Hola,
Spent a fair amount of Sunday 1 April looking at the bay from our house at
Holland Point, in Anne Arundel, but seeing birds in both Calvert and Anne
Arundel (mostly the latter). It wasn't an all-day sea watch, but taking a half
hour here and there to watch stuff flying about, and then a more systematic
count of things as they got into big rafts at the end of the day. As the day
progressed, the bay got flatter and flatter, finally becoming very glassy
around seven PM. The sky was gray most of the day, and at times it was hard to
tell where the water stopped and the sky started.
Best bird was an adult Little Gull in a group with five Bonaparte's Gulls
flying north just a hundred yards or so off shore. Overall the Bonaparte's
numbers were fairly low, with fewer than 100 seen. A few adult Gannets were
diving into the four-foot-deep water a couple hundred yards off the end of our
pier. There's a mile or so of bay frontage on the point which I walked this
morning, and counted roughly 300 Horned Grebes, in plumages ranging from pure
winter to full breeding. One grebe spent about ten minutes in flight flying
a huge oval before finally splashing down a good frisbee throw in front of
me. Toward the end of the day many of them were flying around, though
typically just short distances.
There's probably a thousand Bufflehead out there from one end of the point
to the other. About 100 Surf Scoters, and I had 21 Black Scoters. A line of
fifteen Tundra Swans were flying north this morning. Not a single tern nor
cormorant was seen, and very few gulls overall. One flock of 17 Short-billed
Dowitchers flew by, the only shorebirds I saw.
Species and estimated numbers:
Canada Goose, 20
Mallard, 15
Common Goldeneye, 12
Surf Scoter, 100
Black Scoter, 21
Tundra Swan, 15
Bufflehead, ca. 1000
Greater Scaup, 2
Common Loon, 75
Horned Grebe, ca. 300
Northern Gannet, 27, all adults
Short-billed Dowitcher, 17
Herring Gull, 19
Great Black-backed Gull, 4
Ring-billed Gull, 45
Bonaparte's Gull, 80
Little Gull, 1 adult
Osprey, 12
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia
Culpeper County, USA
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