Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 20:17:15 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Glen Lovelace III Subject: Dorchester Co. 10/19 Hello All, Shelly and I made a tour of Dorchester Co today visiting Hurlock, Elliott's Is. and Blackwater. First stop was Hurlock and what a difference a day makes as compared to yesterday's Hurlock post. The large numbers were similar (Snows, Canada, Ruddy, etc.) and the Black Headed gull was still present, but we missed the scaup and most of the shorebirds. In its place were 1 White-Winged Scoter, 1 Pied-Billed Grebe, 1 Semipalm Plover and a Phoebe. Elliott's Island Rd started slow and the water was higher than usual, so there were not many shorebirds to be found. We compensated by having an excellent variety of raptors. We had several harriers, 4 Bald Eagles, 3 Red-Tails, a Sharpie, a Merlin and a Peregrine. Other good birds included several Common Loons with 2 still in breeding plumage, Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler and BH Nuthatch. Later added a Cooper's Hawk and Black Vultures on Henry's Crossroads Rd. In all, 10 species of raptor inc. 18 Kestrel. Exploring in the southern part of the county did not turn up much and turned into a game of seeing how many roads i could find with water across them. Came back by Blackwater and it was very slow. However, there were 3 Caspian Terns at the bridge east of the refuge entrance and a flock of 1000-1500 Snows that had 100 Blues in it. That has to be the highest number and concentration of Blues I have seen around here. Good Birding, Glen and Shelly Lovelace Seaford, DE ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================