Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 13:27:33 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Stasz Subject: Wicomico & Somerset 1/11 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks! In the last notice about the Comp Lists, the Webmaster suggested "Go East!". Following that suggestion I toured a small part of the Eastern Shore on Friday and Saturday. Dawn on Friday, 1/11, was at Wetipquin Marsh, Wicomico County [Delorme 33 C-4, just north of Tyaskin]. Hightlights were 3 SEDGE WRENS, 5 MARSH WRENS, and a VIRGINIA RAIL. Some day I hope to hear a Black Rail at this location. Working south along the Nanicoke River I mad stops at Cedar Hall Park [the "boat" south of Tyaskin], Nanicoke Harbor [the "boat" at Nanicoke], and Roaring Pt. To view Roaring Pt. you can park at the new County Park just north of the Roaring Pt. Campground [Tent #4405] then walk down the shore or follow Wharf Rd. to just south of the campground [note: only 1 car can park at the end of Wharf Rd. and the turnaround area is small]. This location had a raft with 2,000 Lesser Scaup, 1,000!!! Redhead, and smaller numbers of Greater Scaup, Canvasback, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, and Surf Scoters. After stopping at Waterview the return trip north along Hickman Lane produced a single flock with 45 Wild Turkey. Several stops along Muddy Hole Road produced the usual Brown-headed Nuthatches and Pine Warblers plus 2 COMMON YELLOWTHROATS. A few years ago Muddy Hole Road was featured in a site guide in Maryland Yellowthroat. It is well named: once I ran over a fish. My next-to-last stop in Wicomico was the Salisbury Landfill [Delorme 33 B-6 on the north side of Brick Kiln Road]. Nothing unusual for there, just 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 1 1st Winter plumage Iceland Gull, and an adult Glaucous Gull. My final stop was Schmaker Pond by the Ward Muesum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury [Delorme 34 B-1]: 350 Ring-necked Ducks, 8 American Wigeon and 4 Pied-billed Grebes. Before heading to Deal Island WMA in Somerset I made a detour to the Somerset County Landfill on the north side of Rt. 361 about 1.5 miles west of Westover [Delorme 25 A-6]. A single Lesser Black-backed Gull was the only bird of note. Bypassing Deal Island WMA to look at Tangier Sound from Deal Pt. at Chance [Delorme 25, A-4]. A passing boat spooked a small flock with Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, and Bufflehead. The final couple hours of the day was spent at the end of Riley Roberts Road in the Deal Island WMA. It did not take long to me to assess that there were more duck hunters than ducks. Although there were lots of hunters, there was very little noise....nothing to shoot at. However, I had fun adding to the Comp List: 4 AMERICAN BITTERN, 2 SNOWY EGRET, 49 TRICOLORED HERON, 22 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON, 1 LEAST SANDPIPER, AND 1 SHORT-EARED OWL. The end of the day, but not the weekend. Good Birding, Jim Jim Stasz North Beach MD jlstasz@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================