January 23, 2005

Dear Atlas Supporter:

The 2004 Charles County Big Year Atlas Fund-raising  effort is over. The
results are below for your review. I tried hard to break the old Big County
Year record of 212 and finished with 217 species. Not bad, but I am
disappointed since I am now retired and could spend more time birding in the
county. A bad spring and fall migration, some bad timing,,and uncooperative
birds were the culprit this year. I still think 250 species is possible with
some luck and access to the right habitat in Charles County, but it did not
happens in 2004. Maybe this year. I also think that 200 species each year
should be on par if one actively birds in Charles County.

Highlights:

I did pretty well on the rare birds but missed a number of birds I usually
find every year or so. For example, I found the county first record of
Little Gull on April 14 in a flock of 700+ Bonaparte's Gulls feeding in a
field along Mt. Victoria Road, but could not find a Short-billed Dowitcher.
Go figure. Allen's Fresh has been productive for shorebirds in most years
including three Black-necked Stilt records, but the shorebirds were very
hard to come by in 2004. The new wetland mitigation fields in La Plata were
not maintained and grew over so fall migration was worse than spring for
shorebirds.   Spring and fall migration was also pretty dismal for 
neotropical migrants.

Other highlights included county first (for me) Great Cormorant, Cackling
Goose, Rough-legged Hawk, and White-winged Scoter. Lots of good species but
not enough good species. Also in the category of prized big year birds were
Glaucous Gull (2nd county record), Thayer's Gull (3rd county record), Alder
(2nd county record), Least, and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Sedge Wren
(second county record), and the second county record for Rufous Hummingbird.
The Sedge Wrens were two males on territory during safe dates so are
probable nesters for the atlas block.

Low Points:

During a big year you should get all the nesting species. I could neither
find nor hear Virginia Rail or Sora, ,although both were likely in the
county during the year. I did look at Allen's Fresh on a couple occasions
but obviously the wrong times and places. King Rail was also a hopeful but
the breeding population may have moved on. Seaside Sparrow used to nest way
down in the marsh at Allen's Fresh and I nearly drowned when the canoe
turned over looking for that species. I did not know that a big year could
be so dangerous. It took 4 ½ hours to walk out to get to the car. I went
back for the canoe the next day with the help of John and Carrie Staples and
was able to recover the poke boat. Thanks guys. I now am required to carry a
cellphone when I go out into the Marsh.

Game Plan:

Our Big Year strategy dictates birding year round but more heavily during
spring and fall migration. I did that. I started off like gang busters in
January with 105 species and finished with many hours in September thru
December with very few species for the effort. Too bad you can't count them
twice. Had I doubled my annual yard list (126) I would have be ecstatic. I
did not keep track of the hours or miles, but my house remodeling project
did suffer. Gwen was very supportive but this year I will spend more time on
the house and less time chasing that additional warbler. I also used
weather - generally bad weather- as a tool to look for out-of-the-ordinary
birds. I paid my dues for some of those gulls in early winter but the county
closed the landfill to birders in March so no real chance for Iceland or
Franklins. I recently got special permission for Gwen and I to bird in the
landfill but it is still closed to the public. Maybe I can find that first
county Franklin's Gull in October.

It taught me a lot about where and when to bird in Charles County. I did get
a little help and would like to thank Gwen Brewer, Mike Callahan, Matt
Hafner, and Jim Stasz for putting up with me, but is was pretty much a solo
effort. During the course of year the energy came and went and during summer
it was harder, so I turned my attention to atlasing. I covered about 6
blocks last season. This year I have more blocks to do.

Where to Send Your Checks

Checks should be made out to MOS, with annotation indicating the atlas as
the recipient of funds on the memo line. Funds should be mailed to MOS
Treasurer Emy Holdridge (5812 Harness Ct, Columbia, MD 21044). A cover note
indicating the atlas as recipient of the money would assure the money is
correctly attributed. The Atlas project donations to the MOS, which is a
501(3)(c) tax deductible charity organization is fully tax deductible. My
bill to MOS is $217 at one $/species. I hope we can bring in $1000 for this
effort.

Final Tally:

If you want to see the year the 217 species list, contact me off line.  The 
MDOsprey has a limit of 250 lines so I had to remove the list.  The list 
includes good representation of waterfowl, raptors, gulls, sparrows, and 
most other groups except the warblers and shorebirds.  The last couple 
months was frustrating for all the time spent in the field. A Brant just up 
the Potomac in P.G. county for example is likely to have been in Charles 
before it was located.  The landfill being closed to birders and prostate 
surgery also did not help.

If anyone is interested in locations on any specific species located during 
the year, I posted on MDOsprey every time I added a bird to the list. You 
could email me and ask
but no guarantees on some of the common birds. The rare ones should not be a
problem, and many less common like Black-bellied Plover should also be
doable. If anyone has questions comments, please contact me. Email is the
easiest vehicle at 

Thank you very much for your support of the MD/DC Atlas project.  I will
also send this message to MDOsprey but I wanted to let you folks see it
first.  My motto is it is never to late to donate - especially for the Atlas
project.  Have a great 2005

George

cc Walter Ellison, Atlas Coordinator