My brother and I went to the Eastern Shore yesterday afternoon and spent all of today at Ocean City and Assateague.  We couldn't track down many of the birds seen last week, but we still saw a lot of neat birds.  Late on Thursday afternoon we stopped along Elliot Island Road at the boat launch.  Highlights included four Short-eared Owls hunting over the marsh.  We had extended views of two of the owls.  Also of interest were seven Black-crowned Night Herons, which flew into the marsh calling as they passed overhead.  Also present were 5 Great Egrets, a few harriers, numerous Black Ducks and Yellowlegs.

This morning we started at Ocean City Inlet.  There were very few ducks present, but we did see lots of Brant, Common Loons, 1 Red-throated Loon, and 4 Common Eiders (2 females and 2 1st year males).  We also searched through a small number of scoters, but found no Harlequin Duck.  Several Long-tailed Ducks, many Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers were also present.  2 Royal Terns and many of the usual gulls were also around.

Behind the Convention Center, we had a few Horned Grebes but no Eared Grebe.  Large numbers of Bufflehead and Common Loons were present, but the highlight was an adult female Common Eider at fairly close range.  Assateague State Park was fairly slow.  But, we did find a large group of Dunlin (with smaller numbers of Sanderlings on the bayside), along with a few Black-bellied Plovers.  There were also large numbers of gannets over the ocean and lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers along the shell road.  We also had a Merlin fly close overhead as we walked on the road.  Bayside (the subdivision) had some Gadwall and American Wigeon on the interior pond, but little else.  Eagle's Nest was largely empty of birds, with only a few gulls on the bay.

We closed the day back at Ocean City inlet, hoping for some jaegers.  While we saw no jaegers, there were big numbers of gulls flying over the breakwaters off shore, as well as along the coast.  Large numbers of Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed Gulls flew over the rough water and around the fishing boats.  Smaller numbers of Laughing Gulls were present.  A little before 4:00 PM, a small group of Bonaparte's Gulls few in.  They came fairly close to the shore and I got to follow them up the coast.  The last bird in the group was an adult Little Gull.  The difference in wing shape and the dark underwing was readily apparent and I got to follow the group for another minute or so as they flew north along the shore.  More groups of Bonaparte's Gulls flew in, first in small groups and then in larger groups.  Around 4:30, a tremendous flock of two or three hundred Bonies flew past the inlet heading north.  These birds were more distant than some of the earlier groups and I caught a glimpse of possibly another Little Gull at the rear of this group, again showing the contrasting "light-dark" wing pattern with each beat.  However, this bird was further off and the light was beginning to fail us, so I can only confirm the first bird.  We closed the day by looking through the growing gull flock on the beach, but turned up nothing else unusual.  

Fred Shaffer

Crofton, MD