I'm not sure what a notable number of Skimmers would be nowadays, but I was 
 at Skimmer Island on Friday 7/31, a little earlier than Jeff Shenot's 
visit.  Since Jeff posted here, I didn't but probably should have. There were  
approximately 40 BLACK SKIMMERS present between 12 and 1, when the tide was  
still fairly low; 21 on the sand bar behind Hooper's, and at least an equal  
number on the far side of the island but difficult to count.
 
Otherwise the species mix was similar to what Jeff reported, including the  
single SANDWICH TERN. There were dozens of peeps but most too distant to 
ID. At  one point a PEREGRINE FALCON stirred up most of the island's 
shorebirds,  revealing a flock of 12 WHIMBREL that flew over the bridge and kept 
going  south.
 
Early morning and late afternoon visits to Taylor's Landing, Vaughn North  
and Truitt's Landing did not produce the hoped-for Gull-billed Tern, but at 
the  Vaughn pond a male LEAST BITTERN flew across the dike just yards away 
for a  nice surprise.
 
Joel Martin
Catonsville, MD
 (mailto:[log in to unmask])  .
 
 
In a message dated 8/3/2009 9:44:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
 writes:

I spent  the weekend in OC with my family.  Didn't do a whole lot of
birding,  but did stop by Skimmer Island on my way home today. 
Highlights (clipped  from ebird) are listed below (personal faves in all
caps).  Ebird  questioned me on the number of Black Skimmers.  I haven't
been down  that way enough recently to know if 14 is that high of a
number.  Have  they really gone down that much for this to be remarkable?

And as  noted, I saw a minimum of 6 Sandwich Terns.  Two of the terns
were  immature birds (juvenile?), one of which was begging from an adult.
Where's  the closest nesting for this species?

Location: Ocean City--Skimmer  Island
Observation date: 8/3/09
Notes: The island was scanned from both  4th St. and from the Rt. 50
bridge near Hooper's.
Number of species:  34

Brown Pelican 21
Little Blue Heron 1
Tricolored Heron  1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
Black-bellied Plover 1
American  Oystercatcher 15
Willet (Western) 2
WHIMBREL (American) 1
MARBLED  GODWIT 1
Ruddy Turnstone 30 (rough estimate)
Sanderling 50 (rough  estimate)
Semipalmated Sandpiper 10 (rough estimate)
Short-billed  Dowitcher 4
Least Tern 6
Common Tern 50 (presumably other species of  interest mixed in, but I
had no luck pulling them out)
Royal Tern  40
SANDWICH TERN 6 
Black Skimmer 14

Good birding,
Paul  Pisano
Arlington, VA