Please pardon the previous post, not sure what happened.
Great news Rob!, but it made me ill to have missed any of these! On Sunday I poured over google earth maps and decided that either Fort Washington or Piscataway would be the best chance for spectacular birds from this storm if observing in PG County. However, we did not lose power, and I watched the news much of yesterday with horror and fascination. I feel so bad about the loss of coastal habitat. Regretfully, the news made me change my mind. What a tragic mistake. The Potomac would be better based on the storm's track and river's alignment below D.C., but I decided to be safe (many urges for residents to stay off the roads), thinking maybe I could still get something good at home around Jug Bay. Don't misread this, I am not saying anyone who went out today was unsafe; I applaud all the birders who got to go out and safely enjoy the excitement. I wish I had gone with plan A.
All day I checked for posts on the listserve. I had a couple interesting observations but no storm birds, and the few reports made me hopeful as I kept trying, but it was a total bust here.
I saw no birders Jug Bay today, and thought it was odd that there were no posts elsewhere today from Rob, Mikey, Dave, or other noteworthy PG birders, so I figured okay, maybe it wasn't such a crappy decision to stay home ... until I read this! Sometimes I wish I never turned on the news.
If you care to read about mundane non-storm birds that may have otherwise been noteworthy or interesting on some other normal day, read on. Otherwise, if there are any storm birds left in the mid-Potomac tomorrow, I'll hopefully see some tomorrow morning before I go to work (I doubt it... they'll probably be over at Jug Bay)!
Birds seen today:
I watched Jug Bay from home about 3.5 hours, Mt Calvert 2 hours, and Selby's Landing for 2.5 hours. The park was closed but you could park at gate and walk in. It's not a long walk; at Selby's only about twice as far as the walk from Bryan Point Rd down to the new boardwalk at Piscataway ;), but it actually took me a long time today. Due to high river level, many tidal area birds were sheltering in the totally saturated upland fields (extensive puddles) adjacent to the river. I quartered across the field to save time getting to the best vantage to watch the river. My transect covered only about 1/4 of the field, but I kept flushing snipe - more than I have ever had anywhere. I saw 92 (actual count), mostly in groups of 1-6, and am certain these were all separate birds. I kept flushing new birds every 10-20 yards! I estimate there easily may have been three times that number due to the small percent of habitat I covered. I also saw or flushed 19 Killdeer, a Greater Yellowlegs, a Dunlin, 3 Pectoral Sands, 27 Pipits, 3 Meadowlarks, 19 Sav Sparrows, a Vesper Sparrow, and umpteen dozen Song, Swamp, and White-throated Sparrows there.
At Mt Calvert I had 8 sparrow species including 4 White-crowneds, a nice adult male harrier hunting over the field, but not much else noteworthy. Lots of waterfowl at Jug Bay, and of the many hundreds present I looked at every single duck and goose, but there were no Brant, Scoters, or other unusual birds. The only shorebirds I saw moving down the river all day were a Dunlin, 2 Killdeer, and 3 Gr Yellowlegs.
At home the number of siskins today grew to 150+. Hard to count them, but I got 155. Only consolation today was a new yard bird (life). Hard to come by now, so I can't say the day was a complete bust. I am not certain but I don't think it had anything to do with Sandy or the weather, but I saw 2 Ravens around mid day. Perched in a treetop along the old railroad R-O-W, Anne Arundel Co., about 50 yards from the edge of the marsh at the river. Weird, nice surprise.
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD
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