Gary and others,
 
I've done quite a bit of seawatching from the OC Inlet as well as other places in the country.  I have to say that overall, seawatching in MD is on the poor side.  That's not to say that you won't see birds, but it may take many hours of nothingness for that special experience to come along.  
 
There have been several days in June over the last couple years where a number of shearwaters have been seen from shore.  Unfortunately I have not been around any of those days.  However, on almost any given day June-August, Wilson's Storm-Petrels can be seen from the OC Inlet.  In the summer of 2003, I spent about an hour a day, 2-3 days a week seawatching from the inlet.  I saw storm-petrels more than 50% of the time and the wind seemed irrelevant.  Persistence was key and once you found one, others seemed to appear out of nowhere.  
 
If you're looking for jaegers, October is best.  I've spent many hours though and have only seen 2 Parasitics.  If you want to head over to Cape May though they can be very easy in both May and October.  Cape May has large tern feeding flocks that seem to be missing from the MD coast.  
 
Fall and winter seawatching can be interesting in MD, but most of the birds will not be true "pelagic" species.  
 
Good luck,
 
Matt Hafner
Bel Air, MD
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Allport <>
To: 
Sent: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 16:09:35 -0400
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Advice sought on seawatching in MD


Dear All

Budding seabirder that I am I was wondering anyone might advise on the best 
place and conditions to sea decent seabirds - e.g. petrels, shearwaters & 
jaegers - in MD?  Looking at the map and reading the MD Osprey archives I 
presume that the Ocean City area is best and one would need a stiff onshore 
(easterly) to stand a chance of seeing anything. Most of the birds seem to 
be seen in early June so I was thinking of trekking over from DC to the 
OC/Assateague area to give it a go if the weather looked right.

Any advice on exact locations and conditions would be gratefully received.

Cheers 

Gary Allport


PS and please don't tell me I'm mad to even think about trying such a 
caper - I already know that.
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