Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 20:46:47 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Kevin Krogh Subject: Big Day in Worcester County (long) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Hello All, I am new to MDOsprey, although I have read many of the posts in the archives over the last several months. To make up for lost time, my first post is extra long. For those interested in birds of Worcester County, read on. For all others, sufficit to say that a very long day in =93God=92s= Country=94 yielded Sora, Nelson=92s Sharptailed Sparrow, Harlequin Duck, Baltimore Oriole and many other fun birds. Armed with plenty of intelligence from the Worcester County Rarity Round- up, Craig Richard and I (Kevin Krogh) set out for a big day Sunday morning, 12 November. Our route kept us in Worcester County most of the day and consisted of: E. A. Vaughn WMA, Ironshire/Evans Rd, Eagles Nest Campgound, Ocean City Inlet, West Ocean City Pond, Ocean Pines, several Nassawango Creek crossings, Deal Island, and owling at Elliott Island, Bear Swamp and Assateague. In total we covered 288 miles in the car and roughly 5 on foot. Our final species tally was 120. We began at 0500 along the Pocomoke River near Snow Hill listening for Barred Owl at two sites. Although we missed Barred, we had Great Horned at both locations. We then moved on to Truitt=92s Landing Rd in the North Section of E. A. Vaughn for rails. In short order we heard Virginia Rail, Clapper/King Rail species and, to our surprise, Sora. By 0545 we were heading into E. A. Vaughn central on foot with the goal of reaching the marsh by first light. The Screech Owl and Woodcock on our way to the marsh would be our only ones for the day. An hour at the marsh yielded Marsh and Sedge Wren, Nelson=92s and Saltmarsh Sharptail Sparrows as well as more common birds. We stopped only twice on the way back to the car in an attempt to stay on schedule and were rewarded with excellent looks at a Purple Finch and a Baltimore Oriole. In hindsight, another hour at Vaughn central in the morning would have likely hepled our species total. We struck out at Vaughn north (Taylor Landing Rd) in an attempt to find the LeConte=92s Sparrow that had been seen the previous day but managed Brown- headed Nuthatch and Wood Duck at our other Vaughn north stop (Truitt's Landing Rd). The wind had picked up considerably when we arrived at Ironshire Rd at 0945, and we managed only American Pipit. The Evans Rd sparrow spot did not produce the hoped for White-crowned Sparrow, but House Wren and Palm Warbler instead. Enroute to Eagles Nest Campground to scan the flats at low tide, we happened upon a Mute Swan on Aver Creek just south of Rt 376. The best birds at Eagles Nest and the nearby golf course were two Semipalmated Plovers right by the dock, American Coot, Ruddy Duck and Gadwall. I had spent several hours at Ocean City Inlet on Saturday and had not seen the previously reported Harlequin Duck, but shortly after arriving at 1115 we saw it on the south jetty. We noted several other key inlet species during the next half hour, but eventually pressed on without having found Bonapart=92s Gull, Tundra Swan, White-winged Scoter, Eider, Great Cormorant,= Brown Pelican, Oldsquaw or Scaup. This decision would prove costly, as we ended up missing all of those species. West Ocean City Pond had the standard ducks as well as Tricolored Heron, Little Blue Heron and Dowitcher species. The Tundra Swan present the day before was absent. Ocean Pines rounded out the duck species with Ring-necked and Wigeon in a very short stop around 1245. Faced with more time on our hands than we had expected (since we had skipped Skimmer Island), we tried Ironshire Road again and this time saw both Horned Lark and American Pipit. Then our bid for a Lesser Black- backed Gull failed when we drove all the way in to Central Landfill and found it closed. The strategy for the remainder of the afternoon was to work our way across the county checking several inland sites along Nassawango Creek and Old Furnace Rd for land birds we had missed in the morning. We picked up several, including Winter Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Pileated Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Eastern Phoebe, but missed Hairy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Ruby- crowned Kinglet and Fox Sparrow. At Deal we first scoped a Peregrine Falcon on the hack tower, then checked the bay from Chance. We ended the day in the marsh with several Harriers and a Short-eared Owl. The early sundown, however, gave us plenty of time for additional owling, including a long and unsuccessful drive to Elliott for a shot at Barn Owl, a bumpy, unsuccessful and extremely frustrating drive down Colbourne Mill Rd looking for Barred Owl and a semi-productive and cold drive out to Assateague for Saw-whet Owls. In attempting to toot up the Saw-whets we did hear a barking response that resembled the vocalization described in Sibley, but having never heard that vocalization on tape or in real life we were not comfortable listing the owl. Thus we finished at 2230 with 120 species. Many thanks to Jim Stasz for advice on our intended route, to Matt Hafner for extremely detailed and accurate sighting info for the Vaughn area, and to all of the participants in the Rarity Round-up who provide us with more scouting data than we could have ever hoped to obtain on our own. The complete list follows: Red-throated Loon (1 at O.C. Inlet) Common Loon (many locations) Pied-billed Grebe (Vaughn cental, Eagles Landing Golf Course) Nothern Gannet (several at O.C. Inlet) Double-crested Cormorant (many locations) American Bittern (1 at Taylor Landing) Great Blue Heron (many locations) Great Egret (2 at Deal) Snowy Egret (2 at West O.C. Pond) Little Blue Heron (1 at West O.C. Pond) Tricolored Heron (3 at West O.C. Pond, many at Deal) Black-crowned Night-Heron (20+ at West O.C. Pond, 3 at Deal) Mute Swan (1 in Aver Cr south of Rt 376) Snow Goose (Vaughn) Brant (Eagles Nest Campground) Canada Goose (many locations) Wood Duck (CFR only at Vaughn north) Green-winged Teal (Vaughn, Eagles Nest Golf Course, West O.C. Pond) American Black Duck (many locations) Mallard (many locations) Northern Pintail (West O.C. Pond, Deal) Northern Shoveler (West O.C. Pond, Ocean Pines) Gadwall (Eagles Nest Golf Course) American Wigeon (Ocean Pines) Ring-necked Duck (Ocean Pines) Harlequin Duck (O.C. Inlet =96 tended to stay south of south jetty) Black Scoter (O.C. Inlet) Surf Scoter (O.C. Inlet) Bufflehead (Vaughn, Deal) Hooded Merganser (West O.C. Pond) Red-breasted Merganser (Vaughn) Ruddy Duck (Eagles Nest Golf Course) Black Vulture (Vaughn) Turkey Vulture (many locations) Bald Eagle (1 over West O.C. Pond, 2 at Deal) Northern Harrier (several at Deal) Sharp-shinned Hawk (Vaughn, O.C. Inlet) Red-shouldered Hawk (Vaughn, Furnacetown) Red-tailed Hawk (several locations) American Kestrel (Vaughn) Merlin (Vaughn, near Deal) Peregrin Falcon (Deal) Large Rail sp. (Vaughn - Truitts Landing Rd) Virginia Rail (Vaughn - Truitts Landing Rd) Sora (Vaughn - Truitts Landing Rd) American Coot (Eagles Nest Golf Course, West O.C. Pond) Black Bellied Plover (Eagles Nest Campground) Semipalmated Plover (Eagles Nest Campground) Killdeer (many locations) American Oystercatcher (Eagles Nest Campground) Greater Yellowlegs (Vaughn north, West O.C. Pond) Ruddy Turnstone (O.C. Inlet) Sanderling (Eagles Nest Campground) Peep sp. (KMK only at Eagles Nest Campground) Purple Sandpiper (O.C. Inlet) Dunlin (Eagles Nest Campground) Dowitcher sp. (West O.C. Pond) American Woodcock (Vaughn central) Laughing Gull (many locations) Ring-billed Gull (many locations) Herring Gull (many locations) Great Black-backed Gull (many locations) Royal Tern (O.C. Inlet) Forster=92s Tern (Vaughn, Eagles Nest Campground) Rock Dove (many locations) Mourning Dove (many locations) Eastern Screech-Owl (Vaughn central) Great Horned Owl (many locations) Short-eared Owl (CFR only at Deal) Belted Kingfisher (many locations) Red-bellied Woodpecker (many locations) Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Furnacetown) Downy Woodpecker (many locations) Pileated Woodpecker (2 at Furnacetown) Northern Flicker (many locations) Eastern Phoebe (Furnacetown) Horned Lark (Ironshire Rd) Blue Jay (Vaughn) American Crow (many locations) Fish Crow (many locations) Carolina Chickadee (many locations) Tufted Titmouse (Furnacetown) Red-breasted Nuthatch (Furnacetown) Brown-headed Nuthatch (Vaughn north, Eagles Nest Campground, Furnacetown) Carolina Wren (many locations) House Wren (Evans Rd) Winter Wren (Porters Crossing) Sedge Wren (Vaughn central) Marsh Wren (Vaughn central) Golden-crowned Kinglet (Furnacetown) Eastern Bluebird (many locations) Hermit Thrush (many locations) American Robin (many locations) Gray Catbird (KMK only at Vaughn north) Northern Mockingbird (many locations) European Starling (many locations) Yellow-rumped Warbler (many locations) Pine Warbler (KMK only at Deal) Palm Warbler (Evans Rd) Northern Cardinal (many locations) Eastern Towhee (Vaughn, Deal) Chipping Sparrow (Vaughn north) Field Sparrow (Evans Rd) Savannah Sparrow (many locations) Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow (CFR only at Vaughn central) Nelson=92s Sharp-tailed Sparrow (Vaughn central) Song Sparrow (many locations) Swamp Sparrow (many locations) White-throated Sparrow (many locations) Dark-eyed Junco (many locations) Red-winged Blackbird (many locations) Eastern meadowlark (Vaughn, other roadside sightings) Common Grackle (Deal) Boat-tailed Grackle (O.C. Inlet, Deal) Brown-headed Cowbird (Near Snow Hill) Baltimore Oriole (Vaughn central) Purple Finch (Vaughn central) House Finch (Vaughn central and north) American Goldfinch (many locations) House Sparrow (O.C. Inlet) Kevin Krogh Herndon, VA kmkrogh@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================