Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2002 17:46:53 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Walter Ellison Subject: Kent Co Shorebirds MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi All, I have been monitoring a local farm pond in our area (between Worton and Fairlee). Specifically the pond is off the southeast side of Great Oak Landing Rd close to its intersection with Handy Pt. Rd. Today's tally was: 3 Killdeer 80 Lesser Yellowlegs 100 Semipalmated Sandpipers 40 Least Sandpipers 3 White-rumped Sandpipers 3 Pectoral Sandpipers 55 Stilt Sandpipers 32 Short-billed Dowitchers Also present were 9 Green-winged Teal. The Stilt Sandpiper number strikes me as mind-boggling. All were identified with some care because I was skeptical. All showed the characteristic feeding posture with the head kept underwater - until you would be sure the bird must drown - with the back at a steeper angle than the dowitchers, the bills were longer than those of the yellowlegs and shorter than those of the dows with noticeable decurvature. All were adults and some still showed barring across the underparts, most showed the prominent flaring supercilary stripe (others were too distant or feeding too much), and those that flew or hopped up had grayish tails with white rumps. It looked like the salt pans at Plum Island, MA on a good day. I also got in what will likely be my last three local atlas confirmations for the season (new ones anyway) - goldfinch (FL), Indigo Bunting (FY), and Blue Grosbeak (FL). Good Birding, Walter Ellison MD/DC Atlas Coordinator - MOS 23460 Clarissa Rd Chestertown, MD 21620-3645 410-778-9568 rossgull@crosslink.net "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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================