Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 18:24:11 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Eastern Shore Report MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Spent the weekend on the Eastern Shore, pursuing non-existent target birds, and bucking pretty good winds both days, though there was very little rain. I stayed pretty much around water, as the wind precluded any useful searching for passerines. Highlights for me were a pair of HARLEQUIN DUCKs along with an adult and juvenile GREAT CORMORANT, all at Ocean City Inlet, and a nice formation of five WHITE-WINGED SCOTERs viewed from Assateague. Yesterday, the Harlequins were swimming on the far side of the jetty at the inlet, only intermittently visible, but this morning (Sun.) the male was sitting on the near side of the rocks, posing handsomly. The cormorants were both in the same area. As for the WW Scoters, I was particularly impressed with this little group, as I have watched many thousand scoters flying by Assateague over the past year, and only a couple were white-wings, and they were distant at that. This morning's little group of white-wings not only flew by closely, boldly displaying their white wing patches, but they plopped down in the waves not more than 75 yards from my scope, and I could easily see the white tear-drop behind the eye on the drakes. A rundown on what else I saw, and where: Friday, 12/7, RTE 309 POND, Queen Anne's Co.: Am. Black Duck--6 N. Pintail--25 Green-winged Teal--1 Ring-necked Duck--6 Ruddy Duck--2 12/7 HURLOCK WWTP, DORCHESTER CO.: Snow Goose--500 Tundra Swan--100 Gadwall-2 Am. Wigeon--2 N. Shoveler--20 Lesser Scaup--2 Greater Scaup--1 Ruddy Duck--300 12/8, OCEAN CITY INLET (wind strong out of north) Red-throated Loon--15 N. Gannet--25 Great Cormorant--2 DC Cormorant--6 Harlequin Duck--pair Surf Scoter--15 (scoter, sp--50) Purple Sandpiper--50 Ruddy Turnstone--5 Bonaparte's Gull--3 Ring-billed, Herring, & GBB Gulls in good numbers; no Laughers Forster's Tern--30 12/8 SKIMMER ISLAND/SINEPUXENT BAY Common Loon--8 Brant--10 (there were 35 on 12/9) Black-bellied Plover--11 Am. Oystercatcher--36 Dunlin--40 12/8 WEST OCEAN CITY POND--or rather W. OC Puddle--the surface area is about 1/4 its usual extent. The good news: all the ducks are fairly close in; the bad news: lack of water means lack of ducks (the selection was very poor this weekend). Gt. Blue Heron--8 (25 counted on 12/9) Great Egret--2 Snowy Egret--1 Black-crowned Ngt Heron--12 Canada Goose-plenty Tundra Swan--7 flying over, finding no open place to put down Am. Black Duck--150 Mallard--200 N. Shoveler--25 N. Pintail--5 Green-winged Teal--30 Hooded Merganser--6 Am. Coot-1 Killdeer--8 12/8 WORCESTER CO. LANDFILL--very disappointing; only a few hundred gulls, all the very common ones (no Laughers, Lessers, or white-winged varieties). Greater Yellowlegs--3 Mallards and Blacks were the only ducks PUBLIC LANDING RD., WORCESTER CO: Horned Grebe Bufflehead Red-breasted Merganser Bald Eagle--1 imm SCOTT'S LANDING RD., WORCESTER CO.: same as Public Landing, with a couple Common Loons instead of Bald Eagle TRUITT'S LANDING RD., WORCESTER CO.: same as above with a Belted Kingfisher to boot; NO Red-necked Grebe found TAYLOR'S LANDING RD., WORCESTER CO: Red-throated Loon--1; and same stuff as at Truitt's 12/9 VAUGHAN WMA, NORTH, WORCESTER CO.: Greater Yellowlegs--2 Common Snipe--1 only sparrows were Savannah, Song, and Swamp (too windy) 12/9 ASSATEAGUE NAT. SEASHORE (including ORV Zone): N. Gannet--1 White-winged Scoter--5 (actually viewed from state park) scoter, sp--250 Bald Eagle--2 adults and 1 imm on the beach Black-bellied Plover--8 Sanderling--120 Dunlin--42 only the 3 common gulls (no Bonies, Laughers, Lessers...); no terns; no pelicans 12/9 WICOMICO CO, Sand/gravel pit about 1/2 mile west of the "borrow pit" shorebird spot, on N. side of US 50: DC Cormorant--1 Tundra Swan--3 1000+ Canadas and many hundred gulls (mostly Ring-billed; a few Herring) 12/9 RTE 309 POND, QA CO: lots of Canada Geese, and to Friday's list were added: Am. Wigeon--2 N. Shoveler--2 Stan Arnold Glen Burnie blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================