Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 23:00:02 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Matt Hafner Subject: Olive-sided Fly, Philly Vireo - Assateague MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Today I spent dawn and the early morning hours on Assateague. Beginning at Bayside for dawn flight, there was not much of a flight to speak of. Many birds were flying over, but they all seemed to turn around and drop into the campground or shrubs on the point. I'm not sure if these were new migrants or simply birds that have been on Assateague for a few days moving around. The winds were not conducive to make the jump to South Point. Anyway, the birds: Despite low numbers, I was able to find a decent diversity. At the point, I had several Redstarts (total for the day - 30), a Northern Waterthrush, couple Yellows, a Blue-wing, a Magnolia, and about 10 Bobolinks (all singles, no flocks). The highlights at the point though were a very bright and cooperative Philadelphia Vireo, that fed in the shrubs on the point for almost 10 minutes before disappearing, and an Olive-sided Flycatcher that caught my attention as it flew across the parking lot. I followed to a dead snag where it caught a couple flys then disappeared. I refound the bird an hour later in the campground. Elsewhere on Assateague, I added more Redstarts, another 2 Yellows, another Magnolia, 2 Prairies, a Blackburnian, a silent Traill's Flycatcher, and a calling Least Flycatcher. I spent a good portion of the morning simply walking areas I thought could be productive for Lark Sparrow, no such luck today, maybe on Sunday. Alert to anyone who may be in the area the next couple of days: There is a large feeding group offshore from the state park due east of the causeway. It consisted of about 2000 gulls, 50 dolphins, and a fishing troller. The lighting was horrible around 11am and I had to get going. I will definitely be giving this area another, longer look, for shearwaters and jaegers. Also of note, after chasing and missing Bonnie's Olive-sided yesterday morning at 11:30, I found one on the way home in Harford around 5:45. It was in a dead snag behind the Quick Mart (formerly a WaWa) at the intersection of 543 and 136. Good birding, Matt Hafner Maryland ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================