Hi,

Sorry for the late report.

My girlfriend Geraldine and I hiked from the Assateague parking lot to the 
south side of the OC inlet last Saturday.  It was a fantastic hike with 
miles of beach to ourselves and only the occasional small plane flying by 
to remind us we were not too far removed from civilization.  I have to 
admit that even though we knew it would be a long walk the 12 miles 
round-trip on sand took longer than we expected!

Here are some of the birds we saw.  Numbers are rough approximations except 
for the Eider.

 From OC (before the walk up Assateague)  Many of the birds seen below plus:
Great Cormorant - 2
Purple Sandpiper - ~20
Rudy Turnstones
Bonaparte Gulls - about a hundred

Red-throated loons- Every time I did a scan of the ocean I saw 5-10 of 
these.   There were many of these around - there appeared to be far more RT 
than Common Loons
Common Loons - a few every scan
Great Blue Herons - about 10
DC Cormorants - several dozen mostly in the bay
Northern Gannets - 100s.  Good numbers all day long, but no huge 
concentrations.  Every time I scanned the ocean I counted 20-30 birds 
without trying to count the many distant birds on the horizon
Brant - 100s
Canada Geese - several thousand.  Large flocks flying by from time to time.
No Pintails - 6 on bay side
Am Wigeon - 10 on bay side
Green-winged Teal - 2 in the surf with Scoters - not where I would expected 
to find them!
Mallards
Black Ducks
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Mergansers - dozens
Common Eider - 12; 2 adult males, 2 females, 8 first winter males
Surf Scoters - 100s, but proportionately few adult males
Black Scoters - more than Surf Scoters
White-Winged Scoters - 2
Plus every time I scanned the ocean I saw a large flock or 2 of scoters 
flying in the distance

Bald Eagles - 20-30?  For half of the walk every time I scanned the beach 
ahead of us I saw 12-18 Eagles on the beach.  I expect that it was mostly 
the same birds and we were pushing them up the beach.  The beach was also 
covered with their interesting tracks.

Myrtle Warbers - many
Ca Chickadees - several

Snow Buntings - 1 group of 25-30 birds.  Good looks at a very close flock.
Song Sparrows - several on the bay side
These were the only sparrows we saw all day.  I expected to see Ipswich 
sparrows but even though we spent a lot of time walking along what I would 
expect to be suitable habitat we saw none.  But there were areas that we 
had to rush by in order to reach our destination.  I am sure they were there...

Meadowlark - 1

Although the entire hike was wonderful our goal was to get good looks at 
the Eiders that seam to spend most of their time on the south side of the 
south jetty of OC inlet.  This makes them quite difficult to view from the 
OC side and it is impossible to know their numbers without getting to the 
south side.  As we approached the jetty, after hours of hiking on mostly 
loose sand, we saw a raft of eiders hugging the jetty.  We got good scope 
looks, but we were not close enough to fully rule out the presence of a 
King Eider among the Commons.  Before we could move closer a boat had the 
audacity to interrupt our quest and came in along the south jetty, flushing 
our birds.  We got great looks at the birds in flight, and they soon 
returned to their original spot along the jetty.  We got a little closer, 
and then the scene repeated itself but this time the birds did not return 
but instead landed some distance from shore.  Fishermen then seamed to come 
and go often enough that the birds did not return.  I believe that I got 
good enough looks to say the females were both common Eiders but I am not 
100% sure.  It was quite frustrating to get so close and then, at the last 
minute, lose our chance to get really fantastic looks.  It was an 
interesting mix of emotions to feel such anger at the men who stole this 
opportunity from us, but at the same time to know fully well that they had 
done absolutely nothing wrong.  Anger is not an emotion to be trusted!  And 
we did realize how fortunate we were that the birds had not been flushed 20 
minutes earlier.

The next day we met up with Bill Hubick and Hans Holbrook and visited the 
OC side of the inlet.  We were able to see 2-3 Eider occasionally coming 
into view on the far side of the jetty, so you don't have to do the long 
hike to see the Eiders.  However, God and fishermen willing, you can get 
fantastic views from the south side and you can see the number of birds 
present.  And it is magical to have miles of beach all to yourself.  Plus 
you get LOTS of exercise.  A great way to spend a day.

Tom




*********************************
             Tom Feild
             Code 568
           NASA/GSFC
      Greenbelt, MD 20771
           301-286-6686
*********************************