Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2001 15:24:17 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Surf Scoters; Bodkin Island Report MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, John Maloney and I took his boat out on the bay this morning (Friday, 6 July), and did a little fishing (actually more like casting practice) off of southern Kent Island (Queen Anne's Co.), after which we motored down to Bodkin Island to look for the white pelican. On the way, we sighted a pair of diving ducks, which on closer inspection turned out to be a pair of SURF SCOTERs. Bodkin Island did not host our sought-after white pelican, but we were still awed by nearly a thousand birds occupying this tiny little island which can scarcely be more than an acre in size. We circled it several times, trying to take in all that the island held. The property divisions of the island were interesting. The Brown Pelicans owned the west side of the island, the Great Black-backed Gulls the south side, the Herring Gulls the southern half of the east side, the egrets the northern half of the east side, and the cormorants owned the entire center of the island with all the dead trees thereon (the north side was shared by gulls and pelicans). We tried to estimate the numbers of each species, only making an accurate count of the Little Blue Herons. Here's what we came up with: BROWN PELICAN--50, including some immatures, but no downy young DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT--600, again with many immatures, but no downy young. However, several cormorants were sitting on nests in the dead trees GREAT EGRET--2 (possibly 3) adults SNOWY EGRET--150, including many on nests and several dozen downy young LITTLE BLUE HERON--7 adults, but none on nests, and no young noted CATTLE EGRET--25, including a few on nests and a few downy young MALLARD--a lone female flew from the island; John saw several mallards there on Monday HERRING GULL--100, including a good dozen or more downy chicks GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL--50, including one downy young, and several hatch-year juveniles A glance at the Maryland Yellow Book suggests that many of these species either have no established nesting records in Queen Anne's Co., or were historical nesters. So why Bodkin Island all of a sudden??? 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================