[MDOsprey] Pt Lookout 9/14
Greg Miller (hawk-owl@yahoo.com)
Tue, 14 Sep 1999 17:47:05 -0700 (PDT)
Howdy All!
I watched with interest this afternoon as Hurricane Floyd took a turn
toward the North and the latest projections have the storm center
moving northward up the western shore of Maryland with high winds and
heavy rains predicted for St Marys and Charles Counties on Thursday.
ETA here in Maryland is in the wee hours of Friday morning.
Being my overly optimistic self, I buzzed right down to Pt Lookout
(5:30pm-7:00pm) after seeing the wind maps at www.intellicast.com
showing a shift from the southeast to the northeast and an increase to
20 mph.
At the North end of the causeway I found a single Common Tern and 2
Laughing Gulls. Still undaunted, I slowly drove down past the Fishing
Pier without seeing another bird. <sigh> I guess I wasted my...hey!
Wait a minute! Nearing the point I noticed a large group of birds
(500+) swirling, diving, and dipping over the water and riding the
winds.
I jumped out my truck, donned my bins, and scope in tow, I hurried over
to the Bay side and set up to scan. An hour later [with dried out eyes
from staring], I had tallied 330 Laughing Gulls (mostly 1st yr birds),
8 Great Black-backed Gulls, 3 Herring Gulls, 5 Ring-billed Gulls, 24
Double-crested Cormorants, 140 Common Terns, 50 Forster's Terns, 1
Royal Tern, 1 Bald Eagle (flyover), and 3 Brown Pelicans (I counted 21
Brown Pelicans on Sunday).
No Bridled Terns. No Black Terns. No Sandwich Terns. No Pomarine
Jaegers. Gosh. I'm getting spoiled. <grin> I stopped for the last
half hour at the picnic area to check for migrants (even though the
winds were wrong). Pretty slim pickins...10 Pine Warblers, 2 Chipping
Sparrows (1st yr birds in ratty basic plumage), 8 Carolina Chickadees,
2 Carolina Wrens, 3 E Bluebirds (1 juv), 6 N Cardinals, 1 Blue Jay, 2
Downy Woodpeckers, and 2 Brown-headed Nuthatches.
-waiting for Floyd birds in Hollywood, MD
Greg Miller
P.S. I've been here in Hollywood now for one month today (14th) and the
yard list is already at 61. Best addition this weekend was a Least
Flycatcher on Saturday morning.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com