Hi Everyone,

Birds were moving in big numbers at Assateague this morning.  We recorded 48 species and well over 1000 individuals in less than 2.5 hours.  Dana Bronecke and I could barely keep up!  Today's observations have been submitted to eBird (www.ebird.org) as summarized below.

We had multiple first of season birds for us, including Snow Goose (1 small flock), Wood Duck (flying south in small flocks), Northern Pintail (southbound in small flocks), scaup sp. (just a bit too far for confident species determination), Bufflehead (mostly on the bay), Horned Grebe (3 on the bay), Field Sparrow, and Pine Siskin.

Big rafts of Surf Scoters were on the bay--800 may be an underestimate.  Small loose groups of Common Loons flew by pretty steadily.

The Red-bellied Woodpecker behaved like a migrant, arriving with Northern Flickers, and stopping briefly in that favorite bare tree before moving on.

Today's American Robin count was our biggest of the season by far.  Our few Cedar Waxwings were in the robin flocks.

We surely didn't catch everything out there.  I would have loved to have spent all day scouring Assateague and other parts of Worcester--which is exactly what folks will be doing during Rarity Roundup on November 15th.  Hope to see many of you there--please get in touch with Bill Hubick or Mark Hoffman and join the search.  I can't wait!

Have fun,

Ron Gutberlet
Salisbury, MD




Location:     Assateague I. NS--Bayside
Observation date:     10/31/08
Observers: Ron Gutberlet, Dana Bronecke

Weather: 34-49 F, wind W-WNW at 5-7 mph, sunny (clear), relative humidity 60-78%, barometric pressure 30.55-30.57 in. (all weather data from accuweather.com for Ocean City, MD)

Double-crested Cormorants: 55 were northbound; 83 were southbound; most were flying low over the water this morning (in both directions)

Additional Notes: Most of the Surf Scoters remained on the bay during our observation period, though they did move around.  800 may be a conservative estimate.  Most Common Loons were flying south in small, loose groups; several were on the bay.  Wood Ducks and Northern Pintails were flying south in small flocks.  Bufflehead were mainly on the bay, but flying around a bit; all those flying were low just above the water--perhaps relocating rather than continuing to migrate.  Horned Grebes were on the water.

Number of species:     43

Snow Goose     8
Brant     116
Canada Goose     9
Wood Duck     20
American Black Duck     4
Mallard     6
Northern Pintail     20
Greater/Lesser Scaup     1
Surf Scoter     800
Bufflehead     33
Red-breasted Merganser     7
duck sp.     3
Common Loon     36
loon sp.     1
Horned Grebe     3
Double-crested Cormorant     138
Great Blue Heron     11
Great Egret     2
Black-bellied Plover     1
Killdeer     1
Laughing Gull     19
Herring Gull     17
Forster's Tern     10
Royal Tern     2
Belted Kingfisher     1
Red-bellied Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     14
crow sp.     95
Carolina Wren     3
Golden-crowned Kinglet     2
American Robin     315
Gray Catbird     2
Northern Mockingbird     1
European Starling     15
Cedar Waxwing     8
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)     118
Field Sparrow     2
Song Sparrow     1
White-throated Sparrow     12
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)     17
Northern Cardinal     1
Red-winged Blackbird     11
Eastern Meadowlark     1


Location:     Assateague I. NS--Bayside
Observation date:     10/31/08
Observers: Ron Gutberlet, Dana Bronecke

Weather: 49-54 F, wind WNW at 6-7 mph, sunny (clear), relative humidity 50-60%, barometric pressure 30.56-30.57 in. (weather data from accuweather.com for Ocean City, MD)

Double-crested Cormorants: 6 northbound, 9 southbound

Additional notes: Some of the birds reported here (catbird, Bufflehead, Surf Scoter, mockingbird, Carolina Wren, and the sparrows) very likely include or are a portion of the birds we observed here earlier this morning.  Counts of other species (e.g., robin, pintail, wood duck) very likely represent additional birds.

Number of species:     37

Wood Duck     6
Mallard     6
Northern Pintail     11
Greater/Lesser Scaup     2
Surf Scoter     400
Bufflehead     42
Red-breasted Merganser     8
duck sp.     10
Common Loon     10
Double-crested Cormorant     15
Sharp-shinned Hawk     1
Black-bellied Plover     7
Dunlin     37
Laughing Gull     23
Ring-billed Gull     2
Herring Gull     65
Forster's Tern     2
Royal Tern     1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     4
Red-breasted Nuthatch     1
Carolina Wren     2
Golden-crowned Kinglet     2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     1
American Robin     198
Gray Catbird     3
Northern Mockingbird     2
Cedar Waxwing     4
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)     50
Song Sparrow     5
White-throated Sparrow     2
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)     3
Northern Cardinal     3
Red-winged Blackbird     6
Eastern Meadowlark     1
Boat-tailed Grackle     1
Pine Siskin     1
American Goldfinch     5

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)