Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 21:56:41 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Mark Hoffman Subject: Assateague-9/29-CCSP(2), etc. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Islanders-- I was able to squeeze in another one-day fling to Assateague, Friday 9/29. Night listening at various posts between 0500 and 0610 indicated a small passerine movement with the northeast winds, plus several Green and Great Blue Herons. Birding AI/Bayside from 0615 to 1100, the flight was fairly small, with 15 warbler (sp.). With northeast winds, migrants tend to get blown inland, and not concentrated along the coast. Plus migration had certainly been strong the prior two nights as well. Palm Warbler (20) was the most common wood warbler and the 6 Yellow-rumped Warblers were a harbinger of things to come. Other warblers were Northern Parula (1), Magnolia (2), Prairie (2), Blackpoll (1), Am. Redstart (7), Cm. Yellowthroat (12) and Wilson's (1). The highlight of the early morning was a single Summer Tanager, see both perched and flying high over the overlook. Only the second one I have seen on Assateague and close to the record county departure date (10/01/1968, OC/Banding Station, MB 25:23, although C.S.Robbins' unpublished summaries of Ocean City bandings cite this record as 10/05/1968). Another pleasant surprise was 2 Warbling Vireos, a new county departure record. I might have to eat my words about Phillys being more common. Prior to this year they led 25 to 15 on AI for me, but Warblings are now 7-4 favorites in '00. One was near the sewage dump station and the second was in the Vireo Grove. As noted previously, the prior county departure record was 9/28/1995 (1, AI, Dyke, MB 53:19). The big number the "vireo wars" is the 1955-69 OC banding data, with Phillys having a huge advantage 264 to 21 (C.S. Robbins' Files), although the banding was a Sep-Oct affair, and Warblings should be earlier (i.e. Aug) migrants. As an aside, I think my directions to the "Grove" could be a little better, I did them the first time from memory and was off by 50 feet or so. The open grassy area I referred to before is immediately north of the intersection of Bayside Rd. and the Life of the Marsh Rd. There are some scattered clumps of bushes/trees in the open area here (which hosted a Clay-colored Sparrow today). The woods edge is about 50 feet east of the intersection, and the "indentation" in the woods is along this edge. My bogus directions must be why Marshall missed PHVI on Wednesday. In addition to the CCSP above, I had a second one in a flock of Field Sparrows (their normal compatriots) along the sand road between camping loop A and the National Seashore maintenance yard. See you and raise you one, Marshall. Somewhat surprisingly, I didn't see any Lark Sparrows. Other migrants/new arrivals included: Common Loon (1), N. Pintail (7), Merlin (1), Peregrine Falcon (1), Pectoral Sandpiper (1), Red-bellied Woodpecker (1), Northern Flicker (15), Eastern Phoebe (1), White-eyed Vireo (1), Red-eyed Vireo (3), Red-breasted Nuthatch (1), Brown Creeper (1), House Wren (1), Golden-crowned Kinglet (1), Gray Catbird (60), Brown Thrasher (18), Cedar Waxwing (40), Savannah Sparrow (1), Indigo Bunting (4), Bobolink (6), Baltimore Oriole (3). I then birded the Ocean Side Campground area (1115-1200) and the State Park/North area (1210-1310). The wind had picked up substantially and had a smattering of Palm Warblers, etc. but nothing notable and called it a day. Marshall is now ensconced in OC, so god knows I am in trouble. He had to call me at home tonight just to get the advanced word on my results today. (He advised that he and Jim had another Clay-colored, 2 Dickcissels and a Sora in the new impoundment just south of the National Seashore HQs on the mainland late in the day). I asked him to be gentle. I bought Amy a couple $3 pumpkins on the way home for Halloween, but I'm not sure how much mileage I am going to get out of them!! 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================