Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 07:45:36 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Re: Last Sat. Black Water and Ocean City MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 3/22/2004 8:56:31 PM Eastern Standard Time, seanmccandless1@COMCAST.NET writes: > The Inlet had bad traffic, people parking in the way from the parking > lot. The wind again was very bad and scoping was nearly impossible.Bad > vibrations. We did have Gannets passing thru very close, Common Eider > in the channel, maybe as many as 2 Red-necked Grebes, Horned Grebe, > both Loons, both Cormorants and Black Scoters. > Hi all, I was at the inlet early on both Saturday and Sunday over the weekend. I saw lots of Surf Scoters, but no Blacks. There was a raft of perhaps 20-25 Common Eiders, with at least 3 adult males in breeding plumage, 2-3 Red-necked Grebes but no Horned (while we were there in the AM), both loons (more Commons on Sunday that Sat.), a few Gannets far out past the south jetty, both cormorants in small numbers. Long-tailed ducks were seen in small numbers also. Traffic in the morning was nill, wind was high both days, with rain/ squalls on Sunday AM making viewing difficult, but it pushed through by mid-morning. The place where we stayed (The Lighthouse at Fagers Island somewhere between 55th&60th Sts.) had a view of the bay with displaying American Oystercatchers, calling and chasing each other around, feeding, etc. Also there were plenty of Red-breasetd Megs, Lesser Scaups, Buffleheads, loons, Great and Snowy Egret, lots of Brant, Black Ducks and Mallards. No Razorbills, no Purple Sandpipers, no King Eiders. We stopped at Bombay Hook on the way back west, saw lots and lots of Shovelers, Pintails, Green-winged Teal. Had both Yellowlegs species, Wilsons Snipe, a very close Pine Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Phoebe, and other signs of spring. A very pleasant weekend getaway for our anniversary! Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================