Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 08:44:13 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Ocean City, Chincoteague, Wachapreague MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Ocean City, MD. Chincoteague and Wachapreague, VA. Jared Sparks and I spent the weekend of December 13-14, 2003, at these places. Ocean City inlet. Sat., Dec. 13. c. 11:45 A.M. -1:30 P.M. Clear, mid-30s, NW 10-15. Tide almost full then ebbing while we were there. Of most interest: 1 female Common Eider and a female Merlin, the latter flew in across the inlet and perched on a post providing nice scope studies. Kevin Graff was here and said early in the morning he had seen both eider species on the s. side of the s. jetty, which is where there were still many ducks, now badly backlit and hard to ID in the haze of the afternoon. Kevin and some Ohio birders there saw a few gannets we missed. Jared and I also saw: a migrating Sharp-shinned Hawk, 3 Double-crested Cormorants, 9 oystercatchers roosting on the high rocks of the s. jetty, 6 Forster's Terns, 55 Surf & 2 White-winged scoters. Chincoteague N.W.R., mostly from the road between Swan Cove Pool and Tom's Cove. c. 2:45-4:45 P.M. Low tide and getting lower, wind N 5-10, c. 34 degrees F. 2 Ross's Geese, both well-seen at medium distance in flight for several minutes each as the birds circled with Snow Geese and eventually landed in Swan Cove Pool. In both cases - diminutive birds compared to the Snows with proportionately shorter necks and stubby, triangular bills, all these features easily and repeatedly seen: 1 an immature blue phase, the other an adult white bird. I am aware that blue phase birds are even more likely to be hybrids than the white ones but to the extent we could see, everything fit for Ross's. Also at Chincoteague: 2,000 Snow plus 29 Blue Geese, 175 Tundra Swans, 1 ad. and 1 imm. Bald Eagle (flushed the waterfowl several times), 225 Green-winged Teal, 300 pintails, 75 shovelers, 65 Lesser Scaup, 1 kingfisher, 20 Great & 1 Snowy Egret, 11 Greater Yellowlegs, 75 Gadwalls, 1 Horned Grebe, 5 harriers, 125 Buffleheads, 4 Forster's Tern, 1 ad. Bonaparte's Gull (trading back and forth right next to the road at very close range), 15 Boat-tailed Grackles. Next to the outlet pipe at low water 10 Tricolored Herons and 15 Red-breasted Mergansers at very short range and so close to each other they almost intermingled, feeding on small fishes, a minor spectacle, strange bedfellows. 5 Sika Deer appeared at dusk on the marsh edges. On the road in from Rt. 13 there were perhaps 3,000 blackbirds in a flock in one field, many of them cowbirds plus 2 Willets and 3 Tricolored Herons along the causeway. The wan winter light here with the low, somewhat incandescent sun visible through the complex, changeable gray cloud formations made for a beautiful scene accented by the thousands of waterfowl feeding, circling, or making sorties from one body of water to another as Tundra Swans uttered their marvelous calls. It was a Peter Scott sky. "And winter's dregs made desolate the weakening eye of day." Thomas Hardy, 'The Darkling Thrush'. Wachapreague Christmas count, Sun., Dec. 14. 8 A.M. - 4 P.M. A gale with sustained easterly or northeasterly winds 30-35 mph, heavy, continuous rain, temps. in the 40s, beginning c. 3 A.M. and continuing until c. 1 P.M. Demoralizing, close to impossible conditions for birding, except from the car and various peoples' living rooms and balconies. Tides reached 2 feet above normal at c. 11 A.M. nearly topping the Spartina alterniflora. Jared and I almost gave up, came close to just returning to Philadelphia after breakfast. From 2-4 P.M. the rain and wind ceased and it became foggy with visibility c. 100 yards. The amount of standing water in the fields was exceptional. Some stretches of roads under rain water for 100 yards or more. Temperatures reached into the 50s after the winds and rains stopped, prompting a Chorus Frog to call at 3:33 P.M. Jared and I covered the Locustville area. 55 species, including a lovely male Common Yellowthroat plus a Pine Siskin at the Reigers' feeders. The best birding was in one of George Reiger's fields where we saw 6 Western Palm Warblers, 40 Killdeer, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 3 Western Sandpipers, 110 Dunlin, 8 Short-billed Dowitchers, and 2 Common Snipe, all actively feeding. This was a harvested soy bean feeding with abundant pools of standing water. This Christmas count tallied 93 species. The soggy fields were full of gulls (almost all Ring-billeds), blackbirds, crows, and a few shorebirds and ducks. We stayed at the Reigers, whose house gives a marvelous view down tidal Finney Creek towards Burtons Bay and Parramore Island. From the comfort of their balcony Hooded Mergansers, numerous Buffleheads, Green-winged Teal, a Long-tailed Duck, and other fowl were visible. George has written the introduction of a new book that features the wildlife art of Lynn Bogue Hunt, whose paintings I enjoyed as a boy. Though not as great an artist as Walter Alois Weber, Maj. Allan Brooks, or Louis Agassiz Fuertes - others whose paintings I enjoyed frequently then - Hunt's art was nevertheless considerable, and far superior to the crude renderings of Bruce Horsfall. Michael Male and Judy Fieth were to take us to Cedar Island today in their Carolina Skiff with its big, silver Honda 4-stroke but given the weather this was impossible. Disappointing not to spend the day on this fine barrier island with its rich variety of sea, bay and saltmarsh birds, where I snack on Salicornia almost every December. Michael and Judy's videos on warblers, sparrows, and wading birds feature superlative photography, excellent sound, and just the right amount of narration, which is entertaining and informed. I highly recommend them. Their "Watching Sparrows" is now available on DVD as well as VCR. www.birdfilms.com At dusk as we drove through Accomac a Gray Squirrel scrambled over the road on a phone line. The drive back to Philadelphia at the end of the day was a bit trying since the windshield wipers failed close to the Maryland-Delaware line with well over 100 miles to go in the rain. Here in Philadelphia a Chipping Sparrow has been frequenting our feeders beginning with the snow storm of Friday, December 5, the only one I have ever seen at the feeders here in the fall. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119-1225. 215-248-4120. 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