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Subject:

Black Rail at Irish Grove

From:

Paul Bystrak

Reply-To:

Maryland Birds & Birding

Date:

Thu, 30 Sep 2004 23:29:15 -0400

A work weekend was held at MOS' Irish Grove Sanctuary in Somerset County on
the 25th - 27th of Sept.  Sue Ricciardi and Dotty Mumford did a great job
stripping the wall paper in the dining room, resurfacing the walls, and
painting it.  Bill Ellis, Charlie Vaughn and Mike Knott helped me remove
the enormous cedar tree growing against the house without damaging (very
much) the adjacent porch or the power lines running through its branches.
As usual, Mike Knott fixed a huge amount of small problems around the
place. Everything is in good shape there now.  Thanks to everyone for their
help.

About 70 species of birds were seen over the weekend, including flocks of
SALT MARSH SHARP-TAILED SPARROWS, as well as SEASIDE SPARROWS, and SAVANNAH
SPARROWS. On Friday night, with very still, dense air, there was a
parliament (at least 4 anyway) of SCREECH OWLS singing along with  a bass
section (at least 6) of GREAT HORNED OWLS.  We took an MP3 player to the
Stasz Overlook and were entertained by lots of VIRGINIA RAILS and "LARGE
RAIL SP" , although they declined to make an appearance.  Mike Knott saw a
BLACK RAIL at the confluence of Peggy's Gut and East Creek on Sunday, the
first sighting at the sanctuary in a great many years.  They did not
respond to the MP3 player, BTW. On Saturday evening, 5 of us drove to the
ORV Zone on Assateague, only to find it mostly closed due to dangerous
surf.  Sue saw a JAEGER, but couldn't put a species on it, and we had 2
NORTHERN GANNETS, plus the usual beach front suspects.

Incidentally, Charlie Vaughn got to see that there are 3 (not 1)
observation decks at Irish Grove, all in fairly good condition and all used
with reasonable frequency.

Paul Bystrak

3709 Devonshire Drive
Salisbury, MD 21804
410-572-9950
443-783-1268 (cell)