Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 01:01:49 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Matt Hafner Subject: Assateague Big Sit! results 10/12/03 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit The Assateague Big Sit! was quite a success this year. We had better weather, more eyes, and a nice movement of birds. Last year, we ended with 69 species and felt that 80 was a reasonable goal for this year. That's why we were so blown away when our total was 103!!! species at the end of the count. The main factor was the weather and the flight. Last year was rainy with a very small movement of birds. This year had only a brief period of drizzle and an excellent flight. Also having more eyes allowed for a near constant baywatch and skywatch without sacrificing the passerines in the shrubs. We started the count at 5:40am when Jim Stasz, Zach Baer, Mike Burchett and I arrived. Just before 7am, we were joined by Mark Hoffman and Norm Saunders. We were also aided in the morning by Chris Starling and a Carroll County Bird Club field trip. We ended the count at noon because the birding had died down, the possibilities were less likely, and we wanted to bird more of Assateague. Pre-dawn listening produced a good Swainson's Thrush flight with a few Gray-cheeks mixed in. Our only American Woodcock was one that Jim Stasz put in the flashlight around 6:15am. At dawn there was a Spotted Sandpiper on the beach that stayed only briefly (the tide was so high all day). Shortly after daybreak, the flight began. We had a large movement of Flickers, Tree Swallows, and warblers. The flight was the one of the largest I have seen on Assateague and continued until noon. Unfortunately, Mark missed the best bird of the day. Not only would Yellow-headed Blackbird have been a county bird for him, it's also a state bird. The bird flew over with 3 Red-wings, while Mark was somewhere wandering around. Last year, he didn't come to the Big Sit and missed Eurasian Collared-Dove, this year he makes it down and still misses the state bird. Next time Mark. :) Other highlights for me included the Dickcissels, which we had atleast 3 at one time and others later on. 6 is possibly an underestimate, Jim felt it more like 10. There seemed to be 1-2 hanging around behind the canoes. Purple Finches and Pine Siskin both put in an appearance, hopefully indicating atleast a minor finch flight this year. Plus, there were several "only on the Big Sit!" highlights. My favorites were Mark keenly spotting a Brown Creeper found by Jim Stasz over a 100 feet away from the circle and all of us stretching ourselves to see a Red-eyed Vireo that was easily seen by taking two steps out of the circle. 10/12/2003 Assateague Island/Bayside/Point 0540:1200 Red-throated Loon 1; Common Loon 30; Brown Pelican 80; Double-crested Cormorant 400; Great Blue Heron 2; Great Egret 10; Snowy Egret 10; Little Blue Heron 3; Tricolored Heron 2; Black Vulture 5; Turkey Vulture 20; Snow Goose 120; Canada Goose 10; Brant 40; Wood Duck 1; American Black Duck 4; Mallard 2; Northern Pintail 20; Surf Scoter 20; Black Scoter 4; Osprey 20; Bald Eagle 1; Northern Harrier 1; Sharp-shinned Hawk 3; American Kestrel 1; Merlin 2; Peregrine Falcon 1; Black-bellied Plover 3; Killdeer 3; American Oystercatcher 1; Greater Yellowlegs 1; Spotted Sandpiper 1 (3rd latest fall record); Least Sandpiper 4; White-rumped Sandpiper 1; Pectoral Sandpiper 1; Dunlin 20; Long-billed Dowitcher 2; American Woodcock 1; Laughing Gull 150; Ring-billed Gull 4; Herring Gull 100; Great Black-backed Gull 10; Caspian Tern 10; Royal Tern 30; Forster's Tern 1; Rock Dove 30; Mourning Dove 3; Belted Kingfisher 1; Red-bellied Woodpecker 1; Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2; Northern Flicker (yellow-shafted form) 100; Eastern Phoebe 3; Blue-headed Vireo 1; Red-eyed Vireo 1; American Crow 5; Tree Swallow 3000; Brown Creeper 4; Carolina Wren 1; Winter Wren 1; Golden-crowned Kinglet 30; Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1; Gray-cheeked Thrush 4; Swainson's Thrush 40 (new fall non-banding high count); American Robin 4; Gray Catbird 30; Northern Mockingbird 2; Brown Thrasher 1; European Starling 10; Cedar Waxwing 5; Northern Parula 5; Magnolia Warbler 4; Cape May Warbler 20; Black-throated Blue Warbler 15; Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle form) 120; Black-throated Green Warbler 1; Prairie Warbler 2; Palm Warbler (yellow form) 3; Palm Warbler (western form) 15; Blackpoll Warbler 5; Black-and-White Warbler 1; American Redstart 5; Common Yellowthroat 1; Scarlet Tanager 2; Eastern Towhee 5; Chipping Sparrow 1; Field Sparrow 1; Savannah Sparrow 2; Song Sparrow 5; White-throated Sparrow 1; Dark-eyed Junco (slate-colored form) 5; Northern Cardinal 2; Indigo Bunting 4; Dickcissel 6 (new county high count, prev. high 5, 09/03/1995, AI, Czaplak, D. and Tood, M. A., MB 53:21); Bobolink 5; Red-winged Blackbird 5; Eastern Meadowlark 1; YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD 1 (imm. flyover in small flock of RWBLs, 10th county record, not seen by Hoffman, ugh!!); Boat-tailed Grackle 20; Brown-headed Cowbird 4; Baltimore Oriole 5; Purple Finch 4; House Finch 5; Pine Siskin 1 (ties 4th earliest fall record); American Goldfinch 2. 103 species. Matt Hafner College Park, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================