Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 19:09:15 -0800 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Kevin Graff Subject: Ocean City Inlet & Assateague Is. SP, 1/11/04 In-Reply-To: <000001c3da19$fe94d470$6400a8c0@NORM> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Hi all, After leaving the motel in Va. before sunrise. I was headed north on Rt 113 in Worcester County just pass the Basket Switch Rd at 7am. I noticed large flocks of Snow Geese on old corn field on southbound, pulled over and started counting them at about 3000 birds. As i was ready to leave after counting them, I heard loud honking in distance and saw many more Snow Geese coming in many flocks range from 20 to 230 birds. After over an hour of counting as they landed, last number total of 21,627 Snow Geese including 688 Lesser Snow Geese (86 blue phase), the rest are Greater. Also with them were 3 ROSS' GEESE (one blue phase). The location was at 6815 Worcester HWY (Rt 113). The field was jammed with geese. Also in area, 2 Turkey Vulture, 1 American Kestrel, 3 Ring-billed Gull, 3 Horned Lark, 2 American Crow, 2 Eastern Bluebird, 8 American Robin, 1 Savannah Sparrow, 2 Eastern Meadowlark, 4 American Goldfinch. Finally get to head north, but few minutes later, on Rt 113, north of Langmaid Road, more geese headed toward the field. Pulled over again across from Exxon Gas Station and over a 20 minutes of counting, 3,554 in 30+ flocks; 788 in 14 flocks; 13 in one flock; and 784 in 13 flocks, all are Greater Snow Geese, so that brings a total of 26,078 Greater Snow Geese, 688 Lesser Snow Geese, and 3 Ross' Geese in that field and nearby flights. The total for three species were 26,769 geese. On Sat the 10th in Va., I had 11,845 Snow Geese (no Ross') So along the state border, there are 38,614 geese not including Canada Geese. It looks like we may have over 50,000 Snow Geese in coastal MD and VA. 1/11/04 Ocean City Inlet - 930am-11am very slow and # are low Observers: Kevin Graff & John Landers Weather: MS, 18 to 22 degree, NNW 9 mph 2 Red-throated Loon 2 Common Loon 2 Northern Gannet 2 Double-crested Cormorant 3 Great Cormorant - all adults, flyby over ocean 1 Turkey Vulture 52 Atlantic Brant 4 Greater Scaup 1 Common Eider 2 King Eider - 1st winter male and female 1 Long-tailed Duck - flyby (like Oldsquaw better) 9 Black Scoter 9 Surf Scoter 3 White-winged Scoter 28 Bufflehead - inlet close to ocean 13 Red-breasted Merganser 1 Peregrine Falcon - water tower 2 American Oystercatcher 11 Ruddy Turnstone 29 Sanderling - all cuddle together to stay warm 7 Purple Sandpiper 36 Bonaparte's Gull 81 Ring-billed Gull 41 Herring Gull 42 Great Black-backed Gull 66 Rock Pigeon 36 European Starling 4 House Sparrow 490 28 species Assateague Island State Park only - 1120am-120pm Weather: MS, 22 to 27 degree, WNW to variable winds, 3-8 mph 1 Common Loon 2 Horned Grebe 1 Northern Gannet 1 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Great Blue Heron 2 Great Egret 1 Tricolored Heron 2 Turkey Vulture 5 Mute Swan 886 Atlantic Brant 6 Canada Goose 2 Wood Duck - with rafts of Blacks & Mallard 378 American Black Duck 59 Mallard 8 Lesser Scaup 20 scaup sp. 282 Bufflehead 2 Surf Scoter 5 Red-breasted Merganser 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 Merlin 7 Sanderling 2 Dunlin 1 Wilson Snipe 334 Ring-billed Gull 96 Herring Gull 71 Great Black-backed Gull 4 Forster's Tern 31 Rock Pigeon - Verrazano Bridge 2 Mourning Dove 11 Northern Flicker 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker - Rt 611 & South Point Rd. 2 Blue Jay 1 American Crow 2 Carolina Chickadee 48 American Robin 1 Northern Mockingbird 1 NORTHERN SHRIKE - imm 2 Cedar Waxwing 7 European Starling 53 Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 American Tree Sparrow 4 Song Sparrow 1 Swamp Sparrow 8 White-throated Sparrow 6 "Slate-colored" Junco 1 Boat-tailed Grackle 6 American Goldfinch 2371 48 species Kevin Graff Jarrettsville, MD & Ocean City, MD ocean_city2001@yahoo.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================