[MDOsprey] We need YOUR Spring Sightings for Field Notes!!
Miliff@aol.com
Tue, 8 Jun 1999 12:16:43 EDT
June 6, 1999
901 Crystal Spring Farm Rd.
Annapolis, MD 21403
miliff@aol.com
Dear Friends, Area Birders, and Field Notes Contributors,
First, I would like to apologize for the inevitable cross-postings
which will occur. This mailing has been sent to Valley Birds, The Richmond
Area Listserv, and MDOsprey, as well as personal email accounts. I cannot
constantly monitor the changing subscription lists on all three of these
excellent listservs, and want to ensure that I reach all active birders in
the Region. If you are unfamiliar with Field Notes, please read on -
information on who we are and what the magazine includes is below. If not,
please read on as well - we NEED your reports! Plus, there is some
information on the bird movements of the season and my own personal
highlights. I hope everyone will read the section: "The Local Staff". It
details exactly what we hope for in our reports and how you can help.
If you bird in the Appalachian Region (i.e. Maryland's western three
counties and Virginia west of the Blue Ridge Mountains) please note that your
sightings should no longer go to George Hall, who has just retired. The new
Appalachian Regional Editor is:
Robert Leberman
HC64, Box 453
Rector, PA 15677
(724) 593-7521
(no email address)
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The Spring reporting season (March 1-May 31) for A.B.A. Field Notes
has just drawn to a close, so I urge anyone who has not yet reported their
Spring sightings to Field Notes, the Voice of the Naturalist, or email groups
such as Valley Birds, the Richmond area Listserv, or MDOsprey to please send
in your sightings for inclusion in my next Season Report for A.B.A. Field
Notes. The deadline is pretty tight so I would appreciate getting all
reports by June 15 if possible. I hope everyone made it out for the North
American Migration Count on May 8. The nationwide effort always adds up to a
fascinating snapshot of the Spring Migration. If you did participate in
Maryland or Virginia, be sure to send us your list for the day so we can use
in in the Regional database and in the Season Report. As always, the data
are easiest to process if they come in continuously through the season. Late
reports are always welcomed as well.
This is the sixth mailing that I have sent out almost entirely by
email. Email obviously has the opportunity to vastly improve the efficiency
and speed with which I communicate with observers in the Region, and will
also save much time, paper, and expenditure on the mailings. I ask anyone
who wishes NOT to receive this mailing in the future on email, to respond.
Also, if you read this mailing on one of the above mentioned listservs, or
somewhere else, and did not receive a personal copy in your e-mailbox, please
let me know so I can update my address list. I apologize again for any
cross-postings. If you received this letter via "snail mail" and have an
email address that I may use in the future, please drop me a note and say so!
Note that the Summer Season is already upon us as well. Data entry
will be MUCH easier if reports are
received continuously rather than all at the end. Please take good notes on
your sightings and let us know of them. Photocopied field cards are OK,
computerized sightings are ideal, but even a quick note or email will suffice
as long as we get the information. As I've said before and will say again, I
am entirely dependant on YOUR reports to write a good column.
Be sure to check out the M.O.S. website (www.mdbirds.org) if you
carry an interest in birding in Maryland and the D.C. area.. In addition to
a wealth of information about the Maryland Ornithological Society (M.O.S.)
And its chapters, the website also carries information on the birding sites
in Maryland, the Maryland/D.C. Records Committee, and even photos of recent
Maryland rarities (including Kelp Gull, the possible Slaty-backed Gull,
Arctic Tern, White-faced Ibis, and Fork-tailed Flycatcher).
SPRING 1999
Some highlights of this spring included a good warbler fallout May 7,
interesting seawatching May 13-19,
and the early return of a number of migrants in the mild weather. Perhaps a
result of the east winds were the remarkable THREE inland Arctic Tern reports
in the week of May 17-23. Maryland only has one prior inland report, from
the extreme western part of the state! And did anyone else see all those
Whimbrels May 26? White- throated Sparrows and several other species seemed
to linger surprisingly late as well. Any explanations would be welcomed -
they certainly weren't kept here by the rainy weather. We seem to be on our
way to another very dry year. Please let us know when the good migration
days were, what early arrivals you found, what lingered later than usual, and
anything else of interest.
Rarities are of particular interest for the Field Notes column, and I
welcome any documentation that can be
provided (perhaps a copy of what you sent to the Maryland or Virginia Records
Committees?). Photos are of special interest, and a high percentage of
quality photos are likely to make it into print. The Middle Atlantic Coast
column is usually lacking in good photographic material (few of my own photos
are worth publishing!) so any pictures you can send would be FANTASTIC.
Among some of the notable rarities reported for which documentation and
photos would be particularly welcome are:
Anhingas at several Maryland and Virginia locations
White-faced Ibis at Truitt's Landing, Worcester Co., MD, May
Eurasian Green-winged (Common) Teal at Oyster, VA, and Blackwater NWR, MD
Barrow's Goldeneye at Patuxent NAS, Saint Mary's Co., MD, during March
Good numbers of Mississippi Kites in Maryland and northern VA
Kelp Gull continuing at Sandgates, Saint Mary's Co., MD, through early June
(!)
Arctic Tern at Violette's Lock, Montgomery Co., MD, May 17, 1999
Arctic Tern at Hart-Miller Island, Baltimore Co., MD, May 22, 1999
Arctic Tern at Havre de Grace, Harford Co., MD, May 23, 1999
Many of you may have already sent your documentation on to us, and if
so, many sincere thanks! If not, whatever you can provide (even if only the
date you saw the bird(s) - the range of dates here may not be complete or
accurate). There may be rarities I've omitted or not yet heard about, so
please send info on those as well!
Please note in particular that although widely observed and
photographed, the Kelp Gull has almost NO documentation in to the Maryland
Records Committee. It would be great to have some of those excellent photos
on file. Contact Phil Davis (2549 Vale Court, Davidsonville, MD 21035,
301-261-0184, pdavis@oao.com) if you have notes or photos on this bird, or
any others, that you are willing to share.
PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Most of my highlights from the season were outside the Region, though
I did see some great birds in the Region as well. In mid-March I took a
swing through the Northeast which included some time along the shore of Lake
Champlain in Vermont. It was nice to be up there seeing the beginning of
spring all over again - it felt like early March or late February in
Maryland! On April 7 I left for two weeks of scouting for the Texas Birding
Classic. Andy Farnsworth, Ned Brinkley, and I participated in this event's
second year in April of 1998, and Andy and I were back to try twice as hard
and defend our title this year. Ned was even able to come along as an
independent contractor - he scouted the Central Texas Coast for the week of
April 7-15. Our combined 25+ days of scouting certainly paid off, as did our
previous year's experience. The competition went better than any of us had
hoped. We repeated as champions of the Conservation Grand Prize and bested
last year's total by 14, giving us a total of 313 for the competition. We
were depressed by the lack of apparent migration during our time there (we
missed Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Blue-winged, Golden-winged, Cerulean, and
Bay-breasted warblers!) but were
comforted by the fact that we knew these birds were likely making safe
passage over the Gulf and simply not dropping into the migrant traps like
they might if they had endured more hardship. It was quite interesting
though, given the strong east winds, that species such as Blackpoll Warblers
were far more common: likely blown off course from their more easterly
migration route. Other highlights that made up for the paucity of warblers
were Bald Eagle, Yellow Rail, Glaucous Gull, Northern Gannet, Red-cockaded
Woodpecker, Swainson's Warbler, Purple Gallinules, Le Conte's and Nelson's
Sharp-tailed sparrows, and a number of other goodies for a total of 216 on
the Upper Coast May 18. On May 21 the Central Coast gave us Pacific Loon,
Hudsonian Godwit, Bell's Vireo, Wild Turkey, Hermit Thrush, both Spotted and
Eastern Towhees, another Yellow Rail, more Le Conte's Sparrows, Snow Goose,
Northern Pintail, and a number of other great birds for 203 total. And on
May 24 we cleaned up the rest of our misses, and saw a number of Valley
specialties, including Hook-billed Kite, Red-billed Pigeon, Black-tailed
Gnatcatcher, Scaled Quail, Groove-billed Ani, Botteri's Sparrow, Ferruginous
Pygmy-Owl, King Rail, Northern Beardless-Tyrranulet, Clay-colored Robin
(carrying nesting material), Tropical Parula (on nest), Gray Hawk (on nest),
Red-crowned Parrot (on nest), Green Parakeet (on nest), Tropical Kingbird,
and a ton of other great birds. The staff was phenomenal and the entire
event was very professionally run. In encourage anyone interested to put a
team together and have a run at it!
As if those three grueling days of Big Days weren't enough I also
joined the M.O.S. Yellowthroats for a return visit to the World Series of
Birding in Cape May. We did the Limited Geographic Area and chose to do Cape
May County only. Though we were mercifully spared from competing against
some of Cape May's powerhouse teams (which were competing in different
categories) we also were quite lucky and had a great day to end with 178
species. The highlight there for me was the spectacular seawatching that
resulted from persistent east winds which pushed seabirds into the Delaware
Bay. In our morning seawatch we recorded 6+ Sooty Shearwaters, good numbers
of Northern Gannets, loons, and scoters, 2 Roseate Terns, and an Arctic Tern!
A little more seawatching at dusk netted a jaeger. Lynn Davidson and Hal
Wierenga were great planners and had most of Cape May County mapped out and
routed well, and Mark joined me as one of the uninitiated and we tried to
figure out the complexities quickly.
But that still wasn't enough Big Daying for me. I managed to coax
Andy Farnsworth out form Ohio to make an attempt in Maryland (my first).
With a lot of help from Michael O'Brien, and several days of scouting prior
to the appointed day, we came up with a decent route stretching from western
Garrett County to Ocean City, and then on to Deal Island. The weather,
however, refused to cooperate and brought strong winds that all but
eliminated any chance at night birding. We fought it out though and managed
to pick up a couple key species before the dawn chorus. After making up for
the poor night with Mourning Warbler, junco, Upland Sandpiper, and a few
other niceties we chanced upon the bird(s) of the day. A high flying tight
flock that turned out to be Whimbrel. Later in the day we saw two more
flocks (one in West Virginia) - a first Garrett County record and quite
remarkable since at least 150 must have been involved. Later in the day we
saw 300 more in 10 flocks at the coast! We somehow managed to pick up enough
species in the high wind to log a respectable total, and bonus birds such as
Roseate Tern at Ocean City, Green-winged Teal and Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
at Deal Island, and Sedge Wren at Truitt's Landing certainly helped. We
ended with the 4th best MD Big Day ever - 193.
A couple other highlights of mine were the discovery of a Common Teal
at Blackwater in late March, finding Le Conte's Sparrow and Maryland's first
(or second) White-faced Ibis in southern Worcester County in early May, some
good seawatching at Ocean City in late May, and a great nocturnal flight that
same night.
The best is yet to come though. I am dashing out the door now to
catch my flight to Australia where my sister, Francie, has been studying for
the past 4 months. She will take us all over the east coast and I plan to
return July 8. Included in our itinerary will be Sydney, New Zealand,
Melbourne, Cairns, The Great Barrier Reef, Darwin, Kakadu NP, Alice Springs
and Ayers Rock. I will be doing two Tony Palliser pelagic trips and hping
the albatrosses are as common as they claim they are!
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A.B.A. FIELD NOTES: WHAT IT IS
To those not familiar with Field Notes, below is a quick summary of
the magazine and what it includes. A.B.A. Field Notes is published quarterly
(Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) and is meant to summarize the significant
observations of field birders throughout the United States and Canada. The
two countries (as well as the West Indies) are divided into 26 Regions, each
of which has one-several Regional Editors. The Regional Editors collect
information from birders in their Region and, at the end of each reporting
season, compile the sightings into a Season Report. The deadline is 1 ½
months after the end of the season, so reports are asked for two weeks from
the end of the season, but email reports can be received up to a month after
the end of the season. The reporting seasons are:
Spring: March 1-May 31
Summer: June 1 - July 31
Fall: August 1-November 30
Winter: December 1-February 28(29)
The Season Reports always include information on rarities, early and
late migration dates, high counts etc... but also usually include significant
other news relating to birds in the Region. For anyone interested in birds
and birding in the U.S.A. and Canada the magazine is invaluable - no other
publication summarizes birding news from across the country so completely.
Recently, feature articles have returned to Field Notes: recent articles have
featured the first U.S.A. records for Stygian Owl (in TX) and Chinese
Pond-Heron (in AK), and the hurricanes of 1996 and the birds associated with
them. Pictorial Highlights have returned, and in addition to the
black-and-white photos shown throughout the magazine, feature from 15-25 full
color photos of (usually) rarities from around the country. Each issue also
features a Changing Season column, which is a summary of all the Season
Reports from different Regions, and attempts to identify some of the more
noticeable trends of the season (i.e. Winter Finches were scarce south of
Canada, Rufous Hummingbirds were found in unusual numbers on the East Coast,
and most fall migrants lingered unusually late). Recently, different expert
authors from around the country have been chosen to write the Changing
Seasons column - depending on what trends need special highlighting and where
the individual's expertise lies. Many state publications (Maryland Birdlife
for example) publish similar summaries for their states and Regions, which
are typically more detailed than the A.B.A. Field Notes season report, but
the advantage of Field Notes is that it assimilates national trends. If you
want to track the spread of Eurasian Collared- Doves across the U.S., find
out how the Attwater's Prairie-Chickens and Whooping Cranes are faring in
Texas, or what rarities the latest trip to Attu turned up, Field Notes is for
you.
FIELD NOTES: HISTORY
The magazine has undergone a number of changes in its lifetime, with
the most major change occurring last summer (1997). In the early years of
its existence, Audubon Field Notes was a small publication which included
only the Season Reports. Eventually, the magazine was beefed up with color
photos and feature articles (on everything from identification, to
conservation, to out of range records) and assumed the new name, American
Birds. In the early 1990's National Audubon fell on hard times, and the
magazine was cut back to a bare minimum with only the Season Reports and
Changing Season columns persisting. In the summer of 1997, it was agreed
that Field Notes would be turned over to the American Birding Association
(A.B.A.). Recently revived sections and a new management promise continued
improvement in the quality of the publication. The first few issues look
drastically better than ever. If you let your subscription slide I urge you
to sign back on!
A.B.A. FIELD NOTES AND RECENT CHANGES
By now those of you that do subscribe to Field Notes should have
received your first several issues that A.B.A. has put out (from Volume 51 #4
on). The most recent features an article on identifying Nazca Booby (a
possible upcoming split from Masked Booby) and the first Yellow-throated
Bunting from Attu. Some substantial format changes ave been made, feature
articles have returned (see the article by Brinkley et al. on the Hurricanes
of 1996 in 51 #4 and the article on the discovery of two A.B.A. area firsts
in 51 #5) and color photos have returned to the back section (Pictorial
Highlights). Some more changes are in the planning and I have confidence
that the magazine will continue to improve. Recently, guest editors have
been hired to write the Changing Seasons column (summarizing all the
Regional reports) and the "fresh blood" has improved that column and the
magazine as a whole. Delivery of issues, erratic at best under National
Audubon, has showed marked improvement and should be timely from here on out.
Subscription has more than doubled since A.B.A. took over and is still
growing. If anyone would like information on how to subscribe please contact
the American Birding Association at (800/850-2473). Subscription is $20 per
year.
THE LOCAL STAFF
Starting in the fall of 1995, I have been the Middle Atlantic Coast
Regional Editor. During that time I have had enormous assistance from Jim
Stasz of North Beach, MD. His guidance and local knowledge has been
invaluable over the past several years. Most importantly, he has helped by
computerizing the reports so that their value may extend beyond the skeleton
produced in the Field Notes report. ALL sightings of ALL species reported to
us are included (yes, every starling and every House Sparrow). We now have
three years' worth of Field Notes reports in the working database, which is
available to any interested parties. Recently we were able to provide a
complete summary of all crossbill sightings to Julie Simard of McGill
University, PQ, who is looking in depth at last winter's invasion. Reports
should continue to go to Jim at P.O. Box 71, North Beach, MD 20714
jlstasz@aol.com.
The Middle Atlantic Coast Region includes all of Maryland and
Virginia east of the mountains. Essentially, in Maryland I cover all reports
from Frederick County east, and in Virginia I cover all areas east of the
Blue Ridge Mountains. The majority of reports I receive are from Maryland
birders (calling all Virginians!), and a huge volume of reports also comes
from the Voice of the Naturalist, Virginia Birdline, and Baltimore Birdline
(which each send me ALL their reports), as well as from monitoring such email
discussion groups as Valley Birds, the Richmond Area Listserv, and MDOsprey.
Individual reports are most valuable though, so I urge anyone willing to send
me a separate report for each season, even if you regularly call your
sightings into the Voice or Virginia Birdline. A large number of
sub-regional editors help with the assimilation and computerization of the
data. If you actively bird any of their regions, I ask that you submit
reports directly to them rather than to me. If you are willing to serve as a
sub-regional editor for any of the uncovered counties or Regions of Maryland
(or any part of Virginia), please let me know promptly. It would be a GREAT
help! Currently, the sub-regional editors are:
Patty Craig: Saint Mary's County (P.O. Box 84, Lexington Park, MD 20653)
pattycraig@mail.ameritel.com
Elizabeth Pitney: Wicomico County (7218 Walston Switch Rd., Parsonsburg, MD
21849)
Jo Solem: Howard County (10617 Graeloch Rd., Laurel, MD 20723)
Odenata@email.msn.com
Ethel Engle: Caroline County (20789 Dover Bridge Rd., Preston, MD 21655)
Sam Freiberg: Montgomery County (8733 Susanna Lane, Chevy Chase, MD
20815-4713) sammarcy@erols.com
Al Haury: Anne Arundel County (852 Redwood Trail, Crownsville, MD 21032)
cactuswren@erols.com
Janet Shields: Frederick and Washington Counties (13105 Fountsain Head Rd.,
Hagerstown, MD 21742)
In addition, Leslie Burke (n8url@yahoo.com) has offered to help compile
sightings from northern Virginia. If you bird in that area you might contact
her and let her know that you can send her your sightings periodically.
Sincerely,
Marshall Iliff
Mid-Atlantic Coast Regional Editor
A.B.A. Field Notes
901 Crystal Spring Farm Rd.
Annapolis, MD 21403
miliff@aol.com
(410) 269-1589
Please send reports to:
Jim Stasz
Secretary, A.B.A. Field Notes
P.O. Box 71
North Beach, MD 20714
jlstasz@aol.com