow-rumps over the weekend. It was the same thing further
south last weekend. I must have seen a sizeable fraction of the
north american population by now :-))

Other interesting stuff:

1 lesser black-backed gull, 1 orange-crowned warbler, 1 tri-colored
heron, dozens of American kestrels, loads of grackles (boat-tailed
and common), 15 eastern meadowlarks.

2 dead turtles (not sure what species) they must have been really
old as both carapaces were crusted in barnacles, many well over 1
inch in diameter.

Pea Island NWR was covered in snow geese (hundreds, maybe even
1-2000) , and all manner of ducks. There were also a couple of
hundred swans.

Needless to say I hardly found any sanderling. I must have checked
about 15 - 20 miles of beach, without seeing a single bird. It
wasn't until I moved north to the top of Pea Island NWR that I found
about 30. Hmmm, time to rethink this move to the Carolinas. I
certainly won't be doing any banding here, only foraging behaviour -
not necessarily a bad thing, however it makes me really "homesick"
for Seattle !!!!!

Stuart - "Restless in Raleigh"