Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 19:43:43 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Phalarope Subject: Talbot (Bay Hundred) after Isabel MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Greetings: With a late start (9:30) Lee & I attempted to head to Dorchester County this morning and were fortunately turned back by flooding roads at all exit points from Bay Hundred. I say fortunately because we have just seen the aerial photos of Cambridge along the Choptank, Church Creek, and Hoopers Island, all of which are inaccessible by car. We stopped first at the Miles River bridge. Two Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls, DC Cormorant, Mute Swan, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Mallards, hordes of sightseers with dogs. Road north of the bridge flooded, so twice the amount of traffic - coming and going. Turned back to St. Michaels and went next to Claiborne Landing, which was flooded up to the store, so no good vantage for bird viewing, though we could see lots of birdy activity on the Bay. A pickup or SUV with high clearance could have ventured further into the parking lot than we could. Next to Bay Shore(?) Road, Wittman, where, although the road was flooded well back from the treeline along the shore, we could get a bit of an angle with the scope. Common Terns riding driftwood, Kingfisher, the usual gulls, Green Heron, hordes of sightseers in pickup trucks but no dogs. Next to Lowe's Wharf Road. The marina was flooded, with water 2 feet up the door. Owners had been evacuated by boat at 6am. We had an excellent vista from Ferry Cove Road out to Poplar Island. Royal and Common Terns, DC Cormorants, Laughing, Herring, Ring-Billed, GBB Gulls, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Broad-winged Hawk, Kestrel, 2 sandpipers. Traffic here was watermen concerned about their boats at the marina. We lent binocs to one man so he could get a better look, and he went away satisfied. After about 2 hours we decided to see how Tilghman had fared. There was minor flooding on the Island side of the bridge. We went out to the end of completely dry Sinclair Street with another great view of the Bay, with no protection from Poplar Island. Gulls, terns, cormorants. Tired and eye-strained so stayed only 15 minutes. No on-lookers; everyone seemed to be at the Narrows watching the flood. This is probably where we should have started the day. Hope this gives some clues to accessibility to birders who may head this way tomorrow. Please be careful if you venture to Dorchester. The lower county looks quite devastated and portions of the southwestern county (Church Creek to Golden Hill and Hoopers Island) were under as much as 4 feet of water. Photos of Hoopers showed treetops and roofs only, no roads. Good Birding! Carol & Lee McCollough St. Michaels phalarope@dmv.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================