Sarah, I feel your pain. Mike and I set out from around the Life of the Dunes trail at around 1:15pm to find the Snowy Owl. This was at the 16km mark. At around the 20km, the only birder we saw the whole day happened to see us, drive over, and tell us we had awhile to go. He said the owl was sitting on one of the forward dunes around the 23rd or 24th marker. Well we finally found the owl at around 24.5. That was at 3:45pm. We watched the owl for a little while and walked back, making it to our car at 6:00pm, concluding the 17km walk. I kid about it being painful though. It was well worth it and an enjoyable walk on a nice day.

Other notable birds on the island: Merlin, Brant, large flock of Snow Geese, Red-throated Loon, Gannets, Horned Grebes, and Horned Larks.

We also stopped by Ocean City Ponds where there were lots of ducks. Over a hundred each of Mallards, Pintails, and Tundra Swans. There were also   plenty of Shovelers, Lesser Scaup, Gadwalls, and Green-winged Teals. There was a single Black-crowned Night Heron sitting in the tangles. 

At the Inlet in Ocean City, our best birds were Common Eiders. There were plenty of Gannets and Purple Sandpipers too. 


Robert Ostrowski
Bowie, MD