Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 13:17:47 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Chris Starling Subject: Re: August Big Day Part 1 - Route and Misses (long) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Matt, What do you mean by code 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5? Great post! I was at Elliot's Saturday and managed Sedge Wren, Marsh Wren, S.M.S-t and S.S. Sparrow. All in all 79 species in 5.5 Hours of birding. I will post more on this trip later... -----Original Message----- From: Matt Hafner [mailto:MH1920@AOL.COM] Sent: Monday, September 02, 2002 1:04 PM To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM Subject: [MDOSPREY] August Big Day Part 1 - Route and Misses (long) On August 31, 2002, Jim Stasz, Ed Boyd, Zach Baer and I set out to break the August Big Day record set by Iliff et al. last year. The route I planned was practically the same as last years with only minor changes. However, scouting on Friday and a little bit of good fortune on Saturday changed the route significantly. We started off railing in the predawn hours with one Sora note being the only reward. Railing turned out to be very slow this day. A stop in the pocomoke along Colbourne Mill Rd produced Screech and Barred Owls as well as a Whip-poor-will. Assateague was next as we listened to the night migration in the intermittent drizzle. From what we could tell, Veeries and Bobolinks were the most abundant birds overhead. Warblers were mostly Redstarts, Yellow-type notes, and several unidentifieds. The birds began waking up slowly at Bayside Campground, but as soon as light hit, we were in for a treat. Warblers began appearing from all directions, many too far up to even think about identifying. The flight was about 75% Redstarts, but we also had Blue-winged, several Yellow, Magnolia, several Black-throated Blue, 2 Yellow-throated, 2 Prairie, Yellow Palm, multiple Black-and-whites, a Mourning (excellent call by JLS), and a Hooded. Baltimore Orioles were around as well as a Dickcissel and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. This was by far the best flight I have witnessed at Bayside. Non-passerine highlights were a flyby calling Baird's Sandpiper and an overhead Whimbrel. A walk through the campground picked up Blackburnian and Black-throated Green and more of the same. Life of the woods trail held a Northern Waterthrush. Next stop was Eagle's Nest Campground where atleast 4 Sandwich Terns were present with 6 Piping Plovers (I had 7 the day before) and a Dunlin which I had found the day before. With West OC Pond being dry with 0 Night-herons and Sandwich Terns being at ENCG, we decided to skip the Ocean City area (good idea in the long run, but we missed Cattle Egret). Central Landfill had a 4th-summer/adult winter Lesser Black-backed Gull, obviously different than the 3 first year birds I had the day before. A pair of Solitary sandpipers were our only ones of the day. Next we changed our route to include southeastern Wicomico county as well as the Nassawango area since we had the time from skipping OC. This proved to be beneficial as we were able to get more breeding landbirds than last year. We picked up Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-headed Woodpecker at 2 stops, Yellow-throated Vireo, Northern Parula, more Yellow-throated Warblers, Worm-eating, Ovenbird, both Tanagers, and Prothonotary. Though we left the Pocomoke missing White-breasted Nuthatch. Deal Island got us all the needed birds, plus Long-billed Dowitcher and 2 Black-necked Stilts. The Salisbury Airport still held Upland Sandpipers, but the turf farm had nothing new. Next was Hurlock where I already posted that we added Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Golden-Plover, Bonaparte's Gull, Shoveler, and Cooper's Hawk. Elliot Island added Barn and Great Horned Owls and Common Moorhen. The rails were being completely silent for reasons unknown so we decided to call it day around 10pm. **************************************************************************** ** Maryland - 31 Aug 2001 - 0130-2200 hours - species totals = 159/154 (Team/Shared): James L. Stasz (157), Ed Boyd (155), Matt Hafner (157), Zach Baer (156); 339 mi by car, 2 by foot. **************************************************************************** ** Code 5 misses: Cattle Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Virginia Rail, White-breasted Nuthatch, Grasshopper Sparrow (probably a code 4 this year) Code 4 misses: Pied-billed Grebe, Mute Swan, Green-winged Teal, King Rail, Stilt Sanpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper, Least Tern, Black Tern, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Eastern Phoebe, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Wood Thrush, Orchard Oriole (probably a code 3 since we moved the date to Aug 31) Code 3 misses: Least Bittern, Gadwall, Black Rail, Red Knot, Common Snipe, Common Nighthawk, Alder Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Cliff Swallow, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Canada Warbler Code 2 misses: Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Northern Pintail, American Wigeon, Broad-winged Hawk, Merlin, American Coot, Marbled Godwit, Chuck-will's-widow, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sedge Wren, Warbling Vireo, Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Wilson's Warbler, Savannah Sparrow Code 1 birds aren't really "missed" so I'm not listing them. Matt Hafner College Park, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================