Friday birding

Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Mon, 23 Feb 1998 04:27:46 -0500


Since i had an all-day meeting on Saturday, Fran and I succumbed to 
Les Eastman's invitation to join him on Friday as he scouted for his 
weekend trip to the Delaware/Maryland Shore Points.

We started at the Cape Henlopen State Park (Sussex County, DE) where 
we had all three Scoters, Oldsquaw, about 20-30 Brant, and the usual 
(at least for this winter) large numbers of Red-breasted Mergansers 
and Bufflehead.  There was a Peregrine Falcon perching on the 
breakwater lighthouse, as well.  All these birds were seen from the 
fishing pier.  We had a single Brown-headed Nuthatch in the pines 
near the Nature Center.

Scanning the head of Rehobeth Bay, from Dewey Beach, we came up with 
at least 25 (and perhaps many more--they were constantly diving) 
Horned Grebes here, along with the ubiquitous Red-breasted Mergansers 
and Brant.

Indian River Inlet yielded a few Purple Sandpipers and a few Ruddy 
Turnstone, along with a flock of about 80 or so Sanderlings on the 
north jetty.  The light at the end of the south jetty hosted a Great 
Cormorant, and both Common and Red-throated Loons were in good 
numbers in the waters off the inlet itself, along with a small flock 
of Oldsquaw.

Assawoman WMA had Brown-headed Nuthatch and good numbers of Swamp and 
Savannah Sparrows.  We noted a Bald Eagle on the nest here as well.

Skimmer Island (4th Street Flats, Worcester County, MD) held mostly 
gulls, but we did see our only Laughing Gull of the day here and 
three preening Bonaparte's Gulls.  A few American Oystercatchers were 
evident, two Willet, and about 6-8 huddled Great Blue Herons.

At the inlet and jetty we saw a flock of at least 35 Purple 
Sandpipers, 8 Harlequin Ducks, 3 Common Eiders, a few Oldsquaw, lots 
of Brant, and many Surf Scoters.  

As I was looking out over the north jetty a gull flew across my field 
of vision that immediately made me sit up and look harder.  As the 
bird flew to the north it appeared all white--no gray on the back, no 
black markings near the tips of the wings at all.  I watched it for 
only a few seconds before it disappeared in the dunes about halfway 
between the north jetty and the amusement park pier.  Fran and I 
managed to relocate the bird sitting in a dip in the sand well away 
from any of the other gulls on the beach.  I had time to set up my 
scope and note a dark eye and an all-black bill.  The bill was not as 
robust looking as that of a Herring Gull.  The bird was large, at 
least on the order of a Herring Gull, but direct size comparisons 
were impossible.  Through the scope we were able to see very pale 
brown markings on the tail feathers and back feathers of the bird.  
We observed it for only about 15 seconds in this manner when it took 
wing again and disappeared in a northwesterly direction over Ocean 
City.  Based strictly on the bill color (I need to do some more 
reading here, but would appreciate any inputs anyone has) I am 
hypothesizing this as a first-winter Iceland Gull.

This was the high point of the day, but we did go on from here to the 
West Pond, Race Track Ponds, and Ocean Pines Ponds, but we turned up 
nothing else for the day.

We had 73 species for the day and a good time with Les Eastman of 
Harford Conty.  I hope he tells us how his field trip the next day 
fared!

Best,
Norm


===============
Norm Saunders
Colesville, MD
osprey@ari.net