Hi all. I have just spent the past hour and 15 minutes outside with my Leica spotting scope starring at the moon. I am just blown away with the amount of birds that are in that little sliver of sky. I never imagined. With the angle of the moon and my powerful zoom, some birds were still dots! They had to be at extraordinary altitudes. Many were so close they were just a blur, but I got lucky on many of them as well.
I had 17 singles. Out of which I feel comfortable with 1 Woodcock, 1 Nuthatch which I feel was probably a Red-breasted but not 100%. 1 Cormorant, 2 night jars of some sort which one came right after the other. Then a bit later I had what looked like a swallow. Are they night migrants though? The rest were bird sp. I had a flock of something that looked like Waxwings or Blackbirds there were 7 to 10 of those as well. Sometimes I would just see wing flaps up at the bottom of the moon. That was so much fun. All but 2 birds headed South. The Nuthatch hung in there for some time. It appeared to be heading to the moon for a while before pealing off toward the South.
I also had one bat.

So one question, is starring at the moon like that bad for my eye sight? I know that it was a bit uncomfortable at times.


Sean McCandless
Cecil  Bird Club Field Trip Coordinator
Elkton, MD