For the past three days the east coast of Florida has been getting very large numbers of Greater Shearwaters from shore. On Thursday there were over 400 Greaters seen along with 30 Cory's and 4 Audubon's in a little over an hour from Sebastian Inlet. A Band-rumped Storm-petrel and Brown Booby were also present. The next day there were fewer birds around, only 6 Greaters and 2 Cory's, but three Brown Boobies and a Wilson's Storm-petrel. A dead bird was found at Coconut Point.
There were a few more birds around today up and down the beach. At my first stop, Coconut Point, there was a Greater Shearwater sitting close to shore in the ocean. I threw my binoculars and cell phone in the car and returned to dive into the water to try and catch the bird. After finally making it past where the waves break, I made it out to the bird and realized that it would be too hard to pick up and swim back to shore with. Instead tried pushing the exhausted bird to shore, but gave up after a while and returned to shore exhausted myself. After a while the bird was pushed onto shore by a few large waves and the bird slipped through my hands a few times and was picked up by a fisherman who saw my failed attempts to catch the bird. Once in my hands I could feel the birds heart racing as it nervously tried to free itself. While this was going on I explained to the fisherman what was happening, how all of these birds are exhausted and washing up on shore and he seemed interested in the bird. I took it to a local wildlife hospital where some turtle researchers were bringing some more shearwaters in. On my way home I found five Greaters and two Cory's as well as a healthy population of Least Terns with young and a group of 18 Black Skimmers.
 Greater Shearwater found at Coconut Point
 Greater Shearwater at Coconut Point
 Greater Shearwater at Eau Gallie Causeway and A1A
 Cory's Shearwater near the same location
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