Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2000 15:35:26 -0700 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Greg Miller Subject: Smith Island Cruise (7/8) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Howdy All! I returned to Maryland last night and went out to Pt Lookout for the cruise to Smith Island today, Saturday, July 8. Marty Cribb was the mate on the ship (says 'Hi' to everyone), but was sans binoculars. This year, I didn't have the aide of the sharp eyes of Marshall Iliff, Jim Stasz, and George Jett as I benefited from last year at the end of June. Still, it was a good day out with Miller Luck... Here are the highlights (a beautiful day out with calm waters and pleasant temps): Wilson's Storm-Petrel - (1 on the trip to Smith Island, about 50 minutes east of Pt Lookout in Somerset Co. waters near the "target" ship; had a group of 7 on the return trip well into St Marys Co waters within about 20 minutes of Pt Lookout; #278 for the year in Maryland; #211 for St Marys County this year) Yellow-crowned Night-Heron - 26 (a target for me today; #279 for Maryland this yr) the following were new for my personal Smith Island list: Northern Harrier - 1 ad. male near the channel (the little one-lane bridge) south of town Common Yellowthroat - 1 N Rough-winged Swallow - 1 (early fall migrant?) Chimney Swift - 1 (how common is this on the island?) Yup. A plug here. The Smith Island Cruises run every Wednesday through Sunday at 10am sharp. Operation will continue through Labor Day weekend. The cost this year is $25 for the roundtrip. You can rent golf carts on the island for $10/hr. The trip to Smith Island takes a little less than 1.5 hrs each way. The return to Pt Lookout is about 3:30pm (leave the island at 2pm). The other *regular* stuff was on the island with Tricolored (11) and Little Blue Herons (16) in good numbers, Am Oystercatcher (4), Glossy Ibis (9), Seaside Sparrow (8). I missed seeing skimmers this trip. Willets were chasing Fish Crows and Herring Gulls were dive-bombing Great Black-backed Gulls that were too close to nest sites (some Herrings were sitting on nests). -Greg Miller back in Hollywood, MD __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get Yahoo! Mail =96 Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/ ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================