Ben (& All),

I spent this past Friday--}Monday helping with the Delaware Shorebird
Project. The crabs seem to be in good numbers and are very busy doing their
thing. There seems to be plenty of washed out eggs on the beach for the
birds, and there are plenty of birds to munch on them. We did a cannon-net
catch Monday morning at Mispillion Harbor and caught a lot of birds, a bit
more than we wanted actually. We managed about 150 Red Knots, a handful of
Ruddy Turnstones, tons of Dunlin, some Sanderlings and so many little Semi's
that we turned most of them loose, not having time to deal with them. We
know there was a White-Rumped Sandpiper in the bunch but I believe he was
turned out by accident with the Semi's so he didn't get banded and I didn't
get to see him. The opinion all-around from the project folks seemed to be
that there are currently quite a lot of birds in the Bay.

For those who make it over to DE. You should stop by and see the new
shorebird/horseshoe crab interpretive center. It's at Mispillion in the old
restaurant with the red roof. We had a sneak peek over the weekend and it's
very, very nice. They are even setting up a remote camera on one beach (that
you can't get to on foot) for up-close bird watching. And the scopes
installed on the deck are pretty good, not those little crumby ones lots of
places use.

For future updates check the projects webpage at
http://www.fw.delaware.gov/Shorebirds/. Then I don't have to risk the wrath
of Norm by posting about non-MD birds. :) 

Good birding all,
Chris Ordiway
Accokeek, MD 


-----Original Message-----
From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of bposcove
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 6:20 AM
To: 
Subject: [MDOSPREY] HORSESHOE CRABS

Any word on how the Horseshoe Crabs and shorebirds are doing in the Del.
Bay?

Ben Poscover
Towson  MD