Shorebird numbers continue to build at the Cox Creek Dredge site in NE 
Anne Arundel County, but construction activities in the north cell today 
had birds disbursed away from the normal concentration location of the 
mudflat on the south shore of the north impoundment. This made counting 
the shorebirds difficult at best. As Elaine had posted earlier, the best 
surprises of the day were the two Black Skimmers rousting with the gulls 
in the northeast end of the south impoundment. Additionally there were 
at least 4 different Caspian Terns, all at different times and including 
one juvenile bird. There was also at least one Royal Tern but as it flew 
off at about 3:10 I thought I heard two birds calling back and forth 
from some distance apart but I could only locate one bird.

There were good numbers of shorebirds but many of these were up against 
the far shore of the north cell. The heat shimmer and distance made 
counting and identification nearly impossible. There were probably at 
least 250-300 Calidris sandpipers (Least/Semis) that went undocumented 
due to this. I was unable to locate any of the Western Sandpipers that 
had been found last week but I was able to find a hendersoni subspecies 
Short-billed Dowitcher and a near alternate plumaged Stilt Sandpiper. 
Both of these were in the south cell near the northeast end of where the 
gulls tend to congregate on the sand islands. Two Pectoral Sandpipers 
continued since first being observed a week ago and these were in the NW 
corner of the south cell.

The other species of note during the afternoon was a flight of 38 Purple 
Martins that passed through at about 3:00 or so from north to south. 
These were mostly immature birds with a few females. I did not note any 
males in the flock.

Ed Boyd
Chestnut Hill Cove, MD

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