Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 15:43:33 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Phil Davis Subject: MD / DC Hurricane Birds Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed All: As you head out (tomorrow) to look for pelagic rarities in MD and DC in the bay, rivers and reservoirs, please consider the following points ... 1. Most pelagic species found inland (away from coastal Worcester County, for some, and away from the the tidal Chesapeake Bay tributaries, for others) are MD/DC Records Committee (MD/DCRC) reviewable species. Also, the Maryland Birdlife and North American Birds regional report editors will want details on unusual sightings. Please check the MD and DC Review Lists on the MD/DCRC web pages for specifics as to what is reviewable and where. These lists can be found by following the URL in my signature block. Examples are: Reviewable anywhere in MD or DC: Black-capped Petrel White-faced Storm-Petrel Band-rumped Storm-Petrel Magnificent Frigatebird South Polar Skua Long-tailed Jaeger Sabine's Gull Arctic Tern Sooty Tern Reviewable if found away from coastal Worcester County: Cory's Shearwater Greater Shearwater Sooty Shearwater Manx Shearwater Audubon's Shearwater Leach's Storm-Petrel Black-legged Kitttiwake Roseate Tern Bridled Tern Other species are reviewable further inland, such as Wilson's Storm-Petrel, and Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers, Gull-billed Tern, and Sandwich Tern. See the Review List for additional details. 2. Hurricane are times when great unexpected rarities can show up, anywhere. A Kermadec Petrel was found dead in Pennsylvania in 1961 after a hurricane. Fea's Petrel and Herald Petrel would not be totally unexpected in MD. 3. Certain genera or species complexes can be reported and reviewed even if the species cannot determined. For example, any Pterodroma, sp. would be reviewable, even if you could not separate Black-capped Petrel from Bermuda Petrel. 4. You might want to use today to review the differences between similar species; for example, between Sooty and Bridled Terns. 5. In documenting rarities, please describe the entire bird, not just key field marks. 6. Be sure to discuss how you eliminated similar species. Sooty and Bridled Terns are a classic case. Separating Magnificent Frigatebirds from vagrant Lesser and Greater Frigatebirds is a challenge in some plumages, but since there are NA records for the later, you need to consider this. 7. Photo documentation might be tough, but consider trying to take video footage. Good luck ... but, be carefully out there ... Phil =================================================== Phil Davis, Secretary MD/DC Records Committee 2549 Vale Court Davidsonville, Maryland 21035 USA 301-261-0184 mailto:PDavis@ix.netcom.com MD/DCRC Web site: http://www.MDBirds.org/mddcrc/rcindex.html =================================================== ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================