Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 13:55:30 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Coast report 9-10 October Comments: cc: voice@capaccess.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, I am fully moved into my new Ocean City apartment and will try to do some regular posts about the migration and interesting birds along the coast. There are so many interesting areas to check, that even daily efforts by me make me feel like the entire area is vastly undercovered. I have not had time to send detailed posts until recently, since I have been actively moving in and only recently have gotten phone service here. After finding the Assateague Black-tailed Gull with Jim on Saturday, I was joined by friend Peter Gaede (from CO originally, working with NGS in DC through December) for birding on Sunday. We relocated the Black-tailed Gull in the morning and had more excellent views with Mark Hoffman that evening. Migration was otherwise excellent, as I detailed in my previous post, with birds coming n off the ocean in the morning and feeding in small thickets on Assateague all day long. On Monday, 9 October, Mark Hoffman, Peter Gaede, and myself birded the Assateague area. In the morning we canvassed Bayside Campground where the highlights were one WARBLING VIREO (in "Vireo Grove, present since 10/8, record late date for Worcester and ties state late date), one CLAY-COLORED SPARROW (seen by Hoffman near maintenance yard across from the National Seashore Headquarters and just 50 yards north of Bayside Rd.), and warblers including Chestnut-sided (pretty late), Nashville, Cape May, Magnolia, Blackpoll, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, as well as Palms, Myrtles, and yellowthroats. At the Assateague Visitor's Center we had the first Worcester Co. ORANGE-CROWNED of the fall, along with Blue Grosbeak, Bobolink, and a wealth of sparrows. Peter and I birded the marshes south of the Assateague causeway after that, with good luck with sharp-tailed sparrows. In general the migration was much lighter than the day prior and many of the birds seemed to have departed over night, with little replacemt of new birds. This morning I hit 94th St. woods and found quite a different scene. Birds were everywhere, including several species of warblers in this small patch. WILSON'S and a very late BLUE-WINGED were the definite highlights. Below are some lists with totals... Assateague I. causeway, 9 Oct 2000, 1600-1730: Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow (nelsoni/alterus) 2 Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow (subvirgatus) 2 Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 4 Great Egret 15 Willet 1 Black-bellied Plover 1 Least Sandpiper 6 Western Palm Warbler 15 Savannah Sparrow 1 Swamp Sparrow 2 sharp-tailed sparrow sp. 5 Pectoral Sandpiper 14 Also there were 2 Brant at Skimmer Island in Ocean City last evening. 94th St. Woods, 10 Oct 2000, 0750-1040: Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 Mallard 15 Peregrine Falcon 1 Osprey 1 Killdeer 1 Laughing Gull + Herring Gull + Rock Dove 1 Mourning Dove 1 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 2 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 4 Yellow-shafted Flicker 6 Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 Eastern Phoebe 3 Blue-headed Vireo 2 Red-eyed Vireo 2 Tree Swallow 100 Carolina Chickadee 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 Carolina Wren 4 House Wren 4 Winter Wren 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 5 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6 American Robin 12 Gray Catbird 15 Northern Mockingbird 2 Cedar Waxwing 2 European Starling 20 Blue-winged Warbler 1 Nashville Warbler 5 Magnolia Warbler 2 Cape May Warbler 2 Black-throated Blue Warbler 2 Myrtle Warbler 120 Western Palm Warbler 4 Pine Warbler 6 Wilson's Warbler 1 Common Yellowthroat 10 Eastern Towhee 1 Chipping Sparrow 2 Field Sparrow 7 White-crowned Sparrow 4 Song Sparrow 8 White-throated Sparrow 14 Swamp Sparrow 4 Northern Cardinal 8 Indigo Bunting 2 Red-winged Blackbird 25 Brown-headed Cowbird 2 Boat-tailed Grackle 5 House Finch 15 House Sparrow + Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================