Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 16:26:04 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Les Roslund Subject: Great New Shorebirding Spot in Talbot County MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Pickering Creek Audubon Center has a new shorebirding site! The Center has been working on a wetland impoundment for the past several months. Excavation is finished, and a berm has been built around a 24-acre region that will eventually be planted to selected wetland vegetation. Right now, though, nothing has been planted, so the whole region resembles a road construction borrow pit -- and the shorebirds love it! The rains of last week (over 5 inches here) have created five good-sized ponds and several smaller ones for the shorebirds to enjoy. This afternoon the site held: Greater Yellowlegs (1) Lesser Yellowlegs (34+) Least Sandpiper (40+) Semipalmated Sandpiper (30+) Solitary Sandpiper (5) Stilt Sandpiper (2) Pectoral Sandpiper (4) Western Sandpiper (5) Spotted Sandpiper (1) White-rumped Sandpiper (1) Semipalmated Plover (4) Killdeer (30+) Other notables: Kestrel (1); Bald Eagle (1) This site is on Sharp Road, west of Route 50 and north of Easton. See the Pickering Creek web site for specific directions and for further information about Pickering Creek Audubon Center: www.pickeringcreek.org The wetland begins at the corner of Sharp Road and the entrance lane for Pickering Creek Center. For one or two cars, there is room to park right at that entrance, and the viewing from that point is excellent. The wetland site continues along the lane, making viewing close, splendid, and easy. The berm is low enough to be readily looked across, yet high enough to help the birds feel protected. If you choose to view from the lane, be sure to not block that lane with your car, for many others use that lane for access to Pickering Creek Education Programs. For a longer stay or for a larger group, it is recommended that you park in the ample parking lot near the farm buildings at the end of the lane. From that lot, yoy can walk back through a grassy field to the berm (a distance of about a tenth of a mile) and view the birds along the shore of the largest pond. Pickering Creek Center requests that visitors do not drive into the grassy field beside the berm. That field has soft spots from the recent rains, and even the four-wheel drives of modern birders will make unwelcome ruts and holes. Pickering Creek Audubon Center grounds, including this new site, are open to the public throughout daylight hours. Birders are most welcome, and until or unless the waters dry up, this will provide a fine addition to Talbot County shorebirding sites. Les Roslund lroslund@bluecrab.org Talbot County Easton MD 21601 (410) 763-8169 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================