About 16 birders got a nice boat tour of Jug Bay this 
morning, from 7 am to 10:30 am.  Our target species, Sora, 
did not disappoint, despite the unusually high tide.  My
checklist follows; numbers may be underestimated (I was 
mostly keeping track of my own counts).  The oriole was seen 
in the park before I arrived.  Some pictures from the trip 
are available here:

http://www.astro.umd.edu/~dcr/Archives/Photos/Trips/JugBaySept2005/

Canada Goose 30
Wood Duck 20 (male + female)
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 20 (male + female)
Blue-winged Teal 25
Green-winged Teal 5
Lesser Scaup 1 (nice close look)
Double-crested Cormorant 1 (juvenile)
Great Blue Heron 3
Turkey Vulture 4
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 3
Cooper's Hawk 2
Sora 10 (estimate; only ~5 seen, one quite well)
Killdeer 2
Laughing Gull 50
Ring-billed Gull 2
Forster's Tern 15
Rock Pigeon 11
Mourning Dove 5
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 2
Chimney Swift 15
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3
Belted Kingfisher 3 (at least 1 male)
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Acadian Flycatcher 2
White-eyed Vireo 3
Yellow-throated Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
Carolina Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1
Carolina Wren 3
Marsh Wren 1 (great looks at a scruffy bird; Worthington's??)
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Waterthrush 2
Common Yellowthroat 5
Northern Cardinal 1
Bobolink 3
Red-winged Blackbird 100+ (1000?)
Baltimore Oriole 1
American Goldfinch 2 (at least 1 male)

Also 3 raptor species (including one dark falcon-like bird), 
1 crow species, and an unidentified call that may have been 
Black-billed Cuckoo or a bittern.

D

-- 
Derek C. Richardson, Ph.D. (CANTAB) ________
Astronomy, U Maryland, College Park MD 20742
Tel: Office 301-405-8786 Fax 301-314-9067 __
Home page: http://www.astro.umd.edu/~dcr/ __