Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 08:05:19 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Wilkerson, Jordan T." Subject: Assateague 11/11-11/12 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" MDOsprey, We camped at the ocean side campground about 4 miles south of the ranger station. We only managed to pick up three bags of trash this time (I think this is an improvement over the last camping trip to Assateague). The winner (as usual) is Dunkin Donuts. While we picked up tons of stuff, most of it was Styrofoam and most of that had some portion of the Dunkin Donuts label on it. There should be some form of retribution we could incur on companies like this that allow their "disposable" products to end up in our environment... (sorry for the rant) GANNETS (hundreds: very close to shore) SCOTERS (too far out to ID species) LOONS B. PELICANS (3) Semipalmated sandpipers (3) Semipalmated plover (1) BALD EAGLE (1) PALM WARBLERS (dozens) BLACK BELLIED PLOVERS (5) HORNED GREBES (8) G. YELLOWLEGS (1) DC CORMORANTS ROYAL TERN (3) Hundreds of GANNETS. There was quite a flock feeding within a few hundred feet off shore Fortunately, this was right at the campground, so we could watch without concern for finding the camp after dark. They repeatedly dove into the water for several hours until it was too dark for us to see them. Also hundreds of SCOTERS, moving south, but too far from shore to ID species. One gentleman with a scope near the parking area indicated they were mostly SURF. Semipalmated Sandpipers and Plover were all hanging out together. They were huddled in a tire rut about 2 miles from the ranger station. I can't tell the difference, so I don't know if the sandpipers were western or not. However, they did "cherk" when the next truck chased them away confirming the Semipalmated ID. We never saw any terns; however, my wife and I at different times heard a ROYAL TERN call 3 times over the weekend. Jordan Cloverly, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================