Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 13:58:07 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: First August Big Day attempt (Part I - route and misses) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable MDOsprey, =A0 =A0 On 25 Aug 2001 Todd Day, Matt Hafner, Andrew Gilbert, and I attempte= d an August Big Day for Maryland. As there has been no previous such attempt in the state, we took solace in the fact that our efforts were certain to produce a new record. For a period after serious tiredness had long since se= t in, we stayed awake by rejoicing with shouts, yells, and beeps of the horn each time we beat the old record (i.e. added a new species). =A0 =A0 Although a 1 Aug day that followed the May/June/July route from Garr= ett County to the coast may produce a better total, we feel that our all-coastal migrant route would be much more fun than a route that drove twice as far, birded the coast less, and missed a bunch of breeders in western Maryland as well as those on the coast. With a little better luck with a couple tricky species and with ANY kind of migration, we might have pushed the number up t= o 165 or so. Maybe next year... ****************************************************************************= ** Maryland - 25 Aug 2001 - 0200-2330 hours - species totals =3D 152/149 (Team/Shared): Marshall J. Iliff (151), Todd M. Day (150), Matt Hafner (152)= , Andrew Gilbert (150); 410 mi by car, 2 by foot. ****************************************************************************= ** THE ROUTE =A0 =A0 We left my house in Annapolis at 2:05 a.m., with Eastern Screech-Owl= in the bag. From there we headed to Marsh Road (Old Route 50) on the Nanticoke River, where the cool conditions left us rail-less. A loop along Colbourne Mill Road scored Barred Owl and we lucked into a Great Horned Owl dining on an Opossum in the middle of the road. We arrived at Bayside Campground a tad late at 6:25 a.m. Dawn flight was essentially nil (20 redstarts and 1 Prothonotary), so we birded the basics on Assateague as quickly as possible and headed to Eagle's Nest. A stakeout Lark Sparrow and a surprise roosting Chuck-will's-widow were Assateague highlights. The flats there did not disappoint, producing Piping Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, and Dunlin, the only ones of those species for the day. Ocean City however, DID disappoint, as we failed to find Sandwich Tern and several other key species. From there we hit West Ocean City Pond, Berlin Sewage Ponds, Central Landfill (one Lesser Black-back was enough), and headed to the Pocomoke River area for lat= e breeders. Amazingly, Prothonotaries were present at 3 additional sites, and while we found most breeders still lingering, we missed Yellow-throated Warbler, Yellow- throated Vireo, Kentucky Warbler, Hooded Warbler, and not surprsingly, Louisiana Waterthrush. We hoped for ducks and shorebirds at Dea= l Island, but only managed harrier, Gadwall, and a couple other species. Another few hours of searching for migrants cleaned up a few missing breeders. Hurlock Sewage Ponds produced its regular few extras but missed Black Tern. More attempts at migrants were fruitless so it was on to Elliott Island. At Elliott we managed the few remaining species that we needed , except for Eastern Meadowlark. A flyby Common Nighthawk at dusk was a slight bonus, but Barn Owls did not cooperate. We closed the night with a couple additional rails that put on a great show. CODE 5 MISSES Eastern Meadowlark CODE 4 MISSES Peregrine Falcon; King Rail; Western Sandpiper; Stilt Sandpiper; Sandwich Tern; Black Tern; Barn Owl; Eastern; Phoebe; Yellow-throated Vireo; Yellow-throated Warbler; Northern Waterthrush CODE 3 MISSES Least Bittern; Cooper's Hawk; Whimbrel; Red Knot; Baird's Sandpiper; Common Snipe; Alder Flycatcher; Willow Flycatcher; Least Flycatcher; Blue-winged Warbler; Chestnut-sided Warbler; Magnolia Warbler; Black-throated Blue Warbler; Black-throated Green Warbler; Blackburnian Warbler; Kentucky Warbler; Hooded Warbler; Canada Warbler; Yellow-breasted Chat; Rose-breasted Grosbeak; CODE 2 MISSES Yellow-crowned Night-Heron; Northern Pintail; American Wigeon; Broad-winged Hawk; Merlin; American Coot Marbled Godwit; Buff-breasted Sandpiper; Whip-poor-will; Yellow-bellied Flycatcher; Red-breasted Nuthatch; Sedge Wren; Warbling Vireo; Tennessee Warbler; Nashville Warbler; Cape May Warbler; Yellow-rumped "Myrtle" Warbler= ; Bay-breasted Warbler; Louisiana Waterthrush; Mourning Warbler; Wilson's Warbler; Dickcissel CODE 1 MISSES Common Loon; Wilson's Storm-Petrel; Northern Gannet; American Bittern; Brant= ; Canvasback; Lesser Scaup; Black Scoter; Surf Scoter; Hooded Merganser; Red-breasted Merganser; Mississippi Kite; Sharp-shinned Hawk; Black-necked Stilt; American Avocet; Ruff; Long-billed Dowitcher; American Woodcock; Wilson's Phalarope; Red-necked Phalarope; Parasitic Jaeger; Bonaparte's Gull= ; Gull-billed Tern; Roseate Tern; Black-billed Cuckoo; Gray-cheeked Thrush; Swainson's Thrush; Blue-headed Vireo; Golden-winged Warbler; Blackpoll Warbler; Cerulean Warbler; Connecticut Warbler; Vesper Sparrow; Swamp Sparrow; White-throated Sparrow *********************** Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ************************ ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================