Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 09:15:27 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Charles Vaughn Subject: O.C. Inlet and a bit of Worcester Co. In-Reply-To: <009e01c2d6dd$309ff120$0cb1fea9@ezy.net> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Simone Jenion and I spent from about 2 pm to 4pm at O.C. Inlet yesterday. Basic birds were RED-THROATED LOON COMMON LOON BONAPARTE'S GULL RING-BILLED GULL HERRING GULL GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL A GREAT CORMORANT made a brief stop on a post behind the motel at the inside of the inlet. We didn't see the HARLEQUIN DUCK that has been here, but we did see it on Saturday. Snow Geese were in great abundance along Rt. 50 in eastern Wicomico County and along Logtown Road. We didn't try to estimate the total numbers but there were three fields of birds, two with at least 5-10 thousand birds, the other with well over 10 thousand. The biggest surprise, though, was a flock of sparrows on Logtown Rd. just before the Pocomoke River in Worcester Co. We thought we were in the grasslands of the South West in the fall. There was a mixed flock of JUNCOS and WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS that totalled probably 1000 birds! We only saw one FOX SPARROW and a HERMIT THRUSH mixed in with the flock. I have never seen anywhere near this many White-throated Sparrows and juncos in one flock. It was late in the day (ca. 4:30 pm) and the birds were very skittish. They were feeding along the road and in the narrow grassy field leading up to the river and. Groups of up to 50 birds were bunched together feeding in the grassy areas that stuck above the snow. There should have been sharpies also feeding, but we didn't see any. No problem driving along Logtown Road. Charles Vaughn 1306 Frederick Avenue Salisbury, MD 21801 410-742-7221 essc@comcast.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================