[MDOsprey] Ches. Beach & John Brown Road

Charlie Muise (cmmbirds@yahoo.com)
Tue, 31 Aug 1999 14:37:41 -0700 (PDT) 

I decided to try for some shorebirds today.  Here's how it
went.

checked out the little dead end road off the intersection
of 260/261.  50-60 Greater Black-backed Gulls, 2 Martins,
one Cormorant, lots of wind.

County Line Beach:  NE wind is causing high water.  checked
it at 11:20, and at 5 pm, and had no shorebirds other than
3 peeps flying by at a distance.  One of each egret, and
numerous expected gulls.

John Brown Road:  13 Leser Golden Plovers in 2 distinctly
different plumages, but no Black-bellied that I could find.
 I was looking for the whole dorsal surface of the head to
be white - am I accurate?

rather than keeping to the road, I went in the office and
asked what I could do.  they gave me free reign of the
place, as long as I was on foot, and kept to
roads/trails/bare areas.  when I walked around to the left
of the office, I was able to approach to within 50 yards
the "wet place" someone mentioned in a previous post.  The
one that is visible from the 1st field.  This had perhaps
50 shorebirds.  The other prime location was directly
opposite the entrance door to the office, where I saw the
LGPL's.
  Other birds:
RB Gull
Killdeer (over 100)
Horned Lark (4 in the southernmost field on the right)
N. Mocker
Starlings
both vultures
Kestrel (a pair, still flying together)
Semipalmated Sand (about 12 in the pond)
Western Sand (one still with red on the head and scapulars)
Unknown peeps about 15-20
Pectoral Sand (4, all in the pond)
Bald Eagle (2 Adults, in the field near the plovers!)
Brown Thrasher
N. Cardinal
blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Laughing gull
Herring Gull
ring-billed Gull
Chimney swift
Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Barn Swallow
Rough-winged Swallow
Chipping Sparrow (only one?!?)
Both Yellowlegs
Carolina Wren

If you haven't seen enough Mute Swans, there were 18 in the
small pond next to the Holiday Inn, on the north side of
route 50, just after you cross the Kent Narrows Bridge
heading east.

Off to southern Frederick tomorrow!

Good birding,
Charlie
===
******************************
Charlie Muise, Naturalist
Jug Bay Wetlands sanctuary
Next to the Beautiful Chesapeake Bay
Maryland, USA
cmmbirds@yahoo.com
******************************
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