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Subject:

Weekend birding, Assateague area, and Jug Bay

From:

Mikey Lutmerding

Reply-To:

Mikey Lutmerding

Date:

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:13:13 -0400

Hi all,

I birded the Assateague area on Saturday August 8, and Jo Anna and I
canoed around Jug Bay on Sunday the 9th some highlights are below.

Saturday I started at Truitts Landing where the best birds were  2
GULL-BILLED TERNS flying around.  I then headed to Eagles Nest
Campground the highlights here being 2 flyby MARBLED GODWITs, and 5
roosting CASPIAN TERNs mixed in with the ROYAL TERNs, I wasn't able to
work through the flock as thoroughly as I would have liked due to all
the people on the exposed sand bars. One of the highlights at Skimmer
Island was an adult BLACK SKIMMER that brought back a needlefish to
feed to one of the youngsters, before it gave the fish up, it
vigorously shook the fish by its mouth to break off the sharp point,
other than that just the usual birds.  At West Ocean City Pond, a
flock of 5 BLACK TERNs (4 still in near breeding plumage, one
juvenile/winter plumaged bird) made a brief appearance, flying around
the pond 3 times, then flying high and continuing south.  I finished
with a 2 hour sea-watch on Assateague Island near the OSV parking
area, that produced one second year NORTHERN GANNET, 1 adult/sub-adult
JAEGER sp. (most certainly a Parasitic, though the distance was too
great to make a definitive call), 8 WILSON'S STORM PETRELs (a few were
fairly close in),  7 SANDWICH TERNs (4 ad. 3 juv.), and 2 WHIMBREL.

On Sunday while canoeing, the definite highlight was getting close
views of 3 LEAST BITTERNs as they flushed close to the boat.

Good Birding!

Mikey Lutmerding
Croom, MD