Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 08:01:29 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Fred Pierce Subject: Re: weekend birding In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I had the pleasure of being in the midst of about 1,000 Tree Swallows at Assateague a few weeks ago. I was on the overlook platform on the Marsh Trail and had been observing the flock from a distance and they drifted my way, ending up above, below, and on all sides. It was quite windy and so they were nearly hovering. Quite an ethereal experience. Can't help wondering how they find enough to eat to sustain all that energy - I sure didn't see many insects. Do they have a stash of Powerbars somewhere? fdp -------------------------------------------- Fred Pierce (DNRC) Avialantic.com fpierce@avialantic.com www.avialantic.com ------------------------------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM]On > Behalf Of jim brighton > Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 8:34 PM > To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM > Subject: [MDOSPREY] weekend birding > > > Friday Hans Holbrook and I spent most of the day birding Worchester > Co. and ending the last hour of daylight on Deal Island. We hit > Taylors Landing about an hour before sunrise and had two Barn Owls > singing. For the next couple hours we birded with Matt Haffner and > his friend Zak which Matt described in an earlier post. Leaving E.A. > Vaughn Hans and I birded West Ocean City ponds with regular results. > From Shanty Town we observed a male > Harlequin Duck swimming under the bridge and at the inlet saw one Purple > Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, and Great Cormorant. From the Dock > at Hooper's > Restaurant we saw a few Dunlin with a lone White-Rumped > Sandpiper. A flock > of 25 Bonaparte Gulls were huddled on the north end of Skimmer Island. We > than went down the ORV zone on Assateauge. There wasn't much lounging on > the beach although we did see an amazing flock of 500-600 Red-Throated and > Common Loon fly just off the beach heading south in under five minutes. > >From Assateague we worked our way to Deal Island where we picked up > Tricolored Heron and Least Sandpiper. > On Saturday we spent the entire day birding in Dorchester Co. On > Hoopers Island we saw Goldeneye, R-B Merganser, Oldsquaw, and lots of > Bufflehead and Common Loons. We also counted 24 Horned Grebes. From > there we went to Blackwater with not much seen other than large flocks > of Pintail, Shovelers, > and other Anus species. > We then went to the Hurlock area where we were much more > successful. Around > Behula Dump we saw one First year Iceland Gull, a first year > Thayers Gull, a > first year Lesser Black-backed, one third year Lesser > Black-backed, and two > adult Lesser Black-backs. At the Hurlock sewage lagoons there was a large > flock of Snow geese where we observed two immature Ross' Geese with one > being a dark phase bird. This bird was extremely dark, closer to > black than > brown. There were also a flock of 16 Bonaparte Gulls present. > Today we hit Pickering Creek around 8:00 am and didn't see much because of > the gale force winds that were blowing although there were five Snipe > sitting in the impoudments. > Overall Hans and I saw 119 species in a little more than two days. > Unfortunately we were without a scope or our numbers would have probably > been higher. Hans is seemingly going through Swallow Hysteria. He wanted > me to make sure I commented on the large flock of Tree Swallows we saw on > Assateauge and also smaller numbers at Berlin Sewage Ponds and > Deal Island. > Much to Hans and lesser to my discontent we ONLY saw Tree Swallows. The > following is our weekend comp. list. If there is any questions please > contact Hans or myself. > Common loon > Red-throated Loon > Pied-billed Grebe > Horned Grebe > Northern Gannet > Great Cormarant > Double-crested Cormorant > Am. Bittern > Black-crowned Night-heron > Tricolored Heron > Great Egret > Great Blue Heron > Tundra Swan > Mute Swan > Canada Goose > Snow Goose > Ross' Goose > Brant > Mallard > Black Duck > Gadwall > Green-winged Teal > Am. Wigeon > Pintail > Northern Shoveler > Ruddy Duck > Wood Duck > Canvasback > Redhead > Ring-necked Duck > Gr. Scaup > Ls. Scaup > Black Scoter > Surf Scoter > Harlequin Duck > Oldsquaw > Cm. Goldeneye > Bufflehead > Cm. Merganser > Red-breasted Merganser > Hooded Merganser > King rail > Virginia Rail > Killdeer > Blk-bellied plover > Ls. Yellowlegs > Gr. Yellowlegs > Snipe > Woodcock > Ruddy Turnstone > Purple Sandpiper > Dunlin > Sanderling > Least Sandpiper > White-rumped Sandpiper > Laughing Gull > Bonaparte's Gull > Ring-billed Gull > Herring Gull > Iceland Gull > Thayers Gull > Ls. Blk-backed Gull > Gr. Blk-backed Gull > Forster"s Tern > Turkey Vulture > Black Vulture > Bald Eagle > Harrier > Red-tailed Hawk > Kestrel > Merlin > Bobwhite > Turkey > Rock Dove > Mourning Dove > Horned Owl > Barn Owl > Kingfisher > Red-bellied Wdpkr > Flicker > Sapsucker > Downy Wdpkr > Hairy Wdpkr > Pileated Wdpkr > Horned Lark > Tree Swallow > Blue Jay > Am. Crow > Fish Crow > Tufted Titmouse > Car. Chickadee > Brn-hd. Nuthatch > Carolina Wren > Sedge Wren > Marsh Wren > Gld-crwn. Kinglet > Rby-crwn, Kinglet > Bluebird > Robin > Mockingbird > Thrasher > Pipit > Waxwing > Starling > Pine warbler > Yellow-rumped Warbler > Cardinal > Towhee > ]Savannah Sp. > Song Sp. > Field Sp. > Chipping Sp. > Junco > Wht-throated Sp. > Fox Sp. > Swamp Sp. > Meadowlark > Rd-winged Blkbrd > Cowbird > Cm. Grackle > Boat-tld Grackle > House Sp. > Goldfinch > House Finch > > Jim Brighton > jdbrighton3@hotmail.com > Trappe, Md > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > > ====================================================================== > = > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================