Buffie abundance
Miliff@aol.com
Mon, 21 Sep 1998 19:05:27 EDT
Hello all,
First off I'd like to thank Mark and Greg for their excellent posts on the
pelagic question. Could not have been said better, so I will not repeat. In
any event, thanks you guys.
I will however elaborate on the Buff-breast situation.
As I said before, last fall I decided to put forth some effort into finding
Buff-breasted Sandpipers on the Eastern Shore, and during Septemeber Jim and I
had good luck finding them at several locales. Am. Golden-Plovers were vastly
more common, something few had seen previously (there are old high counts from
Kent County, at least one as high (I believe) as 600). To my knowledge, noone
had really tried hard over there previously. And we were pleased with our
success.
In September there really aren;t too many fields to sift through, one might
find 40 in a good days drive, but most will be A) very small B) too vegetated
or C) limed, all of which seem to make for no shorebirds. However, I will
ADAMANTLY maintain that these brds have ALWAYS been there (at least since
farming began over there), and that finding them has only been a matter of
trying. There aren't even that many reports this year - Hart-Miller (annual),
PAX River (1/3 years - prefect habitat), Talbot County (noone has looked
before), John Brown Rd. Turf Farm (2 for 2 years surveyed), Blackwater
(unusual water levels), and Havre de Grace (admittedly seems pretty weird, but
Buffies in other places occur in habitats such as beach wrack and _Salicornia_
marsh). In any event, if we had more people out scouring the dirt fields of
the Eastern Shore, I am positive we would find they are regular in fair
numbers there, just take endurance and a lot of eye strain to locate. Wait
untl we get more people out there looking and we find out how common they
REALLY are...
Best,
Marshall Iliff
miliff@aol.com
Cape Charles, VA
PS - Thanks also to Harvey for his superb elaboration on the Talbot county
birds - much of the above is speculation, and only with detailed posts like
Harvey's can we continue to all learn more about the microhabitats this
species prefers in MD. If anyone else could offer info on what habitats other
individuals have been using (Havre de Grace bird?), it would be great!