Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 06:49:52 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Coastal report - Monday-Wednesday MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, Have not gotten out to do as much birding as I would have hoped these past few days, but do have a few sightings to offer. On Monday I was in southern VA but left early and did not catch any of the excellent fallout reported there, nor did I see signs of it here in MD. Oh well. Highlights from the past few days have been: * 1 ad white ROSS'S GOOSE (tied record early date) at Blackwater NWR Monday, 10/15. Also counted 300+ Great Egrets there, andn had 7+ White-rumped Sandpipers. * 1 juvenile GREAT CORMORANT at 27th Street, Bayside, in Ocean City was present both 10/16 and 10/17. It sits on pilings and feeds in the cove here and hopefully will stay on for a while. Since this species has been somewhat tougher to find at the inlet in recent years, this may be a spot worth checking for those interested in finding these species on trips down here. The location is easy to see and is reached by going west on 28th St. a little more than one block, until a large cove and bulkhead area appears on your left. The cormorant roosts on docks along the left side of the cove there. * 1 DICKCISSEL was a flyover today at 94th Street Woods. A dingle juv WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW was the only other notable, and all warblers there were Myrtles, nor did I note any vireos, flycatchers, or other Neotropical migrants. * At another location in downtown Ocean City I found a single NELSON'S SHARP-TAILED SPARROW in a dry field area, a REDSTART, a BLACK-THROATED BLUE, and 2 YELLOW PALM WARBLERS (the latter only my second sighting this season). Also one juv WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. Ocean City Inlet has had good gull numbers roosting on the beach and in the parking lot, but nothing unusual recently. The most interesting bird on Tuesday was an adult Herring Gull its left eye dark brown and its right eye totally normal The unwary might mistake the dark-eyed side for a California Gull, and it certainly gave that appearance! Also in the "weird plumage" category was a Canada Goose at Blackwater NWR Monday 10/15 with a totally white body but a normal (slightly paler than normal) head and neck. Good birding, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Ocean City, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================