Some interesting tidbits from Scott Leslie’s Sea and Coastal Birds of North America: A Guide to Observation, Understanding and Conservation. Nothing unusual, but nothing I’d thought of before either:
- Seabirds (gannets, alcids, cormorants) tend to bunch up for breeding, favoring crowded, but out-of-the-way sites.
- Shorebirds, on the other hand, disperse widely for breeding, but bunch up at migratory stopover sites.
- Sea ducks, which we don’t see down here in South Florida, tend to be widely dispersed almost all the time, but might flock in winter.
The fact that I didn’t know these things about this entire category of birds means I’d better do some more observing, and some more reading…