Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 10:36:49 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Chris Starling Subject: Eastern Worcester 12/30/03 (no Redpolls) Greetings, Yesterday (12/30/03) Sean McCandless and I spent most of the day birding the MD coast. We set out to find redpolls but were unsuccessful. We began at West Ocean City ponds were we found the usual waterfowl species including Redhead and a Greater Scaup. Here we also found ten or so Black- crowned Night Herons. We then moved on to the OC Inlet and were greeted by a Peregrine Falcon chasing everything in sight. All three scoters were there as well as both Eiders in good numbers. A lone female Harlequin Duck was also seen there as well as Long-tailed Duck, both Loons, Red-throated Merg, and Bonaparte's Gull. Shore birds on the rocks included Dunlin, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, and Purple Sandpiper. Our next stop was skimmer's Island were we found a Bald Eagle, 15 or so Oyster Catchers, and a lone Tri-colored Heron feeding in the grass north of Hooper's. Eagles Roost was rather quiet though we did pick up a few more ducks species, another Peregrine, and an imm Bald Eagle across the bay. Greater Yellowlegs could be heard among a distant shorebird flock that included a hundred smaller birds. The poor lighting would leave these unidentified. Brant were found here too in good numbers. On our way out we encountered the first of what would be our most common bird of the day -(Yellow-rumped Warbler). We also heard Fox Sparrow in the thickets bordering the road. We then went to Assateague in hopes of finding some redpolls. This pursuit would prove unsuccessful though it was not from a lack of looking. Our thorough searching lead to the discovery of an American Bittern that provided us with a great long look as it stood still in the grass. On Assateague we also found Horned Grebe, Northern Pintail, Northern Harrier, Sharpie, Black Vulture, Wilson's Snipe, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Winter Wren, Flied Sparrow, and a stunning pair of Great-horned Owls that allowed me to study them for about 5 minutes before they decided that enough was enough. We were able to re-find them 10 minutes later allowing Sean to see them. Next we headed out of state to Indian River inlet. I wont go into details but there we added Purple Finch, Clapper Rail, GREAT EGRET, BROWN PELICAN, another Tri-colored Heron, and another Great-horned Owl to our list. All in all it was great day despite the early morning rain and the late afternoon wind. It would have been nice to find at least one redpoll considering 200 were seen just two days before. Can someone please provide at least an approximate location of these birds in Worcester County? We finished the day with 90 species including 23 species of waterfowl not counting coot, loons, grebes, or corms. Good Birding, Chris Starling, North East, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================