Hola,
I spent forty minutes viewing the mudflats around midday today, from both
available viewing areas. It was warm, around 84, sunny with a bit of haze
and a nice easterly breeze. The water level was relatively high.
I started at the new Wetlands Overlook Park at the north end of Dayton
Street on the west side of the marsh. While this area is quite nice, and
offers viewing of previously impossible-to-see areas, it does restrict seeing a
good portion of the exposed mud. The only birds that I observed from this
side of the marsh were a few additional Snowy Egrets, Great Blue Herons, a
smallish mallard duckling with hen, and a couple passerine species that
were calling from the woods. It did offer a closer view of the two Western
Sandpipers briefly, before they flushed and flew around a corner.
From the Bay Avenue (Route 261) side, I took advantage of the convenient
platform that Calvert County/Town of North Beach erected under the sign
welcoming you to town. It is big enough for one person with a scope to scan
(and others to stand around with nothing to see), though I have got to think
that eventually the town will make it clear that they don't want people
standing on it. It was from this spot that I was able to see the bulk of the
shorebirds. Aside from the two Westerns, there were about a dozen
Semipalmated Sandpipers, 32 Leasts, a Semipalmated Plover, a Lesser Yellowlegs, and
a Spotted.
eBird list is below.
Cheers,
Todd
_http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11236409_
(http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11236409)
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia
Culpeper County
<blkvulture...>
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