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Sitting on Our Assateague 10/8/06

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Matt Hafner

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Mon, 9 Oct 2006 11:07:19 -0400

Sitting on Our Assateague sat at Bayside point for the 5th straight year.  Unfortunately, we had our lowest total ever due to a severe lack of passerines all day.  The heavy NE wind was not conducive for warblers, sparrows, etc to come down to the point.  We spent most of the day looking for migrating waterfowl and landbirds on South Point.  The Eastern Towhees were tantalizingly close, singing and calling at the far end of the parking lot, but the wind killed any hope of hearing them from the circle.  
 
Thanks to Mike Burchett and Brandon ??? (sorry) from WVU who arrived at 1am and got almost all our night birds.  Other participants were Jim Stasz, Zach Baer, George Jett, Gwen Brewer, Mark Schilling, Kevin Graff, Kim Hafner, and Matt Hafner.
 
It was a still a great morning (we all left by noon) and everyone had a good time.  
 
66 species
 
Common Loon - 12
Brown Pelican - 3
Double-crested Cormorant - 1000+
Great Blue Heron - 6
Great Egret - 20
Snowy Egret - 10
Little Blue Heron - 5
Tricolored Heron - 10
Black-crowned Night-Heron - 2
Black Vulture - 3
Turkey Vulture - 20
Mute Swan - 1 (new to Big Sit list)
Snow Goose - 15
Canada Goose - 32
Atlantic Brant - 23
American Black Duck - 16
Northern Shoveler - 2 (new to Big Sit list)
Northern Pintail - 14
Ring-necked Duck - 1 (new to Big Sit list)
Great Scaup - 1 (new to Big Sit list)
Surf Scoter - 30
Black Scoter - 1
Red-breasted Merganser - 1 (new to Big Sit list)
Osprey - 2
Bald Eagle - 3
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Semipalmated Plover - 2
Killdeer - 1
Sanderling - 25
Dunlin - 4
dowitcher sp. - 15
Laughing Gull - 100+
Bonaparte's Gull - 1 (new to Big Sit list)
Ring-billed Gull - 10
Herring Gull - 50
Great Black-backed Gull - 10
Caspian Tern - 15
Royal Tern - 9
Forster's Tern - 2
Rock Dove - 1
Belted Kingfisher - 2
Yellow-shafted Flicker - 2
Fish Crow - 30
Blue Jay - 1 (new to Big Sit list)
Tree Swallow - 240
Carolina Wren - 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 3
Veery - 1
Gray-cheeked Thrush - 2
Swainson's Thrush - 20
American Robin - 2
Gray Catbird - 4
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Brown Thrasher - 1
European Starling - 5
Cedar Waxwing - 29
Cape May Warbler - 2
Myrtle Warbler - 30
Western Palm Warbler - 3
"Baypoll" Warbler - 2
Northern Cardinal - 3
Indigo Bunting - 3
Red-winged Blackbird - 7
Common Grackle - 10
Boat-tailed Grackle - 3
 
Biggest misses: Song Sparrow, Morning Dove, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and hordes of others.
 
Matt Hafner
Bel Air, MD
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