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Subject:

Trop King NO, but Little Gull, Eiders and more

From:

Jay Keller

Reply-To:

Jay Keller

Date:

Sat, 6 Jan 2007 19:22:49 -0500

Hello All,

This morning, Kurt Gaskill, Gerry Hawkins and I crossed the Potomac for some 
MD birding today and had an enjoyable time.  We started at the Choptank 
River near Cambridge and found nearly 50 COMMON GOLDENEYES, hundreds of 
GREATER SCAUP and SURF SCOTERS, and a single LONG-TAILED DUCK, a few 
dozen fly-over SNOW GEESE, and a few other species of waterfowl.

Later we gave the Tropical Kingbird a shot and despite about 2 1/2 hours of 
searching, came up empty.  It is an interesting area to bird, with best birds 
being 4 BALD EAGLES, a KESTREL, and a fly-over AMERICAN PIPIT.  To our 
knowledge, the bird was not seen today despite many birders looking.

We then headed for the Ocean City Inlet where our spirits were lifted by a few 
PURPLE SANDPIPERS, three hen COMMON EIDERS, a female HARLEQUIN DUCK 
on a rock, several BRANT and other waterfowl.  Kurt then briefly thought he 
saw a small gull with black in the coverts, and we relocated the first year 
LITTLE GULL among the scores of Bonaparte's Gulls a few minutes later.  It 
flew around across the jetty the entire time we were there, and we and other 
birders were able to relocate it several times.

Enthused, we decided to check the pond on Golf Course Rd for ducks, and we 
found good diversity including GADWALL, WIGEON, SHOVELER, PINTAIL, 
CANVASBACK, and several others to bring out day's duck list to 20 species.

Sometimes it is good to cross the river to the other side!  :-)

Take Care,

Jay Keller,
Arlington, VA