Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 21:48:04 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Les Roslund Subject: Poplar Island Birds on July 31st MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Thursday, July 31st, I had the joy of tagging along as Jan Reese continued with his census work on Poplar Island. I do not have a compilation of the total numbers (Jan's added to mine, for most of the time we were counting different areas), but highlight species and some of the numbers that I recorded are as follows: Highlight Species: Black Tern (1), Black Skimmer (1), Western Sandpiper (3+), Black-bellied Plover (3), Stilt Sandpiper (4+), Short-billed Dowitchers (~30), Semipalmated Plover (~30), Ruddy Turnstone (1), Surf Scoter (4), Snowy Egret (21). Some other observations: A nesting colony of Common Terns is using one of the islands that has been provided for them in one of the holding cells. I counted 32 Terns around the site. A nesting colony of Least Terns is using an exposed piece of ground that definitely was not designed intentionally for them to use. Over 40 nests have been attempted, but with all the rain, most nests have been flooded out during storms. Jan mentioned that one fairly large chick was seen in earlier visits, and another smaller one at a later visit. On 7/31 there was a single tiny (just hatched chick) - and with rains forecast for the evening it would be surprising if this one lasted the night. Other birds - DC Cormorants - nesting - 800+ Great Black-backed Gulls - nesting - 400+ Herring Gulls - nesting - 300+ Large numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers and Least Sandpipers. A few Willets and Killdeer. Barn Swallows (100+), a few Bank Swallows, and two Northern Rough-winged Swallows. Also Laughing Gulls, Great Blue Herons, Red-winged Blackbirds, Starlings, Mallards, Canada Geese, Mute Swans, Sanderlings, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, and Osprey. Les Roslund lroslund@bluecrab.org Talbot County Easton MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================