Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 01:09:21 +0000 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Hans Holbrook Subject: Eastern Shore Highlights 2/7-9 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed I met up with Jim Brighton on Saturday morning and birded all over the Eastern Shore, from other posts it looks like alot of others were out the too. On Friday, Jim found a leucistic Horned Lark near Bruceville, hometown of the KKK headquarters, Talbot County Chapter. We looked for the bird again today but were unable to relocate it. Saturday we started in Ocean City, there wasn't much out of the ordinary, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull on Skimmer Island, and two Great Cormorants in the inlet. By Shanty Town there was a Common Loon missing its upper mandible, I think I read something about a bird like this about a year ago, could it be the same one? From Eagles Nest Campground there were at least a thousand shorebirds but the lighting was poor. On Assategue there was an American Bittern in the marsh as you first drive on to the island. From the ORV zone we saw all three scoters, but there were very few gulls and only three Sanderlings. On a side note I discovered that it is illegal to pass ten stopped cars looking at Sika Deer when there is a double yellow line and the only oncomming traffic is a Park Police Officer. He informed that regular road rules apply do in National Parks too. Evans Road, had at least one Clay-colored Sparrow, while Ironshire held one Lapland Longspur. At the Worchester County Landfill there was one first winter hybrid gull, probably HerringXwhite-winged gull. On Taylor's Landing Road there was a Catbird, Merlin and another American bittern. We finished off at Deal Island were we bumped into Stan Arnold and co., after hitting many of the same spots through out the day. Highlight was 3 Short-eared Owls as the sun was setting. On the way back to Trappe there was Great Horned Owl along the new route 50 section north of Salisbury. Sunday, we birded mostly Caroline County, highlights were one VESPER SPARROW near Denton on Central Avenue and 5 Lapland Longspurs along Sparks Road. A flock of Chipping Sparrows was near Federalsburg. And on a more curious note, there was a first winter Herring Gull flying out across the middle of the Choptank with an entire bagel in its mouth! He was coming from the dirrection of Dunkin Donuts, however the bagel did not appear to be toasted or have cream cheese on it. Hans Holbrook Columbia, MD _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================