Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 00:54:57 +0000 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: jim brighton Subject: birding on the shore Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed I decided after sluggishly waking up this morning to spend the day birdwatching eventhough the weather wasn't cooperating. 8:00am on the Choptank off Cambridge saw much fog (which haunted me the rest of the day) and a nice steady downpoar: Oldsquaw, Goldeneye, and a Redhead in the raft of Canvasback that winter each year at the end of Oakley Street. On the east end of Key Wallace drive in the south fields I had a nice flock of 30-40 Am. Pipits and Meadowlarks. I picked up both Yellowlegs and Dunlin and Winter Wren on the Marsh Edge Trail in the refuge. Bald Eagles seemed to be sitting in every bare tree. Eliot Island road had Brown-headed Nuthatches, Coopers Hawk, my only Savannah Sp. and a singing Virginia Rail. I had a beautiful Rough-legged Hawk fly by at the first abandoned house on the right once in the marsh. Savannah Lake was devoid of birds except for four Canada Geese. I was hoping for Cm. Merg's to no avail. Jetted off to Worchester Co. First stop was the Berlin Sewage ponds where I picked up Ring-necked Duck (a hard bird for me in Dorchester outside of Hurlock). As I approached Assateague the fog set in. The fog coupled with the rain didn't help my spirits and it was thick. Picked up fly-by Brants crossing the bridge onto the island. Couldn't see the ocean hardly at all except for the immediate breakers. Picked up Sanderling. West Ocean City ponds were full of ducks. Canvasbacks being the dominant species. Picked up Gadwall and Ruddy Ducks. The Inlet I thought would be a disaster. You couldn't even see the other side. Still, there were a large number of Purple Sandpipers with no Turnstones. I decided to walk all the way down the Jetty towards Assawoman Bay to see if I could get a Turnstone and at the very end of the jetty a male Harlequin poked up out from the rocks. I was probably only 15ft. away. Really spectacular. Ocean Pines ponds gave me Hooded Mergs. And I raced off to Deal Island. Deal also seemed devoid of anything but Fish Crows and Duck Hunters. But as the sun began to set things perked up. Two Am. Bitterns flew past, then four Tricolored Herons, and the evening Black-crowned Night-Heron flight was good also. Eventhough the weather wasn't much help I still had a real good day with some great looks at difficult species. Total=80 species Cm Loon - Sinepuxent Bay Horned Grebe - Sinepuxent Bay Double-crested Cormorant - OC Inlet Am. Bittern - Deal Island Great Blue Heron - Cambridge Tricolored Heron - Deal Island Black-crowned Night-Heron - Deal Island Tundra Swan - Blackwater Snow Goose - Blackwater Brant - Sinepuxent Bay Canada Goose - Trappe Green-winged Teal - Blackwater Am. Black Duck - Blackwater Mallard - Cambridge N. Shoveler - Blackwater Gadwall - West OC Ponds Am. Widgeon - Cambridge Canvasback - Choptank Redhead - Choptank Ring-necked Duck - Berlin Sewage Ponds Greater Scaup - Choptank Lesser Scaup - West OC Ponds Oldsquaw - Choptank Harlequin Duck - OC Inlet Cm. Goldeneye - Choptank Bufflehead - Choptank Hooded Merganser - Ocean Pines Ponds Red-breasted Merg. - Sinepuxent Bay Ruddy Duck - West OC Ponds Black Vulture - Blackwater Turkey Vulture - Blackwater Bald Eagle - Blackwater Harrier - Eliot Cooper's Hawk - Eliot Red-tailed Hawk - Blackwater Rough-legged Hawk - Eliot Kestrel - Blackwater Virginia Rail - Eliot/Deal King Rail - Deal (heard only) Kildeer - Eliot gr. Yellowlegs - Blackwater Ls. Yellowlegs - Blackwater Sanderling - Assateague Purple Sandpiper - OC Inlet Dunlin - Blackwater Ring-billed Gull - Choptank Herring Gull - Choptank Gr. Blk-Backed Gull - Choptank Rock Dove - Vienna Mourning Dove - Blackwater Kingfisher - Eliot Red-bellied Woodpkr - Eliot Downy Woodpkr - Eliot Flicker - Blackwater Am. Crow - Blackwater Fish Crow - Deal Island Car. Chickadee - Eliot Tufted Titmouse - Blackwater Brown-headed Nuthatch - Eliot Carolina Wren - Blackwater Winter Wren - Blackwater Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Blackwater Hermit Thrush - Eliot Robin - Blackwater Bluebird - Eliot Catbird - Deal Island Mockingbird - Cambridge Starling - Trappe (First bird of the year ARRGGHHH) Am. Pipit - Blackwater Yellow-rumped Warbler - Blackwater Cardinal - Blackwater Savannah Sparrow - Eliot Song Sparrow - Blackwater Swamp Sparrow - Eliot White-throated Sparrow - Blackwater Junco - Cambridge Red-winged Blackbird - Blackwater Meadowlark - Blackwater Boat-tailed Grackle - Deal Island Am. Goldfinch - Blackwater Jim Brighton jdbrighton3@hotmail.com Trappe, Md _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================