Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 11:20:13 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Re: E. Shore, 9-10 March (long) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Stan, I read your Eastern Shore post with interest. Thanks for the complete rundown. One item caught my eye. > QUEEN ANNE'S CO.: > > Kent Narrows--Lots of waterfowl, mostly scaup: Horned Grebe (10), > Pied-billed Grebe (3), Canada Goose (20), tundra Swan (50), Mute Swan (15), > Canvasback (5), Greater Scaup (2000), Common Goldeneye (100), Long-tailed > Duck (12), Ruddy Duck (150), Osprey (1), Boat-tailed Grackle (5) > > Despite lack of rarities, it was an enjoyable outing. > Boat-tailed Grackle at Kent Narrows is most assuredly a rarity. I am not aware of any reports from Queen Anne's County since I've been birding. In fact, away from Worcester, Wicomico, Somerset, and Dorchester counties I know of only a handful of reports since 1989 -- lone vagrants in Baltimore and Calvert, and a few scattered sightings in Talbot and Saint Mary's counties. If you check your Yellow Book, you will see that the small dot in Queen Anne's Couny equates its status there with Sandhill Crane and Yellow-headed Blackbird. All this begs the question: were you aware of how rare a sighting that would be?The MD/DC Records Committee currently does not require documentation for Boat-tailed Grackles south of Kent and Baltimore counties, but given the paucity of reports, it probably should. Boat-tailed Grackle at Kent Narrows would only be 50 miles out of range, but for some starnge reason, they don't even stray that far except very rarely. Can you provide some details on where you saw these five grackles and how you identified them? I can think of at least one county listerthat would like to look for them, and should they stick around to nest it would be a great atlas record. Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================