Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 23:58:39 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Michael O'Brien Subject: Re: poor mans pelagic trip from Ocean City, Md Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Marty, These are some very interesting passerine sightings! The popular theory about passerines showing up offshore is that nocturnal migrants stray slightly off course at night and find themselves offshore in the morning. This happens more in the fall (on the east coast anyway) when westerly winds tend to drift birds offshore. In this case, I suspect that the early morning fog may have disoriented these birds. What's really interesting is that your list of birds included a NORTHERN CARDINAL, a species not normally thought of as a migrant! Clearly they do wander some. Michael O'Brien West Cape May, NJ obrienm@algorithms.com ---------- >From: marty cribb >To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM >Subject: [MDOSPREY] poor mans pelagic trip from Ocean City, Md >Date: Sun, Mar 18, 2001, 4:54 PM > >Now for the sightings and I will also give miles from shore as they made >the sightings significant in my mind anyway. HERRING GULL 1, 3 miles >AMERICAN ROBIN 22, 8 miles, JUNCO 2, 22 miles (they kept circling the boat) >NORTHERN CARDINAL 1, 17 miles NORTHERN FLICKER 1, 35 miles RED-THROATED >LOON 3 GREAT CORMORANT 1 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT 1 COMMON LOON 1 NORTHERN >GANNETT 7 BONAPARTES GULL 1 and finaly the strangest of all was the >BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD 1, 35 miles offshore who then landed on the boat and >rode back with us to Ocean City. As soon as the bird sighted the high-rises >he flew from the boat and made a quick flight to shore. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================