I birded the Cox Creek dredge spoil area this afternoon before heading into work. As I arrived at about 1:10 pm Leslie Starr was just coming out of the office trailer from signing in and I quickly joined her to scan the facility.


At first look I thought I had a spotted Stilt Sandpiper in the SW corner of the north cell but the bird was gone as fast as I thought I had spotted it at. There were a couple of Lesser Yellowlegs at the same location, even when I first spotted it, so I'm not sure that I didn't err in my initial ID but since the bird was never relocated it did not show up on this report.
 
Our first scans showed little of interest so we took up the task of counting individuals of the species that we had found. It was as I was counting the Semipalmated Sandpipers that I finally found a White-rumped Sandpiper, but before i could get Leslie on it it flew and landed behind a mud berm along the shore and became un-viewable. We finally found 2 Short-billed Dowitchers in the water behind a narrow strip of mud that connects two larger islands in the SE area of the north cell. This location, when observed from behind the trailer, is a little right of a large gray structure along the far shore.

Dave Powell showed up at about 2:00 and since he wanted to see the dowitchers, as we tried to relocate them Leslie spotted the Ruddy Turnstone on the same narrow strip of sand between the two "islands". We found the two SBDo but then a few minutes later Dave located 2 more along the far shore to the left of the first 2, making the total 4 this afternoon. 
 
Just before I was scheduled to leave to head to work I found another odd peep to the right of where the dowitchers and turnstones were located. This location would be on the near side of the spit of land that separates the area where the other birds of interest were located from the open water closer in. There appears to be a puddle there from our vantage point but it was observed that there was an opening where this connected to the larger body of open water. The interesting peep was observed feeding in a frenzied manner as it ran back and forth in this puddle, sometimes disappearing behind a mud/sand berm on the right side of the 'puddle'. It was about 25% larger than the Semi-Sandpipers with it and it appeared much darker but also warmer in color than the smaller peeps. The profile in shadow would appear very dark but the same area on the opposite side in sun would appear a very warm dark brown color. Dorsally, it showed a clear demarcation from the
 dark upper chest to the plain underparts. The distance and heat shimmer made it impossible to positively see the wing tip extension but the bird had the basic shape and appearance in profile as a dark Mourning Dove. We concluded from all of this that this bird was an adult Baird's Sandpiper. It looked very much like a bird that I had seen with Jim Stasz at the Hurlock Sewage Plant on Friday afternoon.
 
The full list is included below.
 
Ed Boyd
Chestnut Hill Cove, MD
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Subject: eBird Report - Swan Creek Wetland--Cox Creek DMCF, Aug 10, 2011

Swan Creek Wetland--Cox Creek DMCF, Anne Arundel, US-MD
Aug 10, 2011 1:10 PM - 2:30 PM
Protocol: Stationary
Comments:     partly cloudy, 90 degrees, winds nw 10-20. With Leslie Starr and Dave Powell
25 species

Canada Goose  5
Mallard  27
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Osprey  2
Cooper's Hawk  1
Killdeer  4
Spotted Sandpiper  3
Lesser Yellowlegs  4
Ruddy Turnstone  1     Bird in near full alternate plumage
Semipalmated Sandpiper  160     Not an unusual number for this location
Least Sandpiper  30
White-rumped Sandpiper  1     1 bird observed in flight clearly showing white rump. On ground larger than Semi-Sands seen with, with long wing projection.
Baird's Sandpiper  1     adult bird observed at distance. bird 25% larger than semi-sands with which it was observed. showed long appearance. Color was much darker than semis but also showed warm coloration. Showed chest pattern that ended evenly and abruptly over plain belly. Unable to positively see wing projection but appearance was like small Mourning Dove in profile.
Short-billed Dowitcher  4     Brightly colored individuals were likely Prairie race but distance and heat shimmer made positive id impossible
Laughing Gull  8
Ring-billed Gull  10
Herring Gull (American)  126
Great Black-backed Gull  48
Caspian Tern  20
Fish Crow  5
Barn Swallow  18
European Starling  20
Northern Cardinal  2
Red-winged Blackbird  11
American Goldfinch  2

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

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