Jane Kostenko and I went to Piney Point to chase Mikey's Purple Sandpiper from yesterday. We searched the rip rap near the lighthouse for about 30 minutes and never saw any movement of anything small on the rocks other than a Song Sparrow. The number of Brown Pelicans here is more impressive than Point Lookout. There were easily a couple hundred on the terminal of the fuel facility next to the lighthouse and the pound nets out in the Potomac. Loads of gulls and cormorants too. 


One interesting thing we noticed was the large pipeline that runs form the terminus to the facility on land was the number of Great Blue Herons perched there. There must be some advantage to them either for warmth or maybe a lofty perch for fishing which doesn't seem like a GBH feeding strategy.

The cedar trees near the lighthouse were full of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Also present were several Brown-headed Nuthatches. I know that they're around St. George's Island which is only a few miles further down the road and we had run into them while chasing a winter oriole nearby but I don't think we realized that there were that many there.

We drove down and scanned the rip rap around the bridge to St. George's Island and found no Purple Sandpipers there. So, Purple Sandpiper continues to be a county nemesis bird for us :(


It was an extremely calm day and despite temps in the low 40s when we arrived, arctic wear was not necessary at all.

 Tyler Bell


California, Maryland

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