Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 15:16:14 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Norm Saunders Subject: Monday Morning in Ocean City MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Fran and I started off our Christmas vacation at the shore with a bang this morning by finally ticking off probably the top bird on our Most- Wanted-in-Maryland list=97a MARBLED GODWIT at Skimmer Island (a tip of the hat to Stan Arnold for the info!). This followed good looks at 3 COMMON EIDER, 1 KING EIDER, 2 LONG-TAILED DUCK, about 4-6 HARLEQUIN DUCK, and good numbers of all three SCOTERS, all seen at the inlet. Many of the waterfowl were hanging out around the outermost tips of both jetties and along the north side of the south jetty (i.e. yielding superb scope views). We had at least 8 COMMON LOON in the inlet but only a single flyby RED- THROATED LOON and only one very distant NORTHERN GANNET. There were also at least 60 PURPLE SANDPIPERS on both jetties. In addition to the godwit, Skimmer Island yielded up an adult and a first- or second- year BALD EAGLE, 5 GREATER YELLOWLEGS, 2 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, many DUNLIN, SANDERLING, and peeps, a NORTHERN HARRIER, and large flocks of RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS. We tallied our first 3 REDHEADS for this winter at West Pond, among a huge flock of CANVASBACK. A disturbing sighting was what appeared to be an oil-drilling platform set up in the ocean a few miles south of the jetty and maybe a mile or so offshore, just about opposite Assateague National Seashore. A passing bicyclist said she had seen the rig being towed south near Dewey Beach the day before. Scoping the platform left no doubt=97it was no longer under tow= but had been set up to go to work. Does anyone know what=92s going on here??? More reports as the week progresses! Best, Norm Saunders =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= Norman C. Saunders Colesville & West Ocean City, MD marshhawk@att.net (but out of touch for the next few weeks) =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================