[MDOsprey] Floyd Birds at PRNAS
Kyle Rambo (kyle_rambo@yahoo.com)
Thu, 16 Sep 1999 14:58:47 -0700 (PDT)
Summary of today's observations from Patuxent River Naval Air Station
in St. Mary's County, MD.
Manned a seawatch (mixed with a little driving around) from 1000-1715.
Very slow for storm birds until rain let up and wind died down about
1500. Mostly movement of local birds.
Totals for the day are:
Laughing Gull - 70
Ring-billed Gull - 8
Great Black-backed Gull - 140
Herring Gull - 5
Parasitic Jaeger (ad., light phase) - 1
Common Tern - 160
Forster's Tern - 35
Royal Tern - 4
Sandwich Tern - 4
Bridled Tern - 2
Sooty Tern - 2
Double-crested Cormorant - 75
Red-necked Phalarope - 7
Willet - 8
Ruddy Turnstone - 2
Sanderling - 1
Tree Swallow - 17
Timeline for sightings of storm birds is as follows:
1050 - 7 Red-necked Phalaropes
1102 - 1 Sandwich Tern
1321 - 2 Ruddy Turnstones
1334 - 1 Sanderling
1431 - 8 Willets
1432 - 1 Sandwich Tern
1515 - 2 Sandwich Terns, 2 Bridled Terns, 2 Sooty Terns
1645 - 1 Parasitic Jaeger
1700 - 4 Royal Terns
The Bridled and Sooty Terns were feeding in the wave chop just inside
the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay Seaplane Basin in a mixed flock of
Common and Forster's Terns. I should have some very good photos of
Bridled Tern, as one bird flew as close as 2-3 feet from me. I was
cursing my camera with long lens, wishing instead for a cheap point and
shoot model. We'll see how good the photos come out through streams of
rain and a frantic focus. Sooty Terns moved out to the middle of the
Bay with other terns, but the Bridled Terns continued to feed in the
basin for an hour and a half. At 1645 some people walking on the beach
just to the south put up several hundred gulls. As these gulls drifted
over me on the wind, I was also buzzed by an adult, light-phased
Parasitic Jaeger. The bird zipped through the gull flock straight over
my head at a height of only 50 feet. Wow!
Would like to stay out until dark, but I've got a long hike to get
home. (The rains washed out the road that I live on this morning.)
We'll see what tomorrow brings!
Kyle Rambo, Natural Resources Manager
Code 832100A
Naval Air Station
22541 Johnson Road, NAS-PW, B1410
Patuxent River, MD 20670-1700
(301) 342-3670/5456 or (301) 757-1888
Fax (301) 757-1889 DSN 342-
ramboke@navair.navy.mil
kyle_rambo@yahoo.com
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