Am still without power as tree and wires still on the road since 550am. No relief in sight. Went to hemmingway restaurant and bar after 9am and stayed till 1050am as I wanted to get to north beach. Fred Shaffer was in car and I set up scope inside open air tiki bar next to a pier and got wider view. Behind condo onother side of causeway from hemmingway was a grassy area loaded with gulls and terns.
Hemmingways:
Mallard - 2 (roosting at marina pier)
DC Cormorant - 146 (headed north)
Great Blue Heron - 1 (grassy spot)
Turkey Vulture - 1
Osprey - 2
Black-bellied Plover - 1 (headed south)
Laughing Gull - 21
Ring-billed Gull - 18
Herring Gull - 26
Great Black-backed Gull - 28
Least Tern - 1 (grassy spot w/ gulls)
Caspian Tern - 1 (grassy spot w/ gulls)
Royal Tern - 2 (headed south)
Common Tern - 24
Forsters Tern - 35
Black Tern - 2 (headed south)
Sooty Tern - 1 (adult, south 951am)
Rock Pigeon - 9 (one crash into sailboats cable line and drop to water)
Mourning Dove - 2
Purple Martin - 2 (headed north)
Bank Swallow - 1 (headed north)
Barn Swallow - 1 (headed north)
European Starling - 3
Red-winged Blackbird - 1
House Sparrow - 1
Kevin Graff
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Shaffer <>
Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding <>
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:32:00
To: <>
Reply-To: Fred Shaffer <>
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Sooty Terns, Black Terns
I spent six hours scanning the bay at Hemmingway's today (east side of the Bay Bridge) and saw a nice assortment of birds. The highlight was two (and possibly a third) Sooty Terns. I saw two adult Sooty Terns flying north at 12:16 PM. The birds were flying hard against the wind, heading north, a couple hundred feet off shore. I got decent views of the upper and lower surfaces of the wings, and a brief glimpse of the white forehead on one of the birds. I had just viewed a close Black Tern, and the differences in the structure and manner of flight was also evident. At 1:08, I believe that I saw another Sooty Tern flying south, but my view was much briefer as the bird was flying very fast with the wind. But, again this bird was fairly close to the shore and I got an especially good glimpse of the underwing and the significantly darker and contrasting flight feathers.
Other highlights included 8 Black Terns, 9 Royal Terns, 1 Caspian Tern, and decent numbers of Forster's and Common Terns. Also impressive was the large number of swallows (mostly Purple Martins) flying up the bay. Total count is listed below. I focused mainly on the birds closest to the eastern shore, as much of the time I was birding in my car with bins only. Undoubtedly many birds further out went unnoticed or were left uncalled. Total count from 9:41 AM to 3:39 PM was:
Shorebirds:
Sanderlings: 2
Peep sp.: 5
Gulls:
Great Black-backed Gulls: 259
Herring Gull: 33
Ring-billed Gull: 5
Laughing Gull: 30
Lesser Black Backed Gull: 1
Terns:
Forster's Terns: 80
Common Terns: 26
Black Tern: 8
Royal Tern: 9
Caspian Tern: 1
Sooty Tern: 2
Tern sp.: 15
Swallows/Swift:
Purple Martins: 25
Tree Swallows: 7
Swallow sp.: 28
Chimney Swift: 1
Miscellaneous birds:
Double-crested Cormorants: 156
Osprey: 5
Turkey Vulture: 4
Great Blue Heron: 1
Green Heron: 1
Rock Pigeon: 18
European Starling: 8
Matapeake State Park was fairly slow from 4:30 until a little after 5:00. The wind had died down and the birds seemed much further off shore. The airport just south of US 50 had a nice flock of gulls, which consisted of 89 Laughing Gulls and 23 Ring-billed Gulls. Good birding,
Fred Shaffer
Crofton, Anne Arundel
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