Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 19:52:46 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: North American Birds - PART I - Sightings Request (part B) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, Part B of Part I - the message was divided due to space limitations SUMMER 2000 Summer is, of course, the season of breeding birds. Already this season a pair of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers have been discovered building a nest in central Virginia, a remarkable breeding expansion (previously they had nested no closer than South Carolina and Georgia) with other pairs in place in North Carolina and Georgia, this is clearly part of a broad-scale movement. If anyone gets photos of these nesting birds, they would be of supreme interest for publication in North American Birds. Be alert also for Wood Storks, since we already have a report from Virginia in June! Another event well underway is the continued expansion of Brown Pelican in the Region. A three year old colony at Spring Island, Dorchester County, has increased numbers again. Now the pelicans appear to be penetrating farther than ever before, with sightings as far north as the Bay Bridge, and huge counts from the Lower Chesapeake. This is also a banner year for Dickcissels (perhaps related to the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher phenomenon) so be sure to seek this species out in your local area. Dickcissels in the Region prefer weedy, overgrown fields with vegetation several feet high. I have also recently been seeing them in high alfalfa fields. They are semi-colonial so often where there is one there are several. Virginians have thus far found something like 70 different birds, and are still producing more daily! Marylanders are not doing quite so well (yet), but have 10+ along Cap Stine Rd., Frederick County, 5 near Centreville, Queen Anne's County, and another 4 in northern Kent County. Any theories as to why these birds are invading are welcome. PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS My spring actually began out of the Region, in Texas. From 1-12 March I led my first two tours for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT). The first visited the King Ranch and took Captain Ted's Whooping Crane tours. The tour was a huge success, with great views of a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Sprague's Pipit, and Tropical Parulas on the Norias Division, as well as Javelinas and the introduced Nilgai. Whooping Cranes cooperated for us, as did other nice birds like Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Boat-tailed Grackle (at its southern limit), Le Conte's Sparrow, Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, and Seaside Sparrow. Not so nice, but a lifer for some, were Eurasian Collared- Doves which seem to have consolidated their colonies in the Corpus Christi area. Between tours my co-leader and I headed to south Texas where we were pleased to find Aplomado Falcon, Tropical Kingbird, Lesser Black-backed Gull, and two adult Thayer's Gulls, along with the usual suspects like Couch's Kingbird, Great Kiskadee, Plain Chachalaca, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, and Green Jay. Our second tour was geared towards beginning birders and stayed in the Kingsville area. Highlights were Ross's Goose, Ferruginous Hawk, and Sprague's Pipit. I was back in the Region briefly in mid-March, but quickly had to fly out again for my next tour which headed to the Platte River, Nebraska, to enjoy the Sandhill Cranes. This was my first time birding Nebraska, and my first time seeing this incredible spectacle of hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes. It was a single crane that made the trip though, as we were fortunate to catch up with the Common Crane and its family of two hybrid young. We also saw a single Whooping Crane that same day for a three crane day! In addition to the crane spectacle, I was impressed with the numbers of Harris's Sparrows and the booming display of Greater Prairie-Chickens. All in all, it was a great tour. I was in Maryland through most of late March and April and had some great birding trips and some unusual arrival and departure dates. A large group of Long-billed Dowitchers at Elliott Island 9 Apr was one of my more unusual sightings. In late April I was back out west to Montana where I was co-leading a tour that focused on owls. Unfortunately, I should have stayed home since the owl populations here were better than Montana! A 15- year crash in small rodent populations was to blame. We struggled to find one Short-eared Owl when the tour usually produces 50. The group did get good views of Long-eared Owl (numbers far below average), Northern Pygmy-Owl, and Great Horned Owl. The poor rodent year meant that we missed Northern Saw-whet Owl, Great Gray Owl, and Boreal Owl though. Beautiful country though, we based out of the Mission Valley near Ninepipes N.W.R. and even got to visit Glacier N.P.. In early May I joined Maryland Yellowthroat teammates Lynn Davidson, Hal Wierenga, and Mark Hoffman, in Cape May, NJ, where we participated in the World Series. After a week of scouting we felt we had a pretty good route, though it was a poor week for migration and we hadn't seen many warblers. The actual day turned out be pretty good. Highlights of the day were getting Long-billed Dowitcher, Great Cormorant, and several other unusual species. My favorite was again the 45 minutes of seawatching in the morning, when we netted Red- throated Loon, Surf Scoter, Northern Gannet, and several other species, and were treated to a point-blank view of an immature dark Parasitic Jaeger bombarding the tern flock. Unfortunately a number of our better stakeouts failed to materialize, including Red Crossbill, Brown Pelican, Wilson's Phalarope, Ruff, and Marbled Godwit. We ended the day with 180, which was enough to tie the another Cape May County team, the Leica Tropicbirds led by local birder and expat Marylander Michael O'Brien and wife, Lousie. I followed the World Series by teaming up with Michael for a run on the Maryland Big Day record. George Armistead and I scouted western Maryland intensively where highlights included finding a Common Raven nest, seeing Mourning Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, Alder Flycatcher, and another 20+ species of warblers. I was thrilled to finally catch up with a Maryland Olive-sided Flycatcher, my 341st state bird. The Big Day run on May 19 was only a mild success. We ended with 189 or so, an average total, but 18 behind a record. Our excuse, however, is good - strong thunderstorms followed us from Garrett County all the way to the coast. Our worst miss? Black-and-white Warbler! In late May my best day of the season was spent in Worcester County, MD, where I lucked into Maryland's third White-faced Ibis in the morning (an immature at E.A. Vaughn), had Mississippi Kite and Black- necked Stilt at mid-day, and saw White-winged Scoter and Great Cormorant from a late afternoon seawatch. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================