Date: 1/7/13 8:33 pm
From: Josh Emm <apistopanchax...>
Subject: [MDBirding] Birding the Eastern Shore - Crossbills and Redpolls (1/7/2013)


Good evening to all,
Today Matt Hafner, Matt Anthony, and I went down the Eastern Shore in hopes of getting some really good birds. We arrived on Assateague Island just before sunrise. For the first bit of morning light we scoped out the causway. There were a bunch of waterfowl present, mostly Brant, Horned Grebe, and many gulls including an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull on the wing. When we were done there we headed over to see the Northern Saw-whet Owl that's been hanging out on the island. We stopped for a moment and had a group of 4 flyover Common Redpoll and a pair of very cooperative female Red Crossbills! We watched the crossbills for 10-15 minutes and then went to see the owl. When we found him, he was sleeping with a mouse in his talons (pretty neat).
Next, we went to Homer Gudelsky Park (nothing much of note) and then onward to the OC inlet. I had a very close Common Loon with a crab for lunch that had some absolutely gorgeous eyes. We scoped out the inlet, but found that most of the birds were too far out over the Atlantic to identify. The Common Eiders were not present, which was kind of a bummer (I still need them for my life list).
Next stop on our route was a little park in Salisbury where a Nashville Warbler had been seen yesterday (1/6) We found him very easily and many excellent pictures were taken.
While en route to Blackwater, we stopped by a farm called Smokey Glen or something like that on Middletown Branch Rd. There were about 1000 Tundra Swan in the field here and at very least 150 Tree Swallow! An amazing bird this time of year so far from the ocean.
We finished the day at Blackwater NWR with a Yellow Palm Warbler, Eastern Phoebe, and a Delmarva Fox Squirrel (a life mammal for me). We tried scoping Shorter's Marsh for Short-eared Owl, but came up empty; although there were at least 18 Northern Harriers flying over the marsh.
PICTURES
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75557613@N08
Overall a very good day. We had 98 species.

Snow Goose
Brant
Canada Goose
Tundra Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
American Black Duck
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Surf Scoter
Black Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Red-throated Loon
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Sanderling
Purple Sandpiper
Dunlin
Wilson's Snipe
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Winter Wren
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Nashville Warbler
Yellow Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Myrtle Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Eastern Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
Red Crossbill (probable type 3)
Common Redpoll
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Josh Emm
HdG, MD

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