Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 21:44:24 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Walter Ellison Subject: Kent Bird Club trip to Poplar Island Comments: cc: Amy Bourque MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi All, Back in late March I found out that Vern Stock would be leading a boat trip for the Kent County Bird Club to Poplar Island from Kent Island Narrows. I decided to go along because I was curious about documenting some of the nesting birds on these Bay islands. Two boatloads of birders from Kent and Queen Anne's counties left the dock at about 9:30 AM this mornig (24 May). On the way down we looked at Hog and Parson's islands, and stopped briefly at Bodkin Island in Queen Anne's County and then headed down to Jefferson, Coaches and Poplar islands in Talbot County. While on Poplar Island we had a guided tour of the dredge and fill operation to restore the island as a natural area. We spent the tour on a van with our Army Corps of Engineers guide so we couldn't scope the shorebirds at leisure thus my counts are very rough and the species list probably lacks a few species that were present. On the way back we took a more leisurely look at Bodkin Island. Our annotated species list follows: *Brown Pelican* 96 all on or nearby to Bodkin I., at least 9 adults were mixed with many second-year and sub-adult pelicans. *Double-crested Cormorant* on nests on Poplar, Jefferson and Bodkin islands. *Great Blue Heron* *Great Egret* 2-3 pairs appeared to be on nests in the small heronry on Bodkin I. *Snowy Egret* 8-10 pairs on nests on Bodkin I. *Cattle Egret* Seen on Poplar I. and at least one pair on a nest at Bodkin I. *Canada Goose* broods on Poplar I. *Mute Swan* brood at Kent I. Narrows, broods and nests w/eggs on Poplar I., pair at Bodkin I., many others appeared to be "childless". *Am. Black Duck* at least two broods on Poplar I. *Mallard* several broods on Poplar I. *Bufflehead* One second-year male at Hog I. *Osprey* Many nests on Poplar I. and elsewhere. *Bald Eagle* An adult on Coaches I. *Black-bellied Plover* common on Poplar I. >50 *Semipalmated Plover* frequent on Poplar I. >10 *Killdeer* one on Poplar I. *Am. Oystercatcher* one on Poplar I. *Willet* one on Hog I., also on Poplar and Jefferson Is. *Spotted Sandpiper* at least four on Poplar I. *Whimbrel* two on Poplar I. *Ruddy Turnstone* frequent on Poplar I. >10 *Sanderling* <10 on Poplar I. *Semipalmated Sandpiper* abundant on Poplar I. 100s *Least Sandpiper* Some seen, hard to work the peeps from the van *Dunlin* abundant on Poplar I. 100s *Ring-billed Gull* no adults *Herring Gull* adults were seen on nests on Poplar I. and Bodkin I. *Great Black-backed Gull* adults on nests on both Poplar and Bodkin Is. *Common Tern* Observed in Queen Anne's waters, adults on nests on Poplar I. *Least Tern* a few seen in Queen Anne's County, adults on nests at Poplar I. *Eastern Kingbird* Kent Narrows *Purple Martin* Kent Narrows *Bank Swallow* Kent Narrows and Poplar I. *Barn Swallow* common around Poplar I. *Fish Crow* common on Poplar I. *Carolina Wren* Jefferson I. (heard) *European Starling* Jefferson I. (sigh) *Song Sparrow* Kent Narrows *Red-winged Blackbird* common on Poplar I. *Common Grackle* common on Poplar I. Good Birding and Atlasing, Walter Ellison MD/DC Atlas Coordinator - MOS 23460 Clarissa Rd Chestertown, MD 21620-3645 410-778-9568 "A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast." - E. B. White ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================