Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 12:03:59 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Saunders_N Subject: Skimmer Island & South Point MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" To add to J.B.'s post, Skimmer Island has been steadily migrating southward over the years, getting closer and closer to the Rt. 50 bridge into Ocean City. You can get much better views of the island by parking along the shoulder near Hooper's Restaurant and walking, with your scope, back onto the Rt. 50 bridge and looking north. The walkway is relatively safe since it is fenced off from the passing traffic. South Point can be a bit tricky to bird, mainly because so much of it is private property, as J.B. pointed out. Some wonderful spots that you CAN get to, however are the fields and marsh areas south of the Assateauge Island Visitor Center (on Rt. 611 just before you cross the Verrazano Bridge over to the island itself). These fields used to be under cultivation, primarily corn, but the Maryland State Park folks are now trying to develop them as a wetland area. They are densely overgrown but would repay some tramping around all the way south to the Rum Point Golf Course Boundary, from the Sinepuxent Bay Shore back to the woodlots bordering the South Point Road. A walk (with your scope) up onto the bike trail portion of the Verrazano Bridge often will repay you with some good scoping vistas of Sinepuxent Bay. There are some sand flats just south of the bridge near the mainland shore which can often hold surprising birds. ===================================== Norm Saunders Colesville, Montgomery County, MD marshhawk@worldnet.att.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================