Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 09:50:12 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: May 17 in Delaware MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii A little off-topic, but Delaware is almost Maryland: May 17, 2001, Delaware May Run. Howard Brokaw, Dave Cutler (leader), John Janowski, Carl Perry and myself. 52 - 58 degrees. Wind NE or E 5-15 m.p.h. Overcast with a little sun in the late P.M. 550 miles. 175 or so species (Although I drove about 2/3rds of the time, I also took several naps so was not privy to all that went on, including the final, official total). Three times in years past we have had 201 species. Dave Cutler has been doing Delaware May Runs since the late 1940's. Dave does a tremendous amount of planning, networking and scouting beforehand as do Carl, Howard and John. 28 warblers was very good but there were not many of any of them; we missed Cape May, Nashville, Golden-winged, and Wilson's. 18 shorebirds was poor; we missed avocets, Stilt Sandpiper, golden plover, and Wilson's Phalarope, all of which had been around (We just didn't have time to check all of the several 1,000 shorebirds in Raymond's Pool at Bombay Hook and those seen from the Little Creek tower. 12 waterfowl was poor; we missed scoters, shoveler, scaup, Bufflehead, which had all also been seen recently. 9 raptors was pretty good, incl. 2 peregrines on the hacking tower at Little Creek W.A. from the observation tower. No rarities. We did hear a Black Rail. It was a good day for Scarlet Tanagers. Several groups of dolphins at Cape Henlopen. Save for a few Green, Green Tree and Bullfrogs, the froggy was silent, as was the toad. We missed: loons, grebes, pelicans (a white has been seen at one site), Green Heron, all diving ducks except RB Merg, coot, White-rumped Sandpiper, Bonie, Least Tern, horny owl, kingfisher, Field and White-throated Sparrows. Twice we ran into a competing team (Andy Ednie, Jeff Gordon et al.), who probably "beat" us ... haven't heard yet. They had seen a Roseate Tern on the Delaware coast. Some of the young Delaware Turks refer to our group as the "Has-beens", all in the spirit of friendly competition (I think). Most of the day was cold and sunless with a cool northeast breeze (that blew in c. 30 gannets for us). No night flight at all - zero flyover cuckoos, warblers or thrushes. By mid-morning we were dispirited enough so that several times we thought of just bagging it, not making the trip to the coast, and just going birding. However, by 2:30 P.M. we were surprised to find we had found 160 species and extensive scouting beforehand in southern Delaware allowed us to quickly get 15 or so more there. Our route is to night bird south from the Delaware-Chesapeake Canal to the area around Milford, return to Delaware City by sunrise, check for warblers and other passerines around Wilmington and White Clay Creek State Park, then hit Woodland Beach, Bombay Hook and Little Creek, then pick up southern landbirds around Redden State Forest (plus Vespers and Red-headed Woodpecker) and end up at Cape Henlopen. Our competitors did the opposite, going south to north. Whatever else this one day a year may mean to the 5 of us, one thing it means to Howard, who serves on its board, is a fund-raiser for the National Audubon Society. Last year, for example, Howard, who is 84, had a personal list of 176 birds, so the folks who pledged so much per species just about have to float a bond issue to come through on their promises to him. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================