MD and DE
Don Burggraf (dburggraf@hotmail.com)
Sun, 24 Jan 1999 15:13:33 PST
Dear MDOsprey folk,
On Saturday, I visited Ocean City Inlet and the 4th Street Flats. I
also wanted to run up to Bombay Hook and Port Mahon Road. What an
exciting day!
Ocean City Inlet
Red-throated Loon - 12
Common Loon - 5
Great Blue Heron - 1
COMMON EIDER- 4 (m-3,f-1)
HARLEQUIN DUCK- 9 (m-7, f-2)
Red-breasted Merganser - 14
Surf Scoter - 1
Turkey Vulture - 1
American Oystercatcher - 18
Purple Sandpiper - 20
Bonaparte’s Gull - 40
Ring-billed Gull - 3
Herring Gull-17
Great Black-backed Gull - 4
House Sparrow - 1
4th Street Flats
Brant - 17
HARLEQUIN DUCK - 2 (beneath bridge)
American Oystercatcher - 3
Willet - 1
Sanderling - 23
Ring-billed Gull - 15
Herring Gull-40
Great Black Backed Gull - 12
Forster's Tern - 1
Bombay Hook
Great Blue heron - 1
Great Egret - 1
Tundra Swan - 4
Snow Goose - thousands
Green-winged Teal - 6
American Black Duck - 100+
Mallard - 14
Northern Pintail - 500+
Northern Shoveler - 1
Oldsquaw - 1 (nestled among reeds in a narrow water channel!)
Bullfehead - 4
Common Merganser - 12
Turkey Vulture - 8
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 8
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Ring-necked Pheasant - 1 (m)
Killdeer - 1
Dunlin - 80
Herring Gull - 12
Ring-billed Gull - 9
Great Black-backed Gull - 4
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 3
Song Sparrow - 1
Red-winged Blackbird - 200+
Boat-tailed Grackle - 4
Port Mahon Road
AMERICAN BITTERN- 1
Great Blue Heron - 2
Snow Goose - +
Canada Goose - +
Northern Harrier - 4
Dunlin - 120
Great Black-backed Gull - 1
Herring Gull - 1
Gull (sp.) - 200+ [silhouette flyovers at dusk]
SHORT-EARED OWL- 1 [a lifer for me!]
[moth-like flight, rounded large head, wrist markings, seen for 10
minutes, through the scope at dusk, at about 40 yards, with harriers
flying nearby.]
TREE SWALLOW- 3 [singing!]
Song Sparrow - 1
Red-winged Blackbird - 60
Of note: At Bombay, a bald eagle had taken a snow goose and had left
his meal unfinished in the shallow water. Two Great Black-backed Gulls
came in to have a snack. I was aware that gulls were scavangers, but it
still looked suprising to see them feeding
on a goose carcass.
Question: I was surprised to see, in The Maryland "Yellow Book," that
Willets occur only occasionally here in January. Are they normally more
common in Delaware at this time?
Don Burggraf
Baltimore
dburggraf@hotmail.com
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