Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 21:03:33 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Arlene Ripley Subject: Flag Ponds and Smith Island Comments: To: MD-SMAS-GENERAL@LIST.AUDUBON.ORG Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Made a quick stop at Flag Ponds in the late afternoon (7/13) -- went ther= e to find my target bird(s) -- Brown Pelicans. After sitting on the beach f= or about a half hour, constantly attacked by biting black flies and clouds o= f teeny gnats, there they were! Eight of them, sitting on the water and the= n flying. They were pretty far out but identifiable. Now I can add them to the checklist. Migrants have arrived at the beach ponds too: 16 Killdeer 8 Spotted Sandpipers 2 Least Sandpipers Took the boat to Smith Island yesterday (7/12). It was very quiet bird-wi= se on the trips to and from the island. No fish breaking, no fishing boats about and almost no gulls -- plenty of Brown Pelicans though. Quite a few Glossy Ibis flying about on the island, Great Blue, Tricolored, and Littl= e Blue Herons, Great and Snowy Egrets along with Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night Herons. We mostly went there to look at dragonflies and butterflies. Saw quite a few American Snouts, sulphurs, fritillaries, monarchs, anglewings and hairstreaks. Was actually able to identify the Salt-marsh Skipper. Lots of interesting dragonflies also and great day fo= r a boat ride. ////// Arlene Ripley | || Calvert County, MD | 0 || aripley@nestbox.com | || http://www.nestbox.com || ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================