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Re: Horseshoe Crabs and Shorebirds

From:

Gerald & Laura Tarbell

Reply-To:

Gerald & Laura Tarbell

Date:

Sun, 28 May 2006 21:07:29 -0400

--Myself:  Red Knots.  We picked up about 30 along Port Mahon Road near the
piers. We found, which I felt was a fair number, at the Mispillion
Lighthouse area.  However, in talking with one of the observers at the old
restaurant, she told me that the numbers were not as great as last year.
The building is now owned by the State and is to be turned into an
interpretive center for the Red Knot.  Slaughter Beach was at low tide with
a large number of equally dispersed shorebirds along its length but not in
concentrated groups as we have seen in the past.
Ben Poscover
Towson  MD



Ben and all,
    Laura and I just got back from doing the same trip. We seemed to get
everything but the Red Knot. At Port Mahon Road, we had zillions of
Semi-palmated Sands, Turnstones, lotsa gulls and some Sanderlings but no
Knots. Somebody told us they just had some at the Ted Harvey area, so off we
went. Zip. None. So some women we were talking to from D.C. said that
Slaughter Beach was a better bet. We scanned the whole area and couldn't
find a Knot.
    The crabs seem to be increasing again and there were lots of birds, but
I'm starting to really get concerned about the Knots. That was one of the
more common birds at the Horseshoe Crab Show just a few years ago. And we
heard no reports of a lot of them: just small groups - Ben's bunch of thirty
seems to be one of the larger groups.
    And somehow we made it all the way around Bombay Hook without catching
sight of a Harrier. Is that legal? We can still go back there can't we? Hate
to get on some blacklist for getting Harrier-skunked.
    Jerry Tarbell
    Carroll County