Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 09:09:33 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Lovelace, Glen" Subject: Oak Grove Area Update 5/23 Comments: To: DE-Birds MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hello All, 4.2" of rain on 5/16 have given me yet another chance to find some shorebirds around Oak Grove. All but the 2 most persistent puddles had dried up as of about 5/3 and the remaining 2 did not have a whole lot to offer. With no habitat, I had missed Least Sand, Spotted Sand, Pecs and Semi Plover. I had even missed Least Sand and Semi Plover on my spring count area for the first time in 5+ years. Anyway, last Friday's rain along with more this week gave all the puddles a good recharge (to approx 2/3 of the level after the week of rain in early April). In the meantime, many fields had been plowed and disked, some were planted and have corn poking through the ground. Puddles on plowed fields is an unusual wrinkle and I was not sure if it would produce any shorebirds as puddles in fallow fields do. Normally, the puddles are there early in the spring, some persist into May, but after they dry, the farming begins in earnest and drier summer weather takes over. The results: 5/18 - the morning walk was postponed due to rain, but I took an hour in the evening between rain showers to check puddles. No shorebirds, but I flushed a Black-Crowned Night Heron from the small pond in the woods on Oak Grove Rd. I stopped to check on the geese (who have been on the nest since early April - the eggs must be infertile?) and flushed the heron. When I first noticed a small heron, I assumed a Green Heron.....no.....no.....that's a night heron.....that's a NIGHT HERON! And about that time, it disappeared into the trees. Ummm, which flavor was it? I had been so taken aback by a night heron, that I did not get that far, but I thought it had landed in a tree. Eventually, I was able to maneuver myself to a spot where I see the perched bird and it was a Black-Crowned. Homelist bird #170 and a Caroline County bird. I also stopped at the stream crossing on Horseshoe Rd. It seems that every Sunday morning, the neighbor is working on his truck, mowing the grass or something that makes too much noise for me to be able to listen well. So I enjoyed the quiet here, set up the scope and watched the traffic on a couple of snags visible upstream. In a few minutes time, there was a Downy, a Flicker, a Kingbird, a Blue Grosbeak, an Indigo Bunting and a Pileated Woodpecker that flew downstream not far over my head. 5/19 - a walk around the farm in the morning produced nothing special - your typical selection of local birds to be found in June. The first effort all year that did add any new species. 5/20 - puddle check - 7 Greater Yellows at the Vesper spot (and no Vesper) on Oak Grove Rd. 5/21 - puddle check - at the sharp bend in Kinder Rd - 2 Lesser Yellows, 10 Least Sand and 1 Semi Sand. I was happy to get Least covered and the Semi was a bonus. The first spring and the second ever Semi Sand record here. 1 Ring-Billed Gull in with the Laughers in the field on the corner of Kinder and N. Oak Grove Rds. probably a late date for Ringer here. 5/22 - puddles check - again at the sharp bend in Kinder Rd - 1 Lesser Yellow, 17 Least Sand, 1 Semi Sand and 4 Semipalmated Plover. And they were much closer than the day before in the puddles closest to the road. At the back of the farm, I heard a pair of GH Owls dueting about 7 PM. The owls made species #123 for the year on the homelist. That equals last year's total and I have 7 more months :) Good Birding, Glen Lovelace III 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================