In the interest of collecting interesting bird data and having a lot of fun, 12 of us held a friendly Big Day competition on Saturday 3/12/11.  This was different from typical Big Days that involve days, sometimes weeks of scouting.  On Thursday afternoon, we randomly selected a county in Maryland to do our Big Day on Saturday, split into teams, and began planning.  Also, we agreed to allow all sorts of information sharing, which is usually discouraged on Big Days.  

 
So on Thursday afternoon, with the help of Jim Stasz, we selected Dorchester County as the destination for this competition.  We then split into 3 teams:

Matt Hafner, Ed Boyd, John Hubbell, Mike Burchett
Jim Brighton, Dan Small, Tom Feild, Jared Satchell
Bill Hubick, Mike Ostrowski, Rob Ostrowski, Jim Green
 
Jim Stasz also birded Dorchester County all day, certainly hoping that we would find him some excellent county bird.  Unfortunately, all he did was find a county bird for everyone on my team.
 
After selecting the teams, we decided it would be fun to meet up at the end of the day to compile lists and find out how/what everyone did all day.  So we decided that the Big Day would officially be over at 8pm and we would meet at the Cambridge Plaza Tapatia, where they don't recognize us like the Ocean City Plaza.  
 
Everyone began birding in the predawn hours, Jim Brighton's team already on Elliott Island at midnight.  All teams ran into each other on Elliott Island Rd at some point before dawn.  As dawn broke, Jim's team and Matt's team found each other at the end of Punch Island Rd on Taylor's Island, Bill's team still on Elliott. And that was the last the team's saw of each other until well into afternoon near Elliott Island.  
 
Meeting up at Plaza at the end of the day was certainly one of the main highlights of the day.  Stories were told, routes divulged, and misses shamefully shared.  
 
Jim Brighton's team won the competition and everyone was greatly surprised when Jim Stasz presented each of the winners with a purple garden flamingo!  Congratulations guys!
 

In the end, the 3 teams found 130 species, with Jim Stasz adding 2 more.  
 
Jim Brighton's team: 114
Bill Hubick's team: 113
Matt Hafner's team: 103 - did they even try?

 
92 species were seen by all 3 teams, many obvious, but some more interesting species included Ross's Goose and American White Pelican(thanks to Blackwater) and White-breasted Nuthatch (thanks to Taylor's Island).  
 
The misses are always fun to discuss on Big Days and much of the time at Plaza was spent dissecting them.  Some misses we found interesting:
Cackling Goose - still a number of geese around, but no team could pull out a Cackling
Great Egret - one seen the weekend before by Brighton, we thought a few would have come in
Cooper's Hawk - only 1 accipiter seen 1 team throughout the whole day!
Merlin - a Stasz-only species
Peregrine Falcon - not to be found on the Cambridge bridge, or anywhere else in the county
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - it was discussed that many winter birds were hit hard, or perhaps simply moved farther south with the bad weather this winter
Gray Catbird - perhaps the same as kinglet?  
Brown Thrasher - another interesting topic of discussion involved whether the majority of wintering Brown Thrashers in Maryland are migrants or simply permanent residents, if permanent residents, then this miss isn't entirely surprising since Brown Thrasher is not a common breeder in Dorchester.  
Fox Sparrow - Stasz did find one, a common winter resident here, we thought we would see migrants coming through
Purple Finch and Pine Siskin - not common this winter, but we figured with 3 teams out we would have turned one up

In addition to the misses, many songbirds were seen by only a single team.  The wind made landbirding quite difficult and it may be that there just aren't many uncommon passerines hanging on in South Dorchester right now.
 
Below is the full list of species with number of teams in ().
 
Snow Goose (3)
Ross's Goose (3) - Blackwater
Canada Goose (3)
Mute Swan (2) - 2 or 4 birds at Elliott
Tundra Swan (3)
Wood Duck (3)
Gadwall (3)
American Wigeon (3)
American Black Duck (3)
Mallard (3)
Blue-winged Teal (2) - Blackwater and Elliott
Northern Shoveler (3)
Northern Pintail (3)
Green-winged Teal (3)
Canvasback (3)
Redhead (1) - Jim's team only at Hooper's 
Ring-necked Duck (3)
Greater Scaup (3)
Lesser Scaup (3)
Surf Scoter (3)
White-winged Scoter (2) - Taylor's and Hooper's
Black Scoter (3)
Long-tailed Duck (3)
Bufflehead (3)
Common Goldeneye (3)
Hooded Merganser (2) - Elliott and Drawbridge Rd
Common Merganser (1) - Jim's team only Higgins Millpond
Red-breasted Merganser (3)
Ruddy Duck (3)
Wild Turkey (3)
Northern Bobwhite (2) - Taylor's and Shorter's Wharf
Red-throated Loon (2) - Hooper's 
Common Loon (3)
Pied-billed Grebe (1) - Matt's team only Vienna Ski Pond
Horned Grebe (3)
Northern Gannet (3)
American White Pelican (3) - Blackwater and Shorter's Wharf
Brown Pelican (2) - Hooper's
Double-crested Cormorant (3)
Great Cormorant (1) - Matt's team only, but found by Stasz at Cambridge Marina
American Bittern (1) - Jim's team only, Elliott and Bestpitch
Great Blue Heron (3)
Snowy Egret (1) - Jim's team only, end of Elliott Island Rd, probably rarest bird on the day
Black-crowned Night-Heron (3)
Black Vulture (3)
Turkey Vulture (3)
Osprey (3)
Bald Eagle (3)
Northern Harrier (3)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (1) - Matt's team only Cambridge
Red-shouldered Hawk (2) - several places
Red-tailed Hawk (3)
Golden Eagle (1) - Matt's team only, north of Blackwater on 335
American Kestrel (3)
Clapper Rail (2) 
King Rail (1) - Jim's team only
Virginia Rail (3)
Common Moorhen (1) - Jim's team only Elliott
American Coot (1) - Bill's team only Blackwater
Killdeer (3)
Greater Yellowlegs (3)
Lesser Yellowlegs (3)
Sanderling (2) - Swan Harbor
Least Sandpiper (2) - Elliott Island, peep sp at Swan Harbor
Dunlin (3)
Wilson's Snipe (3)
American Woodcock (3)
Bonaparte's Gull (2) - Taylor's
Ring-billed Gull (3)
Herring Gull (3)
Lesser Black-backed Gull (1) - Bestpitch Ferry Rd fields
Great Black-backed Gull (3)
Forster's Tern (3)
Rock Pigeon (3)
Mourning Dove (3)
Barn Owl (1) - Bill's team only
Eastern Screech-Owl (2)
Great Horned Owl (3)
Barred Owl (3)
Short-eared Owl (3)
Belted Kingfisher (3)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (3)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (1) - Bill's team only
Downy Woodpecker (3)
Harry Woodpecker (3)
Yellow-shafted Flicker (3)
Pileated Woodpecker (3)
Eastern Phoebe (1) - Jim's team only Taylor's
Blue Jay (3)
American Crow (3)
Fish Crow (3)
Horned Lark (3)
Tree Swallow (3)
Carolina Chickadee (3)
Tufted Titmouse (3)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (3)
White-breasted Nuthatch (3)
Brown-headed Nuthatch (3)
Brown Creeper (1) - Bill's team only
Carolina Wren (3)
Winter Wren (1) - Bill's team only
Golden-crowned Kinglet (1) - Jim's team's only
Eastern Bluebird (3)
Hermit Thrush (3)
American Robin (3)
Northern Mockingbird (3)
American Pipit (1) - Bill's team only
European Starling (3)
Cedar Waxwing (1) - Jim's team only
Myrtle Warbler (3)
Pine Warbler (3)
Eastern Towhee (3)
Chipping Sparrow (2)
Field Sparrow (1) - Jim's team only
Savannah Sparrow (3)
Song Sparrow (3)
Swamp Sparrow (3)
White-throated Sparrow (3)
Slate-colored Junco (3)
Northern Cardinal (3)
Red-winged Blackbird (3)
Eastern Meadowlark (2)
Rusty Blackbird (1) - Hip Roof Rd
Common Grackle (3)
Boat-tailed Grackle (2) - Elliott Island
Brown-headed Cowbird (3)
House Finch (3)
American Goldfinch (3)
House Sparrow (3)


Good Birding,

Matt Hafner
Forest Hill, MD
 
 
 
 


 






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