Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 07:51:24 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Poplar Island trip - Sunday 11/26 (Purple Sandpiper) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, I spent this afternoon making a quick jaunt to the Poplar Island Dredge Spoil Impoundment, which I was able to circle in my boat and view reasonably well without landing. Visitors are no longer welcome there as the Army Corps is actively working on building a new impoundment at the southern portion of the facility. There has been much progress in building the new cell since my last visit in July. My targets were Snowy Owl, eiders, Great Cormorant and Purple Sandpiper, and I went 1/4 with little else to show for my efforts. The Bay was only slightly choppy on the trip over and was extremely clam for the return trip. Birds seen at the Poplar Island facility included: 1 Common Loon 6 Red-throated Loons (flying S down Bay) 2 Horned Grebes 1 Great Blue Heron 25 Oldsquaw 100 Bufflehead 9 Surf Scoters (1 flock, S side) 12 White-winged Scoters (1 flock, N side) 1 Black-bellied Plover 50+ Sanderlings 8 PURPLE SANDPIPERS 30+ Dunlin 25 Bonaparte's Gulls 10 Laughing Gulls 70 Ring-billed Gulls 500 Herring Gulls 140 Great Black-backed Gulls 1 Belted Kingfisher And in the central Bay waters I noted: 200 Bonaparte's Gulls (mostly around Thomas Point Light) 40 Laughing Gulls 4 NORTHERN GANNETS (3 ad., 1 subad - off Love Point) The Purple Sandpipers were not at all surprising. The Poplar Island facility is ringed w/ 7+ miles of riprap and provides more Purple Sandpiper habitat than anywhere else in the Bay, with the possible exception of Hart-Miller Island which I think is a bit to north and fresh for regularly wintering Purples. Paul Spitzer has several here in late May of this year, and there are a few records for Purples from the Poplar Island area prior to building the new dredge spoil site. The birds were on a small island of rocks off the southeast end of the island, a spot which has always been good for shorebirds. Elsewhere in the Bay Purple Sandpipers are known to be rare. In the past 5 years we have learned that they winter regularly on the jetties at Smith Island, Somerset County, although the first county record was only in 1994. Nowhere else has wintering been suspected, but November migrants have turned up at places like Point Lookout, Chesapeake Beach, Sandy Point, and Hart- Miller, though they are far less than annual in these locations. I am casting y ballot now that they will winter at Poplar. The Northern Gannets were neat but not surprising. Gannets have been regular in November in the Bay for years, and probably winter annually or nearly so. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================