Hello everyone. Parke John and I had a nice day yesterday at the Southern Eastern Shore. Our plans were to go out on the ORV zone out on Assatuege Island but when we got there around 8am there was an 8 hour wait to get onto the beach because of so many vehicles out there already. They were at there limit. So we birded the state park starting with the Southern public beach close to the entrance to the ORV zone.
I was blown away when I locked onto almost right away a CORY'S SHEARWATER!  It was about 100 yards off the shore, flying like they do, stiff winged and gliding inches about the water between the waves. I started eliminating species of shearwaters and got down to Greater and Cory's. This bird was neat uniform brown on top, from head to tail and out on the wings. It had clean white on the belly and underwing, and also had a face mask which cut down across the very bottom of the face area, which ended up showing a white throat. It did not have a dark cap like the Greater has. We had a good look at it. Very exciting!
After the Shearwater worked its way down out of sight, we picked up 2 to 3 Gannets off shore pounding into the water. I didn't expect to see these either. Nice treat. A couple minutes more of scanning I picked up a Storm Petrel flying by. It was real hard to see. It kept disappearing between the waves and was pretty far out in bad light. I would assume that is was a Wilson's. I was fishing off the Delaware shore last week and they were everywhere. 
After all of that excitement, we headed into the marshes. Many Tricolored Herons, Little Blues, Green backed Herons, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets. A Short-billed Dowitcher dropped in for some great looks as did a Least Sandpiper.

One other interesting note. At the Bridge that takes you across to the island, there is a point of land that comes out of the marsh toward the bridge from the Island. There was a Male and Female Surf Scoter sitting on the land at the waters edge.

Skimmer Island had many people on it. Dogs running around. It set me off. I can't believe people ignore the signs. I did call the DNR. Hopefully they did something about it. We did get all of the Terns you would expect to see. Many Oystercatchers. No Skimmers.

We ended the day out on Elliott's Island Road. Many Marsh Wrens, Seaside Sparrows. At the end, down where the boat ramp is we had 2 Brown Pelicans way out. The tide was high all day. Almost no mud exposed, so the shore birding wasn't very good. Another week or 2, I am sure it will improve.
Sean McCandless
Elkton, MD