Late this morning I was feeling antsy and decided to head to Hains Point
before the storm arrived just to take a look around. It was drizzling as I
left the house but most of my time at the point was relatively dry. I walked
down to the Point along the river and saw only the expected gulls and
cormorants, and one CASPIAN TERN that came very close to shore.

Further down, close to the Point there was a single SPOTTED SANDPIPER that
was hopping around on the sidewalk, feeding in the slowly growing puddles.
As I reached the Point the weather started to get ugly as the first serious
rain band moved in. Not having found anything interesting, I started back up
the Channel side of the island, as the rain began to come down in a deluge,
and the wind howled hard from the east. I was protecting myself with an
umbrella as best I could, but peeked out from behind it just in time to see
five birds coming toward me from over the water. Their size and shape caught
my attention and I threw down the umbrella, hauled out my binocs, and got a
look at five BLACK TERNS, coming from the direction of the Anacostia, being
driven hard to the west by the wind. I followed them as they flew/were blown
by me and west over the Point, and lost them. It was right around 1pm at
that point. There's no telling where they ended up.

-Jake Hall
 Washington, DC

############################

To unsubscribe from the MDOSPREY list:
write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
or click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=MDOSPREY&A=1