Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 01:36:13 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Record Maryland Big Day (Part III - The Route part 2) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable EASTERN SHORE =A0 =A0 Our first stop was in the town of Vienna in extreme eastern Dorchest= er County. Jim's scouted Yellow-throated Warbler did not cooperate, but our "Ol= d Reliable" Bobwhite (not to be confused with "Old Reliable" Le Conte's Sparrow) was singing away, thankfully, since other than that bird we had no good strategy for that bird. Andy's diligent blue sky scanning produced not only our only Bald Eagle of the day, but a Dorchester County Broad-winged Hawk (unusual here). We stopped briefly at the US-50 ponds in Salisbury for shorebirds, then motored on to Deal Island. If any portion of our route coul= d have been run more efficiently, it was the Deal Island section. We quickly got all the essentials - Boat-tailed Grackle, Snowy Egret, Glossy Ibis, Seaside and Sharp-tailed Sparrows, Marsh Wren, American Black Duck, etc. The two Peregrines that Andy spotted was flying out over the open marsh rather than sitting on their tower, which was a fortunate discovery since we might have driven to the tower minutes later to find them not present! A distant male Northern Harrier was so far into the heat shimmer that it was an amorphous gray form. A Common Moorhen whined for us from the marsh grass. We were pleased to snag Tricolored Heron early rather than worrying about it at Ocean City, where Matt and Jim had poor luck with them (only one on each of two evenings) at Skimmer Island (we did get several there though). A long-shot Northern Pjntail was not around, nor did we luck into any surprises. Of the reasonable species only Gadwall eluded us, so we allotted some time to try for the Least and American Bitterns that Jim had seen on Sunday. Alas, the bitterns would not be scared up as easily as before (perhaps Jim scared them away permanently?) and we lost precious time as we let our frustration get the best of us. Gadwall also proved to be a time drain, as we were forced to cruise the entire length of Riley Roberts Rd., and only barely added Gadwall (seen by Jim only) at our last ditch effort scan from the impoundment on the way out. With all our targets in the bag an= d no bonus birds, I began to worry about time and (mistakenly) cut the long-standing near-lock location for Brown-headed Nuthatch, hoping to pick one up as we traversed the Pocomoke. I label this as the day's only mistake. =A0 =A0 En route to the Pocomoke we looked for (and got, barely, with two bi= rds) Blue Grosbeak while I brainstormed about how to most easily get everything w= e needed in the 10 potential Pocomoke spots. First stop got us Kentucky and Prothonotary Warbler. Second stop cleaned up most of the rest with Summer Tanager, Pine Warbler, and Yellow-throated Warbler. Three Brown-headed Nuthatch attempts (involved lots of desperate spishing and screech-owling) were all unsuccessful. After several specific attempts, a Horned Lark picked from the car near Furnacetown saved us from this embarrassing miss. Still hoping to pick up Brown-headed Nuthatch in Ocean City, and with Carolina Chickadee seen by only 3 of us (Andy and I had a couple on the Washington County-Annapolis drive, Jim had one at my house, Matt must have been sleepin= g through the entire first half of the day...), we bolted for O.C. A 2.5 minut= e run in Goody Hill Rd. saved us the trouble of looking for Snow Goose at night. From there it was a quick dash to Eagle's Nest campground, where we got our firsts of Black Skimmer, American Oystercatcher, and a few other species in our allotted 10 minutes. I was really cracking the whip in order to try to make it to Ocean City before 8:00 p.m., and while I tried desperately for nuthatches Jim, Matt, and Andy's assignment was Piping Plover. After 10 minutes of looking, I gave the call to leave. Blatently disobeying my orders (in typical fashion) to move, Matt (in typical fashion) continued scanning while I packed the scopes and started the car, only to announce (in typical fashion) that he had found a Piping Plover (typical Mat= t again). We all peeked through his scope and then loaded for real, reaching Ocean City inlet ahead of my projected 7:45. OCEAN CITY =A0 =A0 "What the **&%? is that?"..."It's not a Black Ter...SOOTY SHEARWATER= !!" We had just got our ticket to enter the parking lot when I spotted this dark bird naked eye crossing the inlet. I was totally befuddled...what all-dark birds are possible INSIDE the inlet? When it banked and showed the silvery underwings it all came together and we all saw the shearwater well (naked eye!) as it moved north up the coast. We couldn't help but be optimistic tha= t other pelagic species would grace our day list if we got a Sooty within 10 seconds of our arrival at Ocean City, but sadly 20 minutes of scanning produced nothing more (not even another Sooty) and we would have been crushe= d to miss gannet and Red-throated Loon (had we not just gotten a total bonus Sooty Shearwater). Purple Sandpiper and a flyby Black-crowned Night-Heron were the only other additions there, and were totally expected. No gannet, n= o non-Common loons (we had 2 addition loon species here last year), no Whimbrel, no Brant, no scoters, no jaegers, no odd terns, no odd gulls... =A0 =A0 Quickly we drove back across the US-50 bridge, noting with bemusemen= t the Brown Pelicans on the flats that we had been so worried about on the Bay crossing (we missed pelican last year). West Ocean City Pond had nothing going on migrant-wise (unlike last year) and I birded the nearby community intensively for Brown-headed Nuthatch while the others scanned the pond for oddities. The only good finds were our first Little Blue Heron and a 11th hour cleanup on Carolina Chickadee. In the waning light we brought all scope= s out to scan Skimmer Island. Our intense scanning produced two final expected species (Red Knot and Lesser Black-backed Gull) and one bonus (Bonaparte's Gull). Last year we fared similarly, with expected Lesser Black-backed and bonus Great Cormorant and Brant. I maintain that Skimmer Island at dusk should be a mainstay on Maryland Big Day routes, and outdoes Deal Island at dusk (though this is certainly arguable). THE BACKSIDE NIGHT Making the most of the p.m. nocturnal birding is one of the major challenges of a Maryland Big Day. Last year we had really bombed on this portion...at dusk (9:00) we were 5 birds from the record and by 9:30 we had closed to within 2. The next 2.5 hours were spent driving in frustration from place to place and adding absolutely NOTHING. We were determined not to do the same again, but our determination forced us to bird less and drive more. =A0 =A0 We left Skimmer Island actually before pitch dark, with birds still visible and identifiable, to fly in the face of the advice of one fellow Big Day runner and try a sometimes productive (sometimes froggy) southern Worcester location. On one previous Big Day I had Least Bittern, Black Rail, Sedge Wren, AND King Rail here, but one risks hearing none of these over a deafening chorus of Green Tree Frogs (as with last year). We elected to try. Our first stop got none of the above but did get us a needed Barn Owl. Our second stop, where we hoped for screech-owl and perhaps some shorebirds got us the screech-owl, a Lesser Yellowlegs, and a total surprise American Wigeo= n giving its distinctive call among Mallards at night! A briefly-heard squawk was almost certainly a Least Bittern, but only Andy and I heard it and not quite well enough for either of us. Our Pocomoke crisscross got us Whip-poor-will, and, racing the clock now, we motored on to our next stop at the Vienna Marshes where we failed to get King Rail. Next stop was Henry's Crossroads, where a single Chuck-will's-widow called, followed by our first Elliott Island stop. Other than meeting Michael O'Brien (and his WINGS group), the highlight there was a singing Black Rail, one of our main Elliot= t Island targets. Some calling Virginia Rails cleaned up a 95% bird for us, and, still racing the clock, we allowed ourselves 10 minutes to get Black-necked Stilt before midnight. In our spare 5 minutes we birded desperately for Least Bittern, employing every strategy we knew to try to hear one chuckle at us. At 12:00:00 the night ended, and thankfully Jim had enough juice to drive us back to Cambridge after I collapsed following the full day of driving. =A0 =A0 =A0=A0 En route I attempted a preliminary count, the first one we ha= d attempted all day. We knew our total was a good one, simply by virtue of our few misses and long list of bonus birds. We were all surprised by the strength of our total though, and would have celebrated properly with a roun= d of beers had any of us been able to stay awake that long (and if Matt were o= f legal age!). *********************** Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Irvine, CA ************************ =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================