Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 13:32:50 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "J. B. Churchill" Subject: North Branch (short) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Ospreyers, Shorebirds have been slow to arrive at North Branch. I have made a cursory search for shorebirds every weekend for the last few weeks (since early to mid July) but have not seen anything very exciting yet. Talking with Ray Kiddy and a lack of reports to MDOSPREY seems to support my assertion of the lack of anything too exciting here yet. Typically an occasional Solitary or Spotted SP highlights the 12 or 15 Killdeer that are there just about every time. My recollection of last years birds seems to include a late start in the Fall but by the end of August we started seeing stuff like Baird's SP's, Stilt SP's (at ppg ponds), Sanderling, and even an Avocet (which I missed) at the Cumberland Terminus. I think the Avocet was earlier than most of the other stuff (I guess it may pay off to keep checking for stuff). Since North Branch (PPG ponds ; aka Rouge Lagoon) was on Marshall's list of prospective shorebird spots, I decided to provide a report even though there has not been much seen lately. Still Hopeful, J.B. ====================================================== John B. Churchill, M.S. Home (304) 292-5072 GIS Analyst Work (304) 293-4832 West Virginia University ext. 4456 Natural Resource Analysis Center Fax (304) 293-3752 P.O. Box 6108 Morgantown, WV 26506-6108 webpage: http://www.nrac.wvu.edu/users/jbc I'd rather be birding ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================