Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 23:09:31 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Mark Hoffman Subject: Assateague Island-9/20-more LaSp(2), PhVi, etc. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Island Aficionados -- My schedule (but not the weather, although see discussion at end) was well=20 suited to a one-day run to Assateague Island, MD, on Wednesday, September 20= .=20 With Marshall still in Hawaii, I figured it was my last chance to best him=20 before his return. Rumor has it he will be moving to OC for the fall, so I=20 suspect this will not be my last trip of the season. I might as well go=20 ahead and purchase a book of bay bridge tickets now =E2=80=A6 Birding the Assateague Bayside area from 0555 to 1000, southwest winds=20 resulted in a minimal dawn flight, with only 7 warbler (sp.). Diversity was= =20 just ok given the conditions, with Nashville (1), Northern Parula (1),=20 Chestnut-sided (1, missed last weekend), Magnolia (2), Black-throated Blue=20 (1), Prairie (2), Palm (3 w.), Black-and-White (5), Am. Redstart (15) and Cm= .=20 Yellowthroat (25). A pleasant surprise at 0635, was an imm. Lark Sparrow,=20 presumably the same one seen 9/16-17. This time it was feeding in the back=20 (north) end of camping site #48 in the C-loop. It was still there at 0850.=20= =20 Again there was a good egret flight, headed north along the bay edge, with=20 Great Egret (70), Cattle Egret (2), Snowy Egret (40), Little Blue Heron (5),= =20 Tricolored Heron (20), plus 50 small white egret/heron sp. Another one=20 missed last weekend was a single fly-over Am. Golden Plover, with a group of= =20 Black-bellied Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones. I have seen fly-over goldens=20 here on several occasions. With the warbler action a little slow, I had more time to count mimids, and=20 for Bayside totaled 145 Gray Catbirds and 50 Brown Thrashers, with the latte= r=20 unusually abundant. On multiple occasions I had 4-5 thrashers in the same=20 tree or feeding on the ground together, as opposed to their usually somewhat= =20 solitary nature. I suspect that thrasher total would be difficult to match=20 anywhere else in MD these days. A quick check of the data base only shows A= I=20 highs of 30 on 9/12/91 (M. O'Brien, MB 48:24, AB 46:78) and 9/26/94 (Hoffman= =20 and Farrell, Unpub. Obs., but partially cited in MB 52:63). S&R58 shows no=20 high fall count for MD (with a spring record of 100 on Gibson Island on=20 5/8/55!). Totals for the day were 175 catbirds and 60 thrashers. Other=20 migrants included Ruby-crowned Kinglet (2), Savannah Sparrow (1),=20 Rose-breasted Grosbeak (1) and Baltimore Oriole (15). On the vireo scorecard, I had 2 (a "flock") of very obliging (for the camera= )=20 Warblings together, right in the low brush at the very tip of Bayside. My=20 only Red-eye (1) and (now mandatory) Philadelphia (1) were together in a spo= t=20 I now officially name the "Vireo Grove". For those interested in directions= =20 to "The Grove", here goes: Park in the parking lot for the Life of the Marsh= =20 Trail, on the south side of Bayside Road. Walk from the parking lot back to=20 the main road, by cutting across the grass between the parking lot and the=20 main road were there is a gap in the scrub that otherwise boarders the west=20 and north edge of the parking lot. Immediately north of were you reach the=20 main road (which runs east-west), an open grassy area is visible, boarding=20 (on the east side) a relatively large area of deciduous woods and scrub. =20 Through the open area, you can see the camping sites for loop A of the=20 Bayside Camping area. Walk north through the open area for 40 feet or so,=20 and you will seen an indentation in the woods to the west. You can walk int= o=20 this indentation, and be surrounded by large (by Assateague standards)=20 deciduous trees on three sides. This is where I had the Philadelphias very=20 close Sunday (2) and Wednesday (1) and within spitting distance (the same=20 woods) of the single bird on Saturday. Most of the trees are cherries. =20 Philadelphias prefer areas of taller (but still scrubby by mainland=20 standards) deciduous trees, mostly cherries and willows, on Assateague. =20 Wedensday's bird was the 29th PHVI I have seen on the Island. After leaving Bayside, I birded the Ocean Side Campground area (1015-1130),=20 walking all the loops, for "open country" species (e.g., Lark Bunting,=20 Northern Wheatear). I was again rewarded with an imm. Lark Sparrow, but=20 little else. Certainly a second bird, this was the first time I had ever=20 seen 2 Lark Sparrow in one day on Assateague, so a personal best was=20 achieved. I got three distant photos of this one, my 10th (as if I am=20 keeping score) for the Island. Given the plethora of LASPs, I couldn't help but try for a hat trick, and hi= t=20 the State Park/South (the camping loop area) from 1145-1300, but my luck had= =20 run its course. I have always been fascinated by the state record high coun= t=20 for LASP (5, 9-4-55, "Ocean Bay City" (a.k.a. North OC), R. L. Kleen and T.=20 Lord, S&R58, MB 12:31, AFN 10:14). But I was not destined to challenge it=20 today. The only other Worcester record I have that suggests the possibility=20 of more than 1 LASP in one day is from mid-Sept. 1955, but the published=20 details are not clear if both birds were observed on the same day or each wa= s=20 observed solely on different days ("2 banded on AI 9-10 to 9-13-1955", MB=20 11:63, 12:31, AFN 10:14). I was pretty beat, quite hot and tired by this point, so called it a day. A= s=20 a consolation prize for Amy, on the way home I finally bought her the $600=20 new dining room table and chairs she's been (somewhat) patiently wanting for= =20 some time. Sounds like at least 2 or 3 "bird WC guilt-free" passes, to me,=20 huh Marshall?? Kind of like banking a subspecies in advance of a possible=20 split ... Concerning the weather, particularly the southwest winds, clearly this is no= t=20 conducive to a large migrant flight. But if you are after western vagrants,=20 is it so bad? As long ago as 1959 (Operation Recovery - Report On=20 Mist-Netting Along the Atlantic Coast in 1958, Bird-Banding 30:143-171),=20 James Baird et al., not surprisingly, noted a correlation between inflows of= =20 warm tropical area with southwest winds and the arrive of southern species=20 (Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat, Summer Tanager, Blue Grosbeak,= =20 etc.) at banding stations in the northeastern US. But, additionally they=20 also noted the arrival of western species (e.g., Western Kingbird, Lark=20 Bunting, etc.) under the same conditions. It isn't really possible to do a=20 similar analysis with my WC data, but I think the "take-home" lesson is not=20 just to chase the cold fronts. Regards and good birding, Mark Hoffman ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================