Greetings,

Sorry for this late post. Last week I spent a few days catching up on a
little R&R in Ocean City.  On Monday the 19th and Wednesday the 21st I
managed to sneak away from the family for a few hours early in the morning
to catch up on a little birding. Both mornings I began around 6:30 and
birded until around 11:00AM.  I also followed the same route both days.
This was beginning in OC at the Fourth Street promenade scanning the bay
islands, then doing the same from Hooper's across the bay.  I then birded
the Eagle's Nest Roan and the scanned the flats from the campground.
After this I moved to Assateague and walked from the bridge around to
where I parked my car. The only addition to the route came Monday morning
when I went down to South Point and birded the community at the end of the
road. Each day I managed around 70 species, which I felt was pretty good
for being mid-July. Decent numbers of both recently fledged birds and
migrants made my list as did a surprisingly large numbers of Bobwhites!  I
guess I am just used to birding up here where it seems that species has
all but disappeared.

One surprising miss for the whole trip was Sanderling!  I didn't even see
any on the beach in OC!

One other surprising find (this time) was a Loon sp. that I saw only with
Bino's from the inlet.  I could not ID the bird for sure. I can tell you
it was in winter or juvenile plumage and seems to have the "GISS" of a Red-
throated Loon, but was much too large to be that?  "Common" then I
guess????  The bird was on the far side of the south jetty and glimpses
were intermittent at best. Oh well, I didn't have my scope and I was there
to fish not bird. My trip list is below.

One more, unfortunate, sighting that I made was while pishing in the
bayberries near the bridge on Assateague.  I had conjured up a bunch of
birds and was content with viewing the activity. when suddenly a Yellow-
billed Cuckoo flew and perched within 10 feet of me. I had long studies of
this gorgeous bird.  After a minute or too of watching this bird I decided
to move on.  When I moved the bird took flight and flew right into a car
that was traveling east. I was HORRIFIED!  I certainly couldn't help but
feel completely responsible for this birds death!  But I feel there is an
important lesson here, at least for me. From now on I will be a lot more
careful when birding an area that may put the birds themselves at risk!

My trip list is below. Birds with an "*" indicate that they were only seen
on one of my two days birding.

Loon sp.*
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Great Blue Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Glossy Ibis
TV*
BV*
Canada Goose
Mallard
American Black Duck
Osprey
Northern Bobwhite Quail
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer*
American Oystercatcher
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper*
Short-billed Dowitcher
Dowitcher sp.
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull
Forster's Tern*
Common Tern
Royal Tern
Least Tern
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo* (RIP)
Chimney Swift*
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Downy Woodpecker*
Red-bellied Woodpecker*
Northern Flicker*
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern kingbird
Blue Jay*
Fish Crow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow*
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse*
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren*
Eastern Bluebird*
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Starling
Cedar Waxwing*
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Seaside Sparrow*
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird*
Eastern Meadowlark
Goldfinch
House Finch
House Sparrow