I'll add more confusion to the fire.  I was at the West OC Pond from from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm yesterday, Saturday, 10-16.  At 9:30 I found what I believe was the Curlew Sandpiper.  I had it in with a group of Least Sandpiper.  I had at 50x for about 5 minutes when it flew to a different spot.  I had it for another minute in which time I tried to show it to some other persons but it flew again.  I never managed to locate it again.  There were many flocks of different shorebirds and most could only easily be seen in flight.  I am not sure where they were going.
 
Bill shape was consistent with illustrations in the Hayman, Marhcant and Prater shorebird book and the pictures on the web.  The bill is less curved in their book than the illustrations in Sibley.  The pale supercilium was pronounced and consistent with posted photographs.  Size seemed a little small however but may have been difficult to estimate in comparison to the peeps due to distance.  The back was scaly but it appeared some scapulars feathers had already molted into adult winter plumage and were uniformely gray. I did not manage to notice the white rump or the longer legs.     

Also at the OC Pond 1 Glossy Ibis, ~6 Little Blue Herons, 1 Western Sand., 2 Semipalmated Sandpiper, 1 Solitary Sand., 1 Spotted Sand., 17 Semipalmated Plover, 2 Merlin and 1 Peregrine Falcon.

At Assateaque I had 1 Amer. Golden Plover, 35 Black-bellied Plover, 2 Merlin,
and literally thousands of Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Brendan Klick
Baltimore, MD

-----Original Message-----
From: Maryland Birds & Birding on behalf of Joel Martin
Sent: Sat 10/15/2005 10:00 AM
To: 
Subject: [MDOSPREY] West OC Pond on Friday
 
The presence of the Curlew Sandpiper on Friday, 10/14, was questionable. Two 
birders who were there before me had a good candidate fairly close, but I'm 
not sure they were convinced. After that all the birds stayed in the back of the 
pond. Viewing conditions were misty and windy.

There were two birds that were either both Dunlin, or a Curlew Sand and a 
Dunlin. These two were together most of the time. Both were dark around the head 
like Dunlin, but one had more scalloping on the wings and back. One had a 
definite dark center on the rump -- Dunlin -- but I didn't get a conclusive look 
at the rump on the other. I don't know to what degree Dunlin can still have 
some juvenile plumage at this date, and I have no experience with fall Curlew 
Sandpiper. If anyone has an image of the bird from last week I'd love to see it.

There were probably 50-60 shorebirds at the pond, most of them Semipalmated 
Plover and Semipalmated Sandpiper. Others present were 1 juvenile Black-bellied 
Plover, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Solitary Sandpiper, <5 Western, and 2 
Pectoral. Also reported was Spotted Sandpiper. Most of the shorebirds left the pond 
around 1 PM and didn't return while I was there.

Joel Martin
Catonsville, MD