Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 21:52:30 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Mark Hoffman Subject: Worcester County Rarity Roundup II-11/10/2001 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit An Invitation Last year Marshall Iliff and myself organized the first "Worcester County Rarity Roundup", held on November 11, 2000. It was timed to coincide with the underbirded, yet productive, period in early-November, which has proven excellent for finding the usual at Cape May and other coastal locals. It was structured as a one-day county-level bird count, with about 10-12 parties scouring Worcester County. Target species were Ash-throated Flycatcher and Cave Swallow, with others on want list like Bell's Vireo, MacGillivary's Warbler, Western Tanager, or a western empid. I think I speak for all the participants that the event was a great success. A great excuse for getting out in the field in a great area at an interesting time of the year. Good birding was combined with the camaraderie of a pre-count planning gathering and a tally/dinner after the count. Did I mention the birding was great as well? Norm and Fran Saunders found Worcester's first Ash-throated Flycatcher in the field behind the Assateague Island N.S. visitor's center, which was twitched by all the next day. Other goodies included Am. Golden Plover, Long-billed Dowitcher, Prairie Warbler, Ovenbird, 2 Le Conte's Sparrows and a Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow. See the recent issue of North American Birds covering the fall 2000 period for a description of the event as well. We had participants from as far away as California! I have had numerous inquiries as to whether or not we would attempt to repeat the event this year. The answer is yes!! Marshall will be out of town, so I will coordinate the count, with the help of volunteers (who know who you are). The count is set for November 10, the Saturday of the Veteran's Day Holiday weekend, for those of you who get Monday the 12th off. Please mark your calendars. All MDOsprey subscribers are cordially invited. You would need to be in the Worcester area preferably Friday night, but at the latest by dawn on Saturday, and probably want to stay through Sunday or Monday. We will have a communication network in place in case some mega-rarity shows up the day of the count to facilitate a group-tick. Territories will be assigned based on the local knowledge and experience of the observer. The format is similar to a spring/fall county bird count or a Christmas Bird Count. Everyone is assigned a territory and birds that area all day. Maps, directions, info on the particulars of birding locations will be provided for the uninitiated. Mark you calendar now!! Please email me privately if you are interested in participating. I will be developing a distribution list for email updates as the logistical arrangements come into place. To wet your appetite, I have attached the results of last years count below. Regards, Mark and Amy Hoffman Sykesville, MD Mhoff36100@aol.com Results of November 11, 2000 Worcester County Rarity Round-Up 155 species (plus 2 additional forms). 1,546 unique data records (species/date/location) added to the Worcester data base. Red-throated Loon 86; Common Loon 195; loon (sp.) 24; Pied-billed Grebe 26; Horned Grebe 25; Northern Gannet 7,931; Brown Pelican 12; Double-crested Cormorant 917; Great Cormorant 7; Great Blue Heron 95; Great Egret 20; Snowy Egret 5; Little Blue Heron 27; Tricolored Heron 13; Black-crowned Night-Heron 33; Black Vulture 86; Turkey Vulture 1,100; Snow Goose 12,338; Ross' Goose 1; Canada Goose 3,975; Brant 190; Tundra Swan 65; Wood Duck 6; Gadwall 39; American Wigeon 65; American Black Duck 876; Mallard 926; Northern Shoveler 92; Northern Pintail 27; Green-winged Teal 1,172; Canvasback 1; Ring-necked Duck 50; Lesser Scaup 52; King Eider 7; Harlequin Duck 3; Surf Scoter 795; White-winged Scoter 7; Black Scoter 175; scoter (sp.) 1,590; Long-tailed Duck 7; Bufflehead 75; Hooded Merganser 21; Red-breasted Merganser 33; Ruddy Duck 81; Osprey 19; Bald Eagle 112; Northern Harrier 36; Sharp-shinned Hawk 33; Cooper's Hawk 10; Red-shouldered Hawk 3; Red-tailed Hawk 30; American Kestrel 20; Merlin 13; Peregrine Falcon 3; Wild Turkey 7; Northern Bobwhite 25; large rail (sp.) 4; Virginia Rail 4; American Coot 110; Black-bellied Plover 258; American Golden-Plover 2; Killdeer 421; American Oystercatcher 108; Greater Yellowlegs 86; Lesser Yellowlegs 3; yellowlegs (sp.) 7; Ruddy Turnstone 50; Sanderling 191; Least Sandpiper 16; Pectoral Sandpiper 8; Dunlin 424; peep (sp.) 34; Long-billed Dowitcher 22; dowitcher (sp.) 1; Common Snipe 12; American Woodcock 3; Parasitic Jaeger 2; jaeger (sp.) 1; Laughing Gull 741; Bonaparte's Gull 203; Ring-billed Gull 2,729; Herring Gull 4,753; Lesser Black-backed Gull 4; Great Black-backed Gull 691; gull (sp.) 800; Royal Tern 54; Forster's Tern 607; Sterna (sp.) 370; Rock Dove 450; Mourning Dove 344; Eastern Screech-Owl 7; Great Horned Owl 2; Barred Owl 1; Short-eared Owl 1; Belted Kingfisher 22; Red-bellied Woodpecker 25; Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2; Downy Woodpecker 17; Hairy Woodpecker 2; Northern Flicker 130; Pileated Woodpecker 5; Eastern Phoebe 3; Ash-throated Flycatcher 1; Blue Jay 21; American Crow 175; Fish Crow 407; crow (sp.) 69; Horned Lark 112; Tree Swallow 14; Carolina Chickadee 103; Tufted Titmouse 44; Red-breasted Nuthatch 1; White-breasted Nuthatch 3; Brown-headed Nuthatch 11; Brown Creeper 4; Carolina Wren 116; House Wren 4; Winter Wren 12; Sedge Wren 4; Marsh Wren 3; Golden-crowned Kinglet 164; Ruby-crowned Kinglet 35; Eastern Bluebird 173; Hermit Thrush 66; American Robin 10,013; Gray Catbird 15; Northern Mockingbird 50; Brown Thrasher 17; European Starling 11,980; American Pipit 48; Cedar Waxwing 263; Orange-crowned Warbler 2; Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle form) 1,857; Pine Warbler 10; Prairie Warbler 1; Palm Warbler 42; Ovenbird 1; Common Yellowthroat 2; Eastern Towhee 33; Chipping Sparrow 64; Field Sparrow 218; Vesper Sparrow 4; Savannah Sparrow 150; Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich form) 8; Le Conte's Sparrow 2; Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 2; sharp-tailed sparrow (sp.) 5; Fox Sparrow 3; Song Sparrow 492; Swamp Sparrow 187; White-throated Sparrow 905; White-crowned Sparrow 25; White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel's form) 1; Dark-eyed Junco 120; Lapland Longspur 1; Snow Bunting 10; Northern Cardinal 106; Red-winged Blackbird 6,252; Eastern Meadowlark 250; Rusty Blackbird 7; Common Grackle 13,051; Boat-tailed Grackle 257; Brown-headed Cowbird 2,123; Purple Finch 5; House Finch 107; American Goldfinch 221; House Sparrow 176. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================