Hi Chris,
I think the lack of any fronts passing by for several days affected all the sits this year. We only had one or two fewer species than the past two years, but still, we missed some easy birds that should have made an appearance. Earlier in the week I had seen catbird and House Wren as well as Brown Creeper and White-throated Sparrows in the yard, and had flocks of Cedar Waxwings today and yesterday, but none of these were present on Big Sit day. A passing cold front a couple days prior would've got things moving I bet.
Thanks for the report!
Rick Sussman
Woodbine,MD
We only finished with 67 species. Not our worst
ig Sit but far short of last year’s 99 species
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Starling <>
To: MDOSPREY <>
Sent: Wed, Oct 12, 2011 4:54 pm
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Big Sit -The Turkey Pointers (Cecil County)
Greetings,
The “Turkey Pointers” held their sixth Big Sit at Turkey Point (Elk Neck State
ark) in Cecil County was held this past Sunday.
I was joined by Kevin Graff, Joe Hanfman, and John Dennehy for nearly all of the
hour “sit.” We were also graced with Dennis Quinn’s presence for a while as
ell as a visiting NJ birder and two fellows from the DC area.
We "sat" from 0430 to 1230'ish. We only finished with 67 species. Not our worst
ig Sit but far short of last year’s 99 species. Despite this, we did have our
est warbler sit-day ever with 14 or species. We also added three species to our
umulative list (Nashville and Chestnut-sided Warbler as well as Pintail)
ringing it to 136 species for our six years of “sitting.”
I think the many previous days of warm weather and the fact that I don't hear
ight time flight call notes too well (not that I could ID them) really hurt our
umbers. We nixed on all swallows, though Dennis Quinn called out on one Tree
wallow from outside the circle, no one in the circle saw it.
Waterfowl numbers were nearly nonexistent having seen only Canada Goose and one
mall flock of flyby Pintails. Flycatchers failed to appear, save for two
hoebes. We also missed on Heron, Catbird, Nuthatches, Grackle, Sparrows (except
wo "tseeting" White-throateds, as well as other expected flyby or calling
igrants like White-eyed Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, Indigo Bunting, Pipit,
eadowlark, Tanager, House Wren, etc. Even resident birds were few and far
etween, seeing/hearing a whole two or three Chickadees, ONE titmouse, and maybe
ive Cardinals.
All that aside, it was a great day and fun time with some excellent company!
The full list of species is provided below
Additionally, I have loaded a [very] few photos (mostly astronomical in nature)
o my flickr account if you’re interested:
ttp://www.flickr.com/photos/familystar/sets/72157627755608207/
I hope you are all well!
~namaste~
Chris Starling
orth East, MD
2011 Big Sit Turkey Point, Cecil County, MD
anada Goose
Northern Pintail
Double-crested Cormorant
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Merlin
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Forster's Tern
Eastern Screech-Owl
Great Horned Owl
Barred Owl
Chimney Swift
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Philadelphia Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown Creeper
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Tennessee Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
<om hare om>
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