I'm not sure if anybody else was stupid enough to go out birding today but I 
sure was! Anyway, no owls in the predawn which was truncated because I didn't 
get out of the house soon enough then had to scrape the car before going 
anywhere. Once it got light enough to count waterfowl, it was a punishing task 
with winds almost right in the face. I left the Elms education center and 
arrived at the Elms public beach around 0900 which seemed to be about when the 
wind and snow started picking up in earnest. By the time I got to Carroll Road, 
I couldn't even clearly see the goose flock that was only about 100 yards out in 
the field so I threw in the towel shortly after 1000. 4 hours, 9 miles and 30 
minutes of predawn owling. Pretty weak effort compared to the usual! 

 
Anyway, here's my tally. Nothing really noteworthy though the 52 Sanderlings 
hunkered down in the wrack on the lee side of the rip-rapping at the public 
beach were pretty cool.
Tyler Bell

California, Maryland 



Location:    NE sector of Pt. Lookout CBC
Observation date:    12/26/10
Notes:    Aborted effort for Pt. Lookout CBC. Large flock of Sanderlings taking 
cover at the Elms Public Beach counted several times. Flickers included 9 in a 
corn stubble field just before I threw in the towel in horizontal snow with 
increasing winds gusting over 25 mph.
Number of species:    39

Canada Goose    10
Lesser Scaup    36
Black Scoter    30
Long-tailed Duck    3
Bufflehead    10
Common Goldeneye    62
Ruddy Duck    1
Northern Gannet    1
Bald Eagle    3
Sharp-shinned Hawk    1
Red-tailed Hawk    1
Killdeer    3
Sanderling    52
Ring-billed Gull    1
Herring Gull    2
Red-bellied Woodpecker    4
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker    1
Downy Woodpecker    5
Hairy Woodpecker    1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)    11
Pileated Woodpecker    1
American Crow    31
Horned Lark    5
Carolina Chickadee    13
Tufted Titmouse    8
White-breasted Nuthatch    1
Carolina Wren    3
Golden-crowned Kinglet    1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet    1
Eastern Bluebird    1
Hermit Thrush    2
American Robin    30
European Starling    4
Eastern Towhee    1
Fox Sparrow (Red)    5
Song Sparrow    4
White-throated Sparrow    24
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)    26
Northern Cardinal    22

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)