Amusingly collective

A group of razorbills afloat together are known as a 'raft' but here several are launching themselves into the air, their flight paths briefly inscribed upon the sea. I wondered whether another collective noun would fit the purpose better and felt rather pleased to come up with the word 'strop' - a strop* of razorbills.

But it turned not to be original, it's already on record. According to a report in the Buffalo News of 15th November 1999,The Buffalo Ornithological Society celebrated its 70th anniversary with a dinner at the Protocol Restaurant in Cheektowaga during which they rose to the challenge of contriving some new names for flocks of different birds. Following on from the already established 'murder of crows' and 'murmuration of starlings' the banqueting ornithologists came up with the following:

...for our local birds: a college of cardinals, a cord of wood ducks, a chain of bobolinks, a dynasty of kinglets, a barrel of woodcocks, an awning of canvasbacks, an earful of waxwings, a grain of sanderlings, a harassment of harriers, a wake of mourning doves, a treasury of goldfinches, a tyranny of kingbirds, a cone of pine warblers, a Gallup of redpolls, a foreclosure of bank swallows, a guttering of flickers, a dean of martins, a show of peeps, a pint of bitterns, an RSVP (or perhaps SVP) of egrets, a graveyard of shovelers, a little house of prairie warblers, a mootor of scoters, a curmudgeon of coots, for golfers an iron of chipping sparrows, a realm of kingfishers, a complaint of grouse, a reading of palm warblers, and (our favorite) a dribble of pewee.
Going somewhat farther afield we have: a gallon of petrels, an embarrassment of red-faced cormorants, a moustache of whiskered terns, a strop of razorbills, a fanfare of trumpeter swans, a gang of masked ducks, a cotillion of elegant terns, a bowl of spoonbills, a family of partridges, an audience of clapper rails, a collar of ruffs, a prayer of godwits, a range of mountain plovers, a bunch of bananaquits, a guffaw of laughing gulls, a blush of scarlet ibis, an exile of Bonaparte's gulls, an easel of painted buntings, a stampede of cattle egrets, a Gordion of knots, a shish kebab of skuas, a ladle of dippers and an orphanage of anis.
As one contributor to the list concluded: 'I'm going to retire now -- to an asylum of cuckoos'.

* A razor strop was, in the days before disposables, a leather strap used for sharpening blades. Another form of strop, an outburst of temper or a hissy-fit we might say today, is a British colloquialism with a completely different etymology.

For any others fascinated by words I recommend this journal in which the OED word of the day is used in each blip throughout the year.

What could be a collective noun for ornithologists?
And for collective nouns...?