Looks like the question of weather to head to the inlet during the
hurricane to look for storm birds is being taken out of birders'
hands.  According to the Wash. Post just a few minutes ago
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/hurricane-irene-to-sock-beaches-sweep-dc-metro-region/2011/08/25/gIQA4n3BeJ_blog.html):

"Ocean City residents have been ordered to evacuate and the mayor has
declared a state of emergency as Hurricane Irene approaches.

"Residents will be asked to leave starting at midnight tonight
[Thursday], at which point there will be no access to the island for
non-emergency personnel. However, residents and business owners
already in the city will have an opportunity to secure their
properties until 5 p.m. Friday."

Jim Moore
Rockville, MD

On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 12:02 PM, Frank Marenghi
<> wrote:
>
> I am forwarding this from the VA-bird listserv.
>
>
> Good (Safe) Birding to everyone,
>
> Frank Marenghi
> Annapolis
>
>
>
> Subject: Hurricane Irene
> From: Ned Brinkley <23cahow AT gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:22:04 -0400
> Hi all,
>
> With a hurricane approaching, there has been much internet discussion of
> bird displacement and safety issues.  I thought I'd put in my usual two
> cents, based on past experiences with storms that made landfall in, or near,
> Virginia. The coming storm is forecast to do a great deal of damage to
> eastern North Carolina, and it's very likely that southeastern Virginia will
> experience high winds and widespread flooding over the weekend. Safety is
> the highest priority in birding after the passage of hurricanes, and no one
> should venture out until authorities declare it is safe to do so. Fallen
> power lines, flooded roads, falling trees are all hazards, and tornadoes can
> still pop up after the storm's center has passed.
>
> That said, we stand to learn a great deal about the effects of such storms
> on birds and their populations by being recording the birds after such
> events.  Here are some possibilities for birding strategies after a storm's
> passage (and after an area is safe):
>
> 1) Inland lakes and reservoirs, especially large ones, harbor seabirds and
> shorebirds displaced by storms; Virginia has records of frigatebirds, all
> three jaegers, three gadfly petrels, four shearwaters, two storm-petrels,
> two tropical terns, almost all other terns, Sabine's Gull, and two-dozen
> shorebird species from such settings. And that is only from a handful of
> recorded hurricanes, notably Fran of 1996 and Isabel of 2003. Irene's
> forecast track is to the east of these storms', but many things can happen
> between now and Saturday. Even if the storm does pass off the coast of
> Virginia as forecast now, such spots are still worth checking.
>
> 2) River mouths and peninsulas near them can be very productive for
> seawatching; there are many interesting records of seabirds seen from such
> locations, including White-faced Storm-Petrel in Virginia.
>
> 3) Dredge-spoil areas such as Craney Island can be the site of "storm"
> roosts, large assemblages of terns, shorebirds, gulls, and skimmers, with
> all birds resting quietly, bills pointing into the wind. Bridled and Sooty
> Terns frequently sit with them.
>
> 4) Farm fields, especially harvested ones (harvested potato fields are
> optimal), can also be the site of storm roosts, but when wet or flooded,
> shorebirds are also found in numbers feeding in the muddy areas (or drier
> areas in the case of golden-plovers, Buff-breasted Sandpipers, Baird's
> Sandpipers, etc.). Even areas that have relatively little rain and wind can
> sometimes produce a surprise or two.
>
> 5) Open beaches.  Although storms that pass east of our coastlines do not
> tend to produce large numbers of sightings of seabirds, they sometimes do
> produce large numbers of seabirds on beaches, some of them in weakened
> condition, some of them dead.  Photographs of such birds are very valuable.
> All such specimens have even more value to science, so they should be
> salvaged and preserved (donated to museums).  Walking miles of beaches can
> produce dozens of interesting birds.  We still know very little about which
> taxa of Cory's Shearwater and Band-rumped Storm-Petrel visit our waters, for
> instance, so every specimen can provide another piece of the puzzle.
>  Yesterday, I photographed an adult Masked Booby off northeastern North
> Carolina, just a few miles from Virginia waters.  Our state has no report of
> this species, but it seems likely that Irene could displace such a bird a
> few miles northward.  Brown Boobies have been noted in recent weeks from
> Cape May, NJ, to Maine, so that is another bird to look for after the storm.
>
> 6) Almost anywhere. Records of odd things like Cave Swallows have popped up
> in odd places after recent hurricane landfalls, so looking at every bird
> carefully, no matter where you are, seems prudent. In theory, birds
> migrating at this time of year could be not just displaced by the storm but
> also "put down" by the storm, that is, stop migration and seek shelter in
> the nearest area.  Because landfall of the storm may occur in darkness,
> "grounded" migrants of many sorts should be looked for across a large area
> of the American East from Sunday through Tuesday.
>
> The Virginia Avian Records Committee would be very grateful to receive
> reports of any storm-blown seabirds. Ideally, reports of these birds should
> be accompanied by photographs of the birds, for verification.  Because
> birding after a storm can be challenging, and because many seabirds are
> difficult to identify even by very experienced seabirders, there is no shame
> in recording a bird as "phalarope sp.,", "jaeger sp.", "storm-petrel sp.",
> or even "large tubenose" or "shorebird sp.".  It can be tempting to put a
> name on a bird seen poorly, but it's best to be conservative.
>
> Let's hope that we avoid extensive damage in Virginia, of course, and that
> the storm douses the terrible Dismal Swamp fire (smoke is terrible this
> morning) and moves on out to sea.
>
> Ned Brinkley
> Cape Charles, Va.
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