Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 00:03:40 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Black Tern, Pacific Loon @OC Inlet, Mon., 5/21 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, John Maloney and I spent the day on the eastern shore, and came up with a few nice birds. High on the list was a breeding plumaged BLACK TERN, seen well as it shot through the mass of Common Terns at OC Inlet. The only other terns noted were two Royals and two Forster's. The PACIFIC LOON continues, but was poorly viewed at 3 p.m. as the fog came rolling in. It is in the same location where Joan DeCarli and I viewed it on Friday. If you stand at the railing with Ocean City behind you and "the" motel on your right, look to your right front at the "beach" between two stone jetties, across the inlet. The loon has been hanging out in this area, but spends far more time under water than above. Good field marks are the gray nape, small, level bill, and lateral white bars across the back, along with lack of any white neck collar. Other birds of interest: Blackwater NWR, Dorchester Co.: VIRGINIA RAIL KING RAIL WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER-- 3 among hundreds of peeps and Dunlin. We had a total of 10 shorebird species at the refuge Deale Island WMA, Somerset Co.: LITTLE BLUE HERON--adult MARSH WRENs--dozens singing SEASIDE SPARROWs--dozens singing SALT-MARSH SHARP-TAILED SPARROW--one giving us an excellent 10-second look (maybe because it was raining) Elliott's Island Rd., Dorchester Co.: VIRGINIA RAIL--several calling BLACK RAIL--two to three calling BARN OWL--one flyover, late dusk SCREECH OWL--one seen CHUCK-WILL'S WIDOW--numerous calling By the way, the Miss. Kite at PRR Central Tract was NOT seen (in the rain) at 7 a.m. this morning. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================