[MDOsprey] Floyd Birding - more recommendations from afar

Miliff@aol.com
Thu, 16 Sep 1999 13:51:53 EDT 

Hi all,

Already folks have seen _Oceanodroma_ Storm Petrel (North Beach, MD), Sooty 
and Bridled terns (Bridge-Tunnel).  Be prepared!  Thanks also to those 
reporting observations of common birds and LACK of rarities.  It is all of 
value.

The center of the storm is almost upon you now, and it seems that the center 
will track up the immediate coast, with the eye possibly passing over (or 
close to) Ocean City.  This is very similar to the track taken by Bertha July 
13, 1996.  Obviously the increased confidence in the storm's track has 
important implications for where birders should concentrate their efforts. 

This storm is bigger and stronger than Bertha, is undergoing some string wind 
shear from the stationary front extending along the East Coast, is also very 
fast moving (24 mph) and is occurring later in the year.  I will avoid 
speculation on how this might change the bird load.  I will however, 
reiterate Bertha's effects which have some strong implications for where to 
look extra hard in this storm.

Bertha produced excellent birding at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and the 
mouth of the Delaware Bay.  It was apparent that the birds were blown into 
the bays by the strong NE and E winds.  Those at the Bridge-Tunnel were 
moving into the wind: east in the east winds and west in the west winds (at 
least Black-capped Petrels were).  The Bay is some 18 mi wide at this point.  
Birds may follow the leading lines of the spans which run N-S.  To my 
knowledge this has NOT been observed at the Birdge-Tunnel - seabirds seen 
there are almost invariably passing through the center of the mile wide 
shipping channels, which they may steer for (serving as a funnel -- like a 
seabird version of Cape May Point...) from fairly far away.  Nonetheless, at 
that location they probably were observed much as they behave at sea.  This 
is in contrast to most shore-based observations where the leading lines of 
shorelines influence the direction of movement of the birds.      

         At Cape May they were seen moving out of the Delaware Bay (thus S or 
SE) in the afternoon, when the wind was presumably westerly.  In this case 
the birds were likely moved into the Bay on the E winds preceding the passage 
of the storm, then pushed to the E side of the Bay by the W winds at which 
point the followed the shoreline back to sea.  These birds were surely 
influenced by the leading line of the shore, so could be expected to be 
moving either N or S.  As I recall, most birds were quite close.  Species 
involved were as at the Bridge-Tunnel (see following email with details).  

       It deposited very few birds inland.  At Ocean City though it moved at 
least 4 storm-petrels into Assawoman Bay behind Ocean City.  Jim Stasz and I 
were there AFTER the storm's passage at about 2:00 pm and saw two Leach's 
Storm-Petrels feeding around Skimmer I., just north of the Rte. 50 bridge.  A 
search farther north in Assawoman Bay turned up two more, both either Leach's 
or Band-rumped (both occurred at the Bridge-Tunnel and at Cape May).  Nothing 
was obviously moving along the coast but we probably did not spend enough 
time looking.  We then dashed off to Wicomico County to look for birds coming 
out of the river (a number of the common terns were seen, but nothing rare).  
Had I realized what we were seeing at the time we might have checked the rest 
of the coastal bay access points.             

      Bertha deposited virtually nothing inland, but this is of course a 
bigger storm and may behave differently...  

      With all this, my recommendations for the best possible things to do 
are these:

THURSDAY evening: Just get out in the field.  Anywhere.  Best options would 
be, in order of likelihood of producing rarities:

1) Ocean City/Assateague/coastal Bays (see below) -- IF ANYONE CAN GET OUT 
THERE PLEASE DO -- I'M SURE IT WILL BE WORTH IT!!!*  (* = assuming it is SAFE 
and allowed!!!)

2) The Nanticoke River, looking for birds moving downriver (to get to 
Nanticoke -- Go south from Salisbury on Rte. 349.  Bivalve is a good view, 
then a marina in your right is good, then the road AFTER the RV park takes 
you to the river shore and provides the best view and the farthest down.  The 
Marinas at Bivalve and Nanticoke have shelters though which may make them 
preferable)

3) Point Lookout

FRIDAY: Try to be out as early as possible.  I think may Sooty Terns in past 
storms have been seen departing at first light.  The storm is predicted to be 
off Cape Cod and the winds westerly.  Recommendations would be (again in 
order of likelihood of producing rarities)

1) Checking all coastal Bays, keeping in mind that the west winds may 
concentrate birds on the far side.  With this in mind, Assawoman Bay should 
be the priority (best checked from most Ocean City crossstreets), followed by 
Sinepuxent Bay (checked from Rte. 611 bridge to Assateague Island or Eagle's 
Nest Campground ONLY), followed by Chincoteague Bay (best checked from Public 
Landing and George's Island Landing -- Truitt's Landing Rd. will certainly be 
flooded).

2) Watching for a southward movement of displaced seabirds at any of the 
following locations (in order of liklihood of producing):
a) Nanticoke River, as viewing from Nanticoke, southern Wicomico County
b) Chesapeake Bay, as viewed from
       1) Hooper's Island
       2) Tilghman's Island
c) Potomac River as viewed from Point Lookout or nearly any other location, 
keeping in mind that the farther down you are the larger the stream is likely 
to be.  With west winds, all birds will presumably be close when viewing from 
MD.
d) Choptank River as viewed from Cambridge (I rate this low since it is a 
small river.  Be sure to check the EAST side of the fishing pier (easy access 
from Rte. 50W) as that is where a bottleneck of trapped seabirds _might_ 
occur.

3) anywhere else - who knows what might occur in this big storm.

I do not include checking Bay access points like Deal Island and Rumbly Point 
Rd. since I think they will be flooded out.

SUNDAY: I a long way off, but might be a good time to think about looking for 
tideline corpses.  Also worth asking around at local vets and bird rehab 
center to see if anything has been turned in.  If it has, it may very likely 
be a petrel or Sooty Tern!
(PS - If anyone has phone #s for some MD centers I will be willing to call 
into them from here (the long distance is very cheap).  Please email me with 
the phone #s if you know them!))

Green with envy,

Marshall Iliff
miliff@aol.com