Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 23:10:24 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Coast highlights 26 May: ibis, Mississippi Kite, BN Stilt e= tc. Comments: cc: Georgearmistead@hotmail.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, I must apologize for not getting this out sooner. My computer was acting= up last night and still isn't quite at its best. In any event, I wanted to = post highlights from yesterday's birding on the shore, along with a couple oth= er things. I spent essentially all day yesterday birding Worcester County on a circuitous route home from my sister's weekend graduation from Mount Holy= oke College in South Hadley, Massachussetts. Not quitre a straight line connecting western MA - Ocean City - Annapolis, but what the hey. It tur= ned out to be one of my better days ever birding Maryland. From 12:05-12:20 there was a very vocal Black Rail among other nocturnal regulars at Fairmont W.M.A., Somerset County, heard just after the passag= e of some string thunderstorms. One stretch I had driven through in Salisbury= 30 minutes before was the most violent weather I have ever experienced on th= e road and had me fully expected to be swept off the ground in a tornado. = In any event, the rails were farily vocal in the calm after the storm. I camped the night at Cedar Hall Wharf s. of Pocomoke City, where a Least Bittern was calling across the river (in Somerset County) the night long = and still going at 6 a.m.. The rail and bittern made #239 and 240 for my Somerset list. I spent the morning along the Pocomoke River, where the regular breeders (Prothonotary, YT Warbler, Woerm- eaters etc.) were singing in force. A Worm-eating Warbler carrying food at Hickory Pt. struck me as surprisingl= y early to have hatched young. I then made my way to E.A.Vaughn (north section) and headed towards t= he large pond. Both ponds have been partly drained and the low water levels= are very attractive to shorebirds, ibis, and herons. It is as interesting a birding spot as ever, and this is one of my favorite places in the state anyway. After getting down to the pond, practically the first ibis I loo= ked at showed a noticeable pinkish area on the lores. Through binoculars it = was hard to be sure at that distance (c. 150 ft) but through a scope I had excellent views of an obvious immature WHITE- FACED IBIS. As an immature= , this bird had a brownish neck and head with numerous white streaks, and somewhat duller body plumage than adult Glossies nearby. This bird had p= ale pinkish loral skin, a crimson eye, and no pale birder to the bare skin of= the face. When I first saw it it was the only immature around and I never go= t a side-by- side comparison of the white-faced with an immature Glossy, in o= rder to compare back color and leg color. After watching it for about 5 minut= es (8:40-8:45), all the ibis flew and the White-faced landed in the center o= f the pond near one of the islands, but mostly out of view. I left at that point to make phone calls. I managed to track down Michael O'Brien's tou= r group in the field and told him about the bird. I returned at about 11:00 to find that Michael and his entourage had = just arrived. We worked our way slowly towards the pond checking every flyby = ibis carefully. At one point I saw an immature bird that I felt to be the White-faced just as it dropped into the pond in a pocket that is out of sight. Despite 1:30 of looking thereafter, we did not relocate the White-faced. Those seeking the ibis this weekend should know the following. E.A.Vaughn, north section, is due east of Girdletree and accessed off Tay= lor Landing Rd. and the entrance is well-signed. The entrance road runs abou= t 0.1 mi with hedgerows on both sides before opening up into a large field (good for kite watching). The road splits with the left fork signed "No Vehicles" and running down between the two ponds. Park here and walk dow= n (take note - the TICKS are abundant) between the ponds. It has thus far = only been seen in the south pond - that is the larger of the two ponds and the= one on the right as you walk the road. I first saw it close to the road abou= t halfway along the north margin of that south pond. It fed contentedly th= ere with 20+ other ibis before taking alarm and flying to the center of the p= ond just off one of the islands. Ibis, egrets, and other waders seemed to re= ally favor a totally obscured pool in the pond and periodically were startled = and flew out. For what it's worth the pool is about 50 ft off the road and j= ust east of the one pine tree in the large pond. Take note that any feeding groups of ibis should be approached VERY cautiously as they are extremely skittish. Please keep in mind also that the ibis movearound consierably,= and probably use other feeding areas like E.A.Vaughn (central section), Bayvi= ew Farm (private), Truitt's Landing Rd. (Oh no, not again...) Etc... As this ibis is an immature it is a different bird from last year, bu= t I firmly believe that these East Coast White-faced Ibi fall in with colonie= s of Glossy Ibis and hang with them each summer. Birds in New York and Delawa= re have shown some site fidelity, and Maine's only record was from a Glossy = Ibis colony. I would not be surprised if last year's adult is around also, an= d it wouldn't shock me to learn that this is the offspring of a mated pair tha= t breeds somewhere in a Glossy colony in Chincoteague bay. Just musing... The highlights at Vaughn were: 2 Pied-billed Grebes (they have bred here in the past) 1 Least Bittern (seen by Michael O'Brien, not me - has bred here in the p= ast) Tricolored (2), Little Blue (4). 1 im. WHITE-FACED IBIS (2nd Worcester and 3rd Maryland record) 1 American Coot (has never bred in Worcester, but bred at Easton W.W.T.P.= sev years ago) 3 Northern Bobwhites (a treat anywhere these days) 2 Black-bellied Plovers 5 Killdeer 15 Semipalmated Plovers 12 Greater Yellowlegs 3 Lesser Yellowlegs 100 Semipalmated Sandpipers 10 Least Sandpipers 3 White-rumped Sandpipers 25 Short-billed Dowitchers 1 ad./subad. MISSISSIPPI KITE (First seen right overhead at 12:50 at the intersection of Taylor Landing and Bayview Roads as it was being mobbed b= y a crow. In my excitement, I did not age the bird well, but it was definite= ly a subadult or adult, and was most likely a full adult. As it drifted off th= e southeast, I was able to flag down Michael's van as they were leaving and= we both returned to Vaughn to watch the sky. In about 4 minutes the bird appeared circling over the treeline (and shed of the crow), circled up, a= nd lined out to the south giving distant buit good looks to his entire tour group. A first WORCESTER county record) 1 Bank Swallow 1 Yellow-throated Warbler (always surprises me to see them so close to th= e coast) 1 Eastern Meadowlark From Vaughn I broke north checking Truitt's Landing Rd. (1 King Rail, 1 White-rumped Sandpiper), Scott's Landing Rd. (Nada), and a couple other spots. I found two BLACK-NECKED STILTS at the new pond across from the Assateague Crabhouse on Rte. 611 just north of the turn for South Point. = My second county bird of the day, there are less than 8 Worcester records (h= elp me here Mark...). The Assateague Visitor's center impoundment (where the Ruff was in April,= and where 4 Stilt Sandpipers were present in mid-May) is mostly dry now but s= till excellent habitat for peep. Dunlin, Semi, Least, Semi Plover, and one White-rumped yesterday. Some Common Loons (6) and Red-breasted Mergansers (2) were off the causew= ay. At Assateague I walked the Life of the Marsh trail and did a half hour seawatch. The latter recorded 8 Northern Gannets (all northbound immies)= , 1 GREAT CORMORANT (one of latest ever for MD, subadult with reduced flank patches), 1 SURF SCOTER (im male sitting on water), and one WHITE-WINGED SCOTER (ad male sitting on water, rarest of the late scoters!). One Comm= on Nighthawk over the South Beach parking lot was my 3rd county bird of the = day and #307 for me. Eagle's Nest produced its regular Piping Plover. Ocean City Inlet was dull, with nothing good in 30 min seawatching. Six Purple Pipers remained onthe jetty along with a good flock of other shorebirds including 50 turnstones, 60 Sanderlings, 40 Semi Sandpipers, a= nd 8 Red Knots. Skimmer Island had Common and Royal Terns only, 3 Brown Pelic= ans, and not much else. All in all a great day! Best, Marshall Iliff PS - I since heard from Mark Hoffman that today's chase was successful - = he found the bird around 4:30 today and was able to raise at least Greg on t= he cell phone. Good luck to all others that chase it, and remember, it stil= l needs photos! ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================