Folks, I met Ray Carter at Pt LO at about 0830 today, 12 Dec 98, and we birded the State Park area and a few spots that were just a few miles outside the park proper (like Longbranch Rd) ending about 1600. The morning was windy from the SE, 10-20mph, about 44 F warming to 49 by afternoon with the wind dropping to near zero after 1030. (The bay went from light chop with occasional white caps to near glass.) It was 95% overcast. Highlights of the day were huge numbers of Northern Gannets diving 1 mile SSE of the Point - at least 70 adults and possibly 140 if the other darker birds in the flock were immature No. Gannets, huge numbers of sea ducks (Scaup, Oldsquaw, Scoters, Goldeneyes, and Buffleheads), an Orange-crowned Warbler in a guild of Chicadees, Kinglets, and Yellowrumps nr the fishing pier and a Palm Warbler nr the Pt parking lot. The species observed and numbers follow. Red-throated Loon - 13 Horned Grebe - 145 Northern Gannet - 70 adults and prob. 70 imm. in huge feeding flock SSE of the Pt Double-crested Cormorants - 65 Great Blue Heron - 10 Tundra Swan - 7 Canada Goose - 42 Mallard - 9 No. Pintail - 2 Greater Scaup - 100 Oldsquaw - 500-1000? more?? (everywhere!) Black Scoter - 500 Surf Scoter - 125 White-winged Scoter - 4 Common Goldeneye - 116 Bufflehead - 500-1000? more?? (everywhere!) Hooded Merganser - 4 Red-breasted Merganser - 14 Black Vulture - 1 Turkey Vulture - 22 Bald Eagle - 5: 3 ad., 2 ad on nest nr SP boat launch area Red-Shouldered Hawk - 1 (+1 in-route) Red-tailed Hawk - 2 (+1 in-route) Am. Kestrel - 1 Killdeer - 3 Boneparte's Gull - 150 Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Forster's Tern - 15 Mourning Dove - 1 Barred Owl - 1 Belted Kingfisher - 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1 Downy Woodpecker - 1 No. Flicker - 5 Blue Jay - 10 Am. Crow - 50+ Fish Crow - 2 Carolina Chicadee - 22 Brown-headed Nuthatch - 4 Carolina Wren - 12 Golden-crowned Kinglet - 8 Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 5 Eastern Bluebird - 7 Northern Mockingbird - 5 Starlings Orange-crowned Warbler - 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler - 90 Palm Warbler - 1 No. Cardinal - 30 Song Sparrow - 40 Swamp Sparrow - 7 White-throated Sparrow - 20 Dark-eyed Junco - 13 Red-winged Blackbird - 104 House Finch - 7 Am. Goldfinch - 7 House Sparrow Kurt Gaskill, kurtcapt87@aol.com