Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 21:34:04 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marty Cribb Subject: Re: Petrels in the Bay MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jim and all interested, Buoy 72 is on the eastern edge of the main shipping channel to Baltimore. Depth of the water there varies from 15-20 feet just east of the buoy to 106 feet in the channel at that location. This is a natural channel and the natural canyon formed by the Susquehanna River thousands of years ago.The area from buoy 66 which is about 6-7 miles south of buoy 72 to bouy 72A 1-2 miles north of bouy 72 is the (I believe) most common area to see Wilsons Storm Petrel on the Bay. The number of birds your friend reported I believe for this time of the summer is uncommon as I dont recall seeing that many in one location in my trips back and forth from Point Lookout to Smith Island each day for the past 5 years. Could this be birds heading south on there return migration to Antartica already? I would be interested in anyone elses sightings in the past and future. By the way waterman in the area refer to Sorm Petrels as "chicken birds" because of there behavior of letting there legs hang down as they are foraging in the chum slicks. I guess it does remind one of a chicken scratching for food in the dirt. Several years ago during early June I counted 23 Wilsons Storm Petrels in a group in the same general area flying low and hard to the north. No fishing boats were around and no chum was in the water and the birds appeared to me to be migrating. Good Birding, Marty Cribb, Point Lookout, St Marys Co, Md ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Felley" To: Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 11:10 AM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Petrels in the Bay > A co-worker returned from a fishing trip on the > Chesapeake Bay, reporting a half-dozen 'little black > birds with white saddles' accompanying their boat as > they chummed for rockfish. I am assuming these > were Wilson's Petrels (he didn't notice the color > of the foot webs, if you can imagine such inattention). > He and his friends were fishing off Point Lookout > (buoy 72, wherever that is). > Are petrels abundant in the upper Bay this year? > Jim > > Jim Felley > Smithsonian Institution > irmss668@sivm.si.edu > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================