[MDOsprey] Friday at the shore
Miliff@aol.com
Sat, 22 May 1999 09:24:39 EDT
Heello all,
Spent most of Friday birding the Eastern Shore. A few quick highlights.
- 1 Least Bittern and 1 Sedge Wren singing from 2:30 am-8:30 am at Truitt's
Landing, 2 King Rails heard and one seen well there as well. 1 Northern
Waterthrush singing at dawn. All ibis were Glossy.
- 3 Sandwich Terns on Skimmer Island, Ocean City
- FANTASTIC seawatching on east winds from 4:50-6:20. It all began with a
very close SOOTY SHEARWATER. For those of you familiar with the inlet, it
almost passed inside the red buoy off the north jetty. It was followed
closely by a Parasitic Jaeger winging quickly north at about the same
distance. Then a jaeger sp. but after that no real pelagics for the next
hour and a half. Some highlights were a steady stream of gannets and loons
(both species), 23 Black Scoters (1 flock), and 6 scoter sp., 7 Red-breasted
Mergansers (3,4), 80 Whimbrel (1 flock), flocks of 200 and 160 SB Dowitchers,
2 Brown Pelicans, 9 Great Blue Herons (one flock).
- As I'm sure those of you afield have realized by now, last night was a
GREAT night for migration. I realized that at 12:15 am after seeing Star
Wars. Swainson's Thrushes were passing over in a steady stream. I spent
the next 2.5 hours enjoying the night migration but have not yet totaled my
numbers. I would guess: 3 Great Blue Herons, 6 Green Herons, 4 probable
Least Bitterns, 1 Black-crowned Night-Heron, 2 Spotted Sandpipers (no other
shorebirds :-(),25 Yellow-billed and 6 Black-billed Cuckoos, 300+ Swainson's
Thrushes, 100+ Gray-cheeked Thrushes (including about 1/15 that sounded VERY
high pitched and not as sharply two noted...), 8 Veeries, 5 Wood Thrushes, 1
Red-eyed Vireo (sang one phrase once!), 2 Common Yellowthroats (sang
overhead!), Black-throated Blue Warbler (1 probable), Cape May Warbler (a
lot of short zeet notes might have been this species), Blackpoll-type Warbler
(only a few that I thought were of this type rather than Cape May, but I'm
still learning these notes), Indigo Bunting (45), White-throated Sparrow (1),
A TON of stuff I didn't recognize. In any event it was a joy to listen to...
Can't wait to hear what people find today...I had to sleep in cause I
exhausted myself last night!
Best,
Marshall Iliff
miliff@aol.com