Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 07:29:30 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Richard Craig F NSSC Subject: Coastal MD Sightings MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Kevin Krogh and I (Craig Richard) spent a cold, windy and rainy Monday morning scouting southern Worcester and Somerset counties in preparation for a November Big Day (it certainly felt like November as the temps were about 40F at 4:00am). We followed much of the morning itinerary from the 1999 January Big Day by Iliff, Stasz and Jett. As many of these locations were new to us, we wanted to take our time to do a fairly thorough search and get a feel for the area. However, time constraints eventually got the best of us, and we hurried from site to site. Our route progressed as follows: owling along Dividing Creek Rd, searching for rails at Rehobeth boat dock, searching for rails and owls along Rumbly Point Rd (near Irish Grove), dawn stops at Cedar Hall Wharf Rd and Hickory Point Rd, a brief visit to the Pocomoke Sewage Treatment Plant, longerstops at E. A. Vaughn (two locations George Island Landing Rd and Taylor Landing Rd), two Nassowango Creek crossings (Nassowango Rd and Red House Rd), trails behind the cemetery at Pusey Branch, and finally Deal Island at lunchtime (departing for home around 1:30). Total species = 78. Highlights from various locations were: Rehobeth Boat Landing: King Rail 1 Rumbly Point Rd: Black Vulture 3 King Rail 2 Virginia Rail 1 Common Snipe 1 Screech Owl 2 Great Horned Owl 1 Hickory Point: Cattle Egret 5 Black Vulture 1 Screech Owl 1 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Eastern Phoebe 2 Pocomoke Sewage Treatment Plant: Pectoral Sandpiper 2 Barn Swallow 6 Tree Swallow 3 Peep sp 12 E. A. Vaughn (George Island Landing Rd): Northern Flicker 3 Blue-headed Vireo 1 Palm Warbler 3 Lincoln Sparrow 1 White-throated Sparrow 1 Blue Grosbeak 1 E. A. Vaughn (Taylor Landing Rd): Brown Pelican 5 Tricolored Heron 1 Green-winged Teal 25 Bald Eagle 1 American Kestrel 5 Dowitcher sp 2 Royal Tern 13 Forsters Tern 24 Red House Rd: Chipping Sparrow 3 Indigo Bunting 8 Pusey Branch: White-breasted Nuthatch 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Black-and-white Warbler 1 Northern Parula 1 American Redstart 1 Deal Island: Pied-billed Grebe 1 Tricolored Heron 2 Snowy Egret 2 Bald Eagle 1 Northern Harrier 1 Annoying misses: Barred Owl, Seaside Sparrow, Sharp-tailed Sparrow (as usual!) Craig Richard Arlington, VA craigjen@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================