Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 22:35:24 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Mark Hoffman Subject: Worcester Birds 2-17 and 18-Razo,GoEa, IcGu, etc. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable WC Birders - Not surprisingly, the pre-announcement of the Hoffman, Iliff and Stasz=20 Worcester County February big day doomed it to failure before it even=20 started. At pre-dawn on Saturday (2/17) a steady (but light) rain combined=20 with predictions (which were accurate) of 15-20 mph NW wind, left no choice=20 but to bag the attempt and instead just do some good old' WC birding. No=20 sense in going through the motions under what would have been impossible=20 conditions=E2=80=A6 From 0740 to 1320 we birded the south, central and north sections of Vaughn=20 WMA near Girdletree. The highlight was an immature Golden Eagle, which=20 Marshall spotted while we were at Vaughn/Central, although the bird was well= =20 to the north (north of Scarboro Creek) and over Vaughn/North. Marshall et=20 al. observed the bird again on Sunday morning from Vaughn/North. A county=20 bird from both Jim and Marshall and only my third. Only the 13th Worcester=20 record for the county rarity, the most recent prior one being on the OC CBC=20 at Jenkin's pond this past xmas. Other highlights were good sparrow numbers at all locations, including 2=20 Clay-coloreds (1 a new bird Jim found at Vaughn/South), 2 Vespers (Stasz=20 only-Vaughn/South), the first (and long awaited) February record for=20 Worcester, and 2 Le Conte's. Other sparrows include 49 Chipping, 70=20 Field,140 Savannah, 5 Fox, 70 Song, 100 Swamp, 185 White-throated and 1=20 White-crown (by the cattle ranch on Little Mill Road). 11 species, but with= =20 the weather conditions as they were, we didn't go for a "sparrow big day" an= d=20 left the sharp-tails alone. I can hear you drooling Bonnie. With Jim's help we did the ORV Zone at Assateague in from 1530-1730. Result= s=20 include Red-throated Loon 83, Common Loon 7, Horned Grebe 16, Northern=20 Gannett 45, scoter (sp.) 103, Long-tailed Duck 1, Common Goldeneye 1,=20 Red-breasted Merganser 15, Sanderling 69, Ring-billed Gull 15, Herring Gull=20 65 and Great Black-backed Gull 4. Sunday morning Jim and I, et al., birded the Ocean City/Inlet from 0730 to=20 1030. The highlight here as the continuing presence of Razorbills, with a=20 single bird seen off the tip of the south jetty, in the rips, etc. off and o= n=20 during most of our stay. The bird would "show up" and be visible for 10 or= =20 15 minutes (under water most of the time), but then disappear, only to be=20 refound a half-hour later or so. There were as many as 3 Razorbills seen=20 late Saturday afternoon. Other birds of interest at the Inlet were 9=20 Harlequins and 1 imm. Iceland Gull. No Little Gull, only 1 lone Bony. We=20 also watched an immature Bald Eagle chase a Herring Gull for 20 minutes=20 (hitting it several times over the ocean), but eventually the gull got away.= =20 It did put up all the gulls in the area, and I estimated some 800 Herring=20 Gulls. =20 On leaving OC, the flats by Skimmer Island were very large and I gave it a=20 quick once-over. Another 700 Herring Gulls, etc., and 10 Black-bellied=20 Plovers, 100 Dunlin and 20 Sanderlings. (I may add that I have agreed to compile Worcester County bird sightings for= =20 Field Notes, as to a large extent I already do this for my own=20 research/writing efforts. If anyone has relevant lists with numbers,=20 locations, etc. please email them to me or if you do a post regarding a visi= t=20 to WC, you might get an email from me ... I always find it bothersome how=20 many birders can visit an area and how little of any ornithological value=20 results. Although I now have 95,000 records in my Worcester County data=20 base, there are still large gaps. For example, for big day planning I did a= =20 data listing for all February WC records -- and only had 1 record for=20 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and 4 for both White-breasted Nuthatch and Brown=20 Creeper. Even the "common" can be significant. The postings of observers=20 such as Scarpulla or Armistead to this list are models of the type of=20 record-keeping we should all try to emulated. For example, if you visit the= =20 West OC Pond, take any extra 10 minutes to try and accurately count all the=20 waterbirds, and send the data in. Good Birding, Mark Hoffman Sykesville, MD Mhoff36100@aol.com P.S. Where's Wicomico County??=20 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================