Hi Folks,

As part of Saturday's Rarity Roundup in Worcester Co., Bill Hubick and I
covered the Off-road-vehicle (ORV) zone of Assateague Island.  The
highlights of our little area (I say little, because a lot of the zone was
closed due to flooding) were a GLAUCOUS GULL and two ICELAND GULLs, all
three birds being juveniles found in the afternoon.  The two Icelands were
together in one gull flock, and the Glaucous was in another group, both
flocks being about half-way down the ORV zone, somewhere around mile-marker
(km-marker?) 25.  Also, an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was found in
another group early in the day.  Other sightings of interest included a
steady stream of NORTHERN GANNETs heading south just off the coast--we
counted 882 birds (mixed adults and immatures), mostly during a 90-minute
period from about 7:15 to 8:45 a.m.  This was coroborated by Hans Holbrook
who was at the north end of the island, and had similar results, but began
his counting 30-60 minutes earlier than we did, so the total number of
flybys for the day was probably easily over 1000.  Bill scoped two
WHITE-WINGED SCOTERs from the large flocks of passing scoters that consisted
mostly of Surfs when identified.  Other than 500+ TREE SWALLOWs, passerines
were quite few in our area during this blustery day, and we were pleased to
find two RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHes.

This morning (Sun., 14 Nov), we totally struck out on finding any of the
sought-after birds found during the count.  However, a stop at Public
Landing was productive, and there we found a juvenile PRAIRIE WARBLER, and
two PINE SISKINs, along with two very vocal RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHes.

A stop at Hurlock WWTP in Dorchester Co. on our way home did not produce any
hoped-for shorebirds, but we did find a fem/imm CANVASBACK, and some
lingering TREE SWALLOWs.

Bill will be posting photos of some of our finds to his website this
evening.

Stan Arnold
Glen Burnie