Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 14:29:23 -0600 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: marty cribb Subject: Smith Island sightings MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hello Everyone, A very interesting and unusual day here on the Island. Due to the very high winds and exceptionally high tides school let out at 11:30 Low tide today is about 4:00 PM and probaly will be like a normal high tide. This morning the road (Marsh Rd) from Rhodes Point to Ewell was completely covered 2 hours before high tide and everywhere you looked was covered by water. This made for some interesting sightings. In the marsh accross from my house were 15 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS and 22 CLAPPER RAILS along with 7 VIRGINIA RAILS. I assume because of the flooding the birds were forced to come to the edge of the the marsh and look for high ground. Several of the CLRA and 1 VIRA were in my = neighbors front yard. Coming back this early afternoon with the school children I saw my first NORTHERN GANNETT in Tangier Sound. The bird followed the boat for about a half mile before continuing to the Southeast. Once we entered the Island (the Big Thouroughfare) I spotted 2 AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS in very unfamiliar habitat. Both birds were feeding along the edge of the creek in the Spatina. When AMOY are seen here on the Island it is usually on the rock jetties or the mud flats at low tide. Im going to try and set-up my scope this afternoon at the south end of Rhodes Point out of the wind and see what interesting birds have been blown inshore from the ocean if any. Good Birding, Marty Cribb, Smith Island, Md =20 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================