Todd,

Wed, about noon, I visited the  North Beach mudflats befire the rain:
I saw some of  the 80 wilson's snipe you wrote about. Only 20 were still there.
My first snipe. Thanks.
Also saw 6 least sandpipers and 20 or more either laughing gulls or Forster's terns.
Since their legs were orangish they must have been Forster's terns. 
I didn't think of looking for forks on the tails since I just thought they were only laughing gulls.until I reviewed your list. They looked chunkier than terns so I first thought laughing gulls. 
The 2 Osprey were on nest and feeding
A male belted kingfisher was stunning.with his colors.

On the Bay south of the boardwalk in the 1-2 ft waves
there were still 20 or more bufflehead, 4 common goldeneye, 6 horned grebes of which 4 were in breeding plumage (bright yellow behind the ears)

Not much near Rose haven

 
retired, from Reston Va
Owings, Md


-------------- Original message -------------- 
From:  

Sorry I missed the snipe. not on my list yet
4/11/07

 
Owings, Md

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Todd Day <> 

> Hola, 
> 
> On Monday afternoon, 2 April, I spent forty-five minutes or so looking at 
> the mudflat at North Beach, just near the Calvert and Anne Arundel County line. 
> Impressive were the eighty or more Wilson's Snipe feeding in the open on 
> the mudflat. Other shorebirds included four Least Sandpipers, one Dunlin, 
> eight Greater Yellowlegs, two Lesser Yellowlegs, and maybe twenty Killdeer. 
> 
> There was a Snowy Egret, a pair of Wood Ducks, forty Green-winged Teal all 
> on or near the flats, and a hen American Wigeon on the bay in the cove to the 
> east. A very pretty adult Forster's Tern with long tail streamers was 
> hunting the shallow water. A Bald Eagle emerged from the trees in Anne 
> Arundel, 
> sending everything on the flats into the air, and prompted the nesting Osprey 
> nearby to pose a challenge. 
> 
> An out-of-place bird I had earlier in the day at our house on Holland Point 
> was a Meadowlark. The bird doesn't belong there, and it had really no 
> business feeding in the narrow strip of lawn in front of the houses along the 
> point, with occasional forays into the trees. I never did get a good look at 
> this 
> bird to rule out the very-unlikely Western Meadowlark, but it will go on the 
> yard list as an Eastern Meadowlark. I added Pied-billed Grebe to it too. 
> Harry, I'm coming for you. 
> 
> Totals below. 
> 
> Green-winged Teal, 40 
> Wood Ducks, one pair 
> American Wigeon, one hen on the cove 
> Wilson's Snipe, 80 or more 
> Least Sandpipers, at least 4 
> Dunlin, one getting some black on the belly and a little rust in the 
> scapula rs 
> Greater Yellowlegs, at least 8 
> Lesser Yellowlegs, 2 
> Killdeer, 20 
> Jim Stasz, 1 tanned adult 
> Bonaparte's Gull, 5 
> Forster's Tern, 4 
> Snowy Egret, 1 
> Bald Eagle, 2 
> Osprey, 2 
> Cooper's Hawk, 1 
> Northern Rough-winged Swallow, 1 
> 
> Cheers, 
> 
> Todd 
> 
> --------------------------------- 
> Todd Michael Day 
> Jeffersonton, Virginia 
> Culpeper County, USA 
>  
> --------------------------------- 
> 
> 
> 
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