Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 18:30:32 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: 85+ Black terns over Potomac today... Hi all -- Barry went down to Jones Point, Hunting Creek and Old Town, Alexandria to check out birds on the Hydrilla and mud flats. The most remarkable sighting was over 85 Black Terns (60 from Jones Point lighthouse, in Maryland waters, 25+ from Founder's Park, Alexandria, but in D.C. waters.) They were flying and perched on the hydrilla mats. He thinks there could well have been more but distance and heat haze was a problem. He also tallied ca. 70 Pectoral Sandpipers, both in Maryland and Virginia, ca 35 Lesser and 5 Greater Yellowlegs, ca 35-40 Least and ca. 25 Semiplamated Sandpipers, 5 Stilt sandpipers, 5 Short-billed and one probable Long-billed Dowitcher, 20+ Caspian and 45+ Forster's terns. Most of the birds were either on Hunting Creek flats, on the hydrilla, or at mouth of Hunting Creek. The flats are in Virginia, but waters offshore and hydrilla is in Maryland. Birders should be aware that Hunting Creek is the site of two of the three accepted records of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Virginia (and, by default, the Washington DC area). We found one in September 1989, a juvenile with Pectoral SPs, and I believe Jackson Abbott had the other earlier in the 1980s. Any large concentration of Pec Sands should be scrutinized for this species. A good article on ID recently appeared in Birding. I would suspect that shorebird sites along the Potomac and perhaps in DC (e.g., Kingman Lake) might be worth investigating as there seem to be a very large number of birds coming through at the moment. As Barry said, the number of birds resembles the numbers seen in "the old days" -- e.g. the 70s and 80s. Cheers, Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================