Re: [MDOsprey] Harlequin Duck at OC

Stan Arnold (blkrail@gateway.net)
Mon, 20 Dec 1999 16:33:10 -0500


Hi all,

Returning home from Chincoteague on Sunday, I took the long way via
Assateague and Ocean City.  No great finds, but a male Harlequin Duck was
bouncing in the rips at the inlet, and viewed from the corner of the big
parking lot beyond where the sea wall ends (looking towards the end of the
rocks on the other side of the channel).  There may have been a female with
it, but once I identified the male, I called it quits, because the excessive
wind was causing my face and my optics to get heavily sand-blasted.

Along the sea wall were 15 Purple Sandpipers, allowing my approach to within
8 or 10 feet.  A few gannets joined a flock of gulls half a mile out (no
Bonaparte's today), and the predominate ducks were a few Black and Surf
Scoters, with lots of Red-breasted Mergs.

At Assateague Nat. Seashore, a massive flock of about 500 Brant swarmed by
on the inlet side of the island, and was viewed from the end of (Bayview?)
Rd.

Best,


Stan Arnold
Glen Burnie