Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 13:55:45 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul Bystrak Subject: Cecil-Harford Chapters' Field trip to Blackwater NWR Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed August 10, 2002. Saturday. Joint Cecil-Kent County chapters field trip to Blackwater NWR and surroundings, including Bestpitch and Elliott Island Road. 8:00 AM to 3 PM. 80 species: 1 Double-crested Cormorant , 60 Great Blue Herons , 75 Great Egrets, 3 Snowy Egrets , 1 Little Blue Heron, 1 Green Heron, 1 Glossy Ibis, 3 Black Vultures, 16 Turkey Vultures, 80 Canada Geese, 2 American Black Ducks, 4 Mallards, 14 Ospreys, 5 Bald Eagles, 1 Northern Harrier, 2 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 American Kestrel, 1 Peregrine Falcon, 1 Archaeopteryx sp. (heard only), 1 Wild Turkey, 0 Northern Bobwhite (summer is not the same without them), 1 Clapper Rail (Elliott), 6 Semipalmated Plovers, 10 Killdeer, 28 Greater Yellowlegs, 16 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Solitary Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 10 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 25 Least Sandpipers, Peep sp. 120 (probably mostly leasts), 2 Pectoral Sandpipers, 24 Laughing Gulls, 6 Ring-billed Gulls, 10 Herring Gulls, 6 Great Black Backed Gulls (Cambridge), 6 Forster's Terns, 6 Rock Doves, 12 Mourning Doves, 3 Eastern Screech Owls, 4 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, 3 Red-headed Woodpeckers, 3 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, 4 Downy Woodpeckers, 3 Northern Flickers, 14 Eastern Wood Pewees, 3 Great Crested Flycatchers, 18 Eastern Kingbirds, 1 White-eyed Vireo, 10 American Crows, 8 Fish Crows, 4 Purple Martins, 6 Tree Swallows, 1 Northern Rough-winged Swallow, 4 Bank Swallows, 30 Barn Swallows, 8 Carolina Chickadees, 5 Tufted Titmice, 7 Brown-headed Nuthatches, 25 Carolina Wrens, 1 House Wren, 1 Marsh Wren (Bestpitch), 8 Eastern Bluebirds, 6 American Robins, 1 Gray Catbird, 4 Northern Mockingbirds, 2 Cedar Waxwings, 30 European Starlings, 3 Pine Warblers, 1 Summer Tanager (Henry's Crossroad), 1 Eastern Towhee (Elliott), 15 Chipping Sparrows, 6 Grasshopper Sparrows, 10 Northern Cardinals, 8 Blue Grosbeaks, 6 Indigo Buntings, 30 Red-winged Blackbirds, 6 Common Grackles, 2 Baltimore Orioles, 1 House Finch, 18 American Goldfinches, 12 House Sparrows. About 898 individuals. Not a bad list for the summer doldrums. Actually, 4 MOS chapters were represented by the trip attendees (Cecil, Harford, Kent and Tri-County). The grasshopper sparrows were in a flock in the garden at the visitor's center. We tried very hard to make them into something else, but they stubbornly refused to be misidentified. It is only the second time I have seen a flock of grasshopper sparrows, and the first time I have seen a couple of them sitting on a park bench. The Baltimore orioles were also in the little bushes in the garden. It astounds me that Bobwhite are still be a game bird when they are in such grave condition. An individual could legally shoot 642 of them during the hunting season, which would have to be a significant portion of the remaining population. Doesn't bode well for "less important" (i.e. non-game) species that are also in trouble. Best wishes. Paul Bystrak, 3709 Devonshire Drive Salisbury, MD 21804 410-572-9950 443-783-1268 (cell) shrike@intercom.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================