Date: 2/25/13 8:52 pm
From: Josh Emm <apistopanchax...>
Subject: [MDBirding] St. Mary's Big Day 2/24/13


Yesterday Matt Anthony and I did a winter big day in Saint Mary's County. We started owling a little on the late side, getting out the door around 5:30. We hit Elms and got our Great Horned Owls for the day. While we were driving down to Point Lookout to try for Sedge Wren, a Barred Owl flew across the road. I slammed on the brakes and turned into the nearest road, which is pretty much exactly where the owl flew across. After playing recordings in an attempt to elicit a response from the owl, we stopped to listen and immediatley heard PEEENT... PEEENT! American Woodcocks were displaying! Neither of us had ever seen this before, with AMWO being a life bird for Matt. The display was mindblowing. I will never forget that moment. After a stop at Cornfield Harbor (love the name) and Jocob's Farm (where I got my life Eastern Meadowlarks, beautiful birds), we went onward to Point Lookout. First bird we saw at the point was a White-winged Scoter. We also had a Marsh Wren calling from the pond just north of the parking lot. My favorite thing there though, was listening to the Black Scoters singing. I could honestly listen to that all day long. It's hauntingly beautiful. After the point, we went back to Jacobs Farm in hopes of finding an Orange-crowned Warbler with no luck. We went down Long Neck and Camp Brown Rds in search of the White-crowned Sparrows that we were never to find. There were, however, healthy aggregations of Killdeer on both roads (20+) but no lapwings. We stopped by Patti's house and picked up Red-breasted Nuthatch, Pine Siskin, Purple Finch, and Mourning Dove. We barely missed White-breasted Nuthatch which came back to her feeders about an hour after we left. She also had Wild Turkeys earlier in the day. We left Patti's and headed towards Elms EEC. to look for the Barrow's Goldeneye. We were unable to find it, but the tide was in and the beach was almost impassable due to downed trees. We then went to Beauvue Ponds and picked up a bunch of waterfowl species including Green-winged Teal, which I'm told can be difficult to find in Saint Mary's. We ended the day in Leonardtown with a pair of Forster's Terns patrolling the wharf. I ended the day with 84 species. Matt had 85, haing found a Grey Catbird...
Here's the list.

1 Canada Goose
2 Tundra Swan
3 Gadwall
4 American Wigeon
5 American Black Duck
6 Mallard
7 Green-winged Teal
8 Redhead
9 Ring-necked Duck
10 Greater Scaup
11 Lesser Scaup
12 Surf Scoter
13 White-winged Scoter
14 Black Scoter
15 Long-tailed Duck
16 Bufflehead
17 Common Goldeneye
18 Hooded Merganser
19 Red-breasted Merganser
20 Ruddy Duck
21 Common Loon
22 Pied-billed Grebe
23 Horned Grebe
24 Northern Gannet
25 Double-crested Cormorant
26 Great Cormorant
27 Great Blue Heron
28 Black Vulture
29 Turkey Vulture
30 Northern Harrier
31 Bald Eagle
32 Red-shouldered Hawk
33 Red-tailed Hawk
34 Virginia Rail
35 Killdeer
36 American Woodcock
37 Bonaparte's Gull
38 Ring-billed Gull
39 Herring Gull
40 Great Black-backed Gull
41 Forster's Tern
42 Mourning Dove
43 Great Horned Owl
44 Barred Owl
45 Belted Kingfisher
46 Red-bellied Woodpecker
47 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
48 Downy Woodpecker
49 Yellow-shafted Flicker
50 Pileated Woodpecker
51 Amerocan Kestrel
52 Blue Jay
53 American Crow
54 Carolina Chickadee
55 Tufted Titmouse
56 Red-breasted Nuthatch
57 Brown-headed Nuthatch
58 Marsh Wren
59 Carolina Wren
60 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
61 Eastern Bluebird
62 American Robin
63 Grey Catbird*
64 Northern Mockingbird
65 Brown Thrasher
66 European Starling
67 Myrtle Warbler
68 Eastern Towhee
69 Field Sparrow
70 Savannah Sparrow
71 Fox Sparrow
72 Song Sparrow
73 Swamp Sparrow
74 White-throated Sparrow
75 Slate-colored Junco
76 Northern Cardinal
77 Red-winged Blackbird
78 Eastern Meadowlark
79 Common Grackle
80 Brown-headed Cowbird
81 Purple Finch
82 House Finch
83 Pine Siskin
84 American Goldfinch
85 House Sparrow

Josh Emm
HdG, MD

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