Hi Everyone,

The following is a long and detailed account of our August Big Day on Sunday, 8/31. Let's take it from the top.

It's midnight beside the Pickering Creek ponds in Talbot Co., and our August Big Day has just officially begun. I'm standing in the dark with Jim Brighton, Mikey Lutmerding, and Ron Gutberlet, and we're hoping to find 160 bird species over the next 24 hours. Our goal is to beat the record of 159 species set by Jim Stasz, Ed Boyd, Matt Hafner, and Zach Baer. 

The night is calm, and the lack of wind is promising for nightbirds. It's exciting. CANADA GEESE are honking nearby--one down. A minute passes quietly. Soon we detect a distant BARRED OWL calling, and then another nearby. Fortune smiles upon us and a SORA calls spontaneously. I miss it and cost us our first 5% bird. In an official Big Day, only 5% of your birds can be seen by fewer than all team members. We listen for another couple moments, but then already it's time to roll. Getting behind schedule is the number one killer of Big Days. Just 157 species to go.

We run a circuit of Eastern Shore wetlands, and our luck holds at fair. Most stops are painfully silent. At another, both GREAT HORNED and EASTERN SCREECH-OWLs are already calling as we step from the car. A Great Blue Heron flies away grokking. Even the most common species is celebrated at night. It adds momentum. 

It's already 2:00 a.m., and we're cruising down Elliott Island Road. We've been hitting small pockets of rain now, so there is cause for some concern. When we get out of the car on the north end of the marsh, the weather is calm but cloudy. "Shh," someone whispers. "Listen." Silence. After a painfully long pause, the bird sings again, and to our delight, it's the gravelly full song of a SEDGE WREN. This merits high-fives and good cheer--missable birds like this one are serious money in the bank. But we gotta go.

We make multiple stops along Elliott Island Road, where options for great night birds abound. We grow concerned about the lack of rails calling (we missed Clapper in 2006), but soon our fears are dispelled by the grunts of nearby VIRGINIA RAILs, and then, thankfully, a couple CLAPPER RAILs. Soon Mikey picks out another vocalization, a BLACK-NECKED STILT doing its less yippy calls--another very missable bird down. Our luck is improving rapidly, and soon we hear a couple faint sounds overheard. Night migrants! At first we hear only the faintest notes, but soon a VEERY calls clearly overhead. We hear perhaps 20 Veeries passing by, eventually joined by our first couple SWAINSON'S THRUSHes and a single BOBOLINK. On our way back north, an AMERICAN WOODCOCK flushes from the roadside. As we approach the one illuminated building, I spot a small passerine flying into some weeds below the lights. We hop out of the car and actually see our first MARSH WREN. We leave
 Elliott's with 16 species.

The drizzle is intermittent as we work our way toward dawn at Bayside. Spadefoot Toads are crossing the roads, and we take a moment to check one out as we stop to pick up KING RAIL at a freshwater marsh. At each stop the night migrants continue, nearly all of them VEERIES, SWAINSON'S THRUSHes, and BOBOLINKs. We arrive at Assateague on schedule, and at 5:30 a.m. we're standing beside the Life of the Dunes Trail in the light rain. This addition was designed to give us a better chance at COMMON NIGHTHAWK, which still breeds on the island after declining drastically elsewhere on the Eastern Shore. No nighthawks are here, but the night flight is now in high gear. I had heard about great flights in light rain, but this was my first time experiencing it. From here until full dawn, an incredible flight of BOBOLINKs passes overhead, so many that the *bink* notes become background noise and it is difficult to listen for other species. 

As dawn quickly approaches, it is time to get to Bayside, where a strong migrant flight could make or break our day. Here we meet up with Mike Walsh, who kindly accepts our request that he not point out birds. I’m sure our intensity and excitement were as entertaining as the good birds. The wind is stronger by the water, but we know we are in for some migrants. We're using the very first light to ID anything we can, and the feeding frenzy begins: HERRING GULL, LAUGHING GULL, BROWN PELICAN, NORTHERN CARDINAL, BELTED KINGFISHER, CAROLINA WREN, BROWN THRASHER, GRAY CATBIRD... As the light accumulates to something more vision-friendly, the heron flight begins, and the numbers of TRICOLORED and LITTLE BLUE HERONs are impressive. The first passerines begin to arrive, but IDs in flight are tough in the wind. We pick up our first YELLOW WARBLER, followed by BLACK-THROATED BLUE and NORTHERN PARULA. Small flocks of EASTERN KINGBIRDs are passing by. We're having
 trouble deciding which corner to work, as flyby warblers always seem to be passing the other side of the parking lot. Of course, non-passerine flybys are important here, too, and we spot LESSER YELLOWLEGS, WILLET, BLUE-WINGED TEAL, and a pair of SANDWICH TERNs.  We're working hard, and things stay steady for a while. Before we head for the campground we've added a couple more warblers, including BAY-BREASTED, and we're at 60 species. 

We quickly work our favorite areas of Assateague, adding some real prizes to the list. A juvenile BAIRD'S SANDPIPER is a major find on the flats off campsite A24. Others are just missable species that we are happy to see, such as PURPLE MARTIN and RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. Two BLACK-THROATED GREENs are great additions, the first I'd seen on the Shore this fall. 

We arrive at the Life of the Forest Trail with 80 species. Here we quickly encounter a nice-size flock which includes BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH, HOUSE WREN, and YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER (dominica). A nearby NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH is yet another bonus. While scanning the flats at the end of the trail, I tell Ron Gutberlet that we have to play rock-paper-scissors for who is the unlucky soul who has to try to kick up a migrant CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW. I lose, and so it is my duty to walk through the greenbrier tangles off the trail in hopes of flushing a nightjar. This old innovation of Hafner, Iliff, Stasz, et al., has paid dividends historically. Unfortunately, it earns me only two legs covered to the knees in thousands of seed ticks. 

And now it is time for our biggest curve ball of this Big Day run. Mike Walsh has agreed to take us down the ORV zone, a risky move that greatly increases our chances for some species, but at very high cost in time. In summary, you have to score BIG for this investment to pay off. We make good time, but there are thousands of birds and a lot of beach. Fox Hill Level has an ample selection of shorebirds, including a PECTORAL, as well as our only two NORTHERN HARRIERs. Along with the large numbers of SANDERLINGs, RUDDY TURNSTONEs, and BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERs are four WHIMBREL, three or more SANDWICH TERNs, and impressive numbers of LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLs. On our drive back up from the Virginia line, Mikey counts 48 of them. 

As we stop to re-inflate the tires, we hear our only FIELD SPARROWs. We are at 97 species and 30 minutes behind schedule. Even cutting corners and dropping stops, we somehow manage to stay behind schedule all day.

The pace quickens. South Point disappoints when the Eurasian Collared-Doves do not show during our short visit. We blame the wind. Eagle's Nest is very crowded both on land and water, and we decide to cut our visit short to make up some time. Before we leave, however, Mikey saves the day and scopes a distant PIPING PLOVER on Assateague. Skimmer Island treats us well, with two cooperative MARBLED GODWITs (Mikey's overdue state birds), as well as a juvenile BLACK SKIMMER and a very unexpected adult LEAST TERN. 

West Ocean City Pond has the best shorebird habitat I have ever seen there, and the birds must have agreed. We set up three scopes and quickly pull out a laundry list of important additions: GREEN-WINGED TEAL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, WESTERN SANDPIPER, SOLITARY SANDPIPER, and WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER. It is hard to pull ourselves away, but we have a schedule to try to catch. Next stop: Ocean Pines... home of a famous Big Day Snow Goose. Or must we say former home?

En route, we found ourselves passing the West OC Racetrack (Delmarva Downs), and those not driving put up our bins pelagic-style to check for concentrations of field birds. We find a nice group, pull over, and are thrilled to quickly scope an UPLAND SANDPIPER. This is followed by another, and then by a juvenile BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. What luck!

The SNOW GOOSE is not present with the Graylag flock at Ocean Pines. Damn. That's why scouting is a good thing. 

And now it’s on to Berlin and the woodland birds of the Nassawango. Berlin kindly offers us a COOPER'S HAWK, but little in the way of shorebirds. The Nassawango makes us work hard, and it holds out on many important birds. Our route is sound, but woodland songbirds in August--in the afternoon--can be cruel. Slowly, painfully, we whittle down our list of targets, each big flock adding just one or two new species. One by one they fall, but the list of targets is long and the afternoon is not. We find PROTHONOTARY WARBLER, YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, SUMMER and SCARLET TANAGERs (just one each, and not singing), NORTHERN FLICKER (just a short flicka-flicka call), a TRAILL'S FLYCATCHER, and a lucky, late LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH. A calling RED-HEADED WOODPECKER on Mount Olive Road is a satisfying find that saves us a stop. This may sound like a nice list, but here's one that hurts. Missed targets here include Red-shouldered Hawk, Acadian
 Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe,
Worm-eating Warbler, and Ovenbird. And somehow we still need Common Grackle and Song Sparrow. We leave the woods behind and fortune smiles upon us with a roadside AMERICAN KESTREL and an INDIGO BUNTING. We have found 145 species, a number that would be wonderful an hour or two ago. The afternoon is getting away from us, and we know we now need luck. 

We need to get to Hurlock, where we are nearly guaranteed RUDDY DUCKs and there is a good chance of adding swallows and shorebirds. When we arrive, six RUDDY DUCKs are right where they should be (#146) and amidst the swarms of swallows are small numbers of NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED (#147) and BANK SWALLOWS (#148). There are endless options for great rarities to meet us here--Black Tern, phalaropes, avocets--but alas, they do not. Gotta go!

OK, so it's after 6:00 p.m., and we need 12 species to break the record. By my reckoning, this means nine more species by dark to stand a chance. We decide to end the day on Elliott Island Road, where dusk offers many possibilities. Of course we could work the woods on the way in, and even a small flock of migrants could make all the difference. And we still need Common Grackle and Song Sparrow. Well, we’re so close to the Hurlock area sod farms that we might as well check a second time for American Golden-Plover, right?

Jim Brighton agrees hesitantly, and we pull over. We tell Mikey to do a 30-second scan. I hop out and use binoculars. The nearest bird was a meadowlark on the open grass. It says "chuck." A surreal documentation flurry begins. We already posted that story. 

Finding the WESTERN MEADOWLARK is an incredible thrill. When the dust begins to settle, we agree to say to hell with the Big Day; it's time to celebrate. On our way to Jim Brighton's house, we pass Tanyard Marsh and stop for just a couple more seconds to pad the numbers. COMMON GRACKLEs were abundant in the dusk flocks (#150) and two MUTE SWANs (#151) floated together. 

Over beers we discussed how we could have done better. Sure, the ORV zone addition was risky, and it took a lot of time away from beating the bushes for landbirds. But if we had found Roseate Tern, Black Tern, Parasitic Jaeger, and Red Knot, it would have been worth it. I think we all agreed in the end, though, that sometimes it just happens one bird at a time. You can miss Song Sparrow if you’re finding rarities, but you can’t miss Song Sparrow and 10 others. August Big Days are tough, and 160 is a hell of a lot of birds. Don’t worry, though, there was no disappointment at the end of the day--just many toasts that involved saying “Western Meadowlark...", grinning, still shaking our heads in disbelief.  

Hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride. 

Get out your rain gear for this weekend. This should be fun!

Good birding!

Bill

Bill Hubick
Pasadena, Maryland

http://www.billhubick.com