Brig 3/28--Blue-winged Teal, Long-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs, White Ibis, Purple Martin

Blue-winged Teal, drake & hen

It took 'til the end of March for me to make my first foray down to Brig today, going around the Wildlife Drive twice with my buddy Bob Auster.  I arrived before Bob and stopped at the entrance ponds where the first birds I saw were year birds--a drake and hen Blue-winged Teal. So, the day was off to a good start. Then, as I was driving down to the Gull Pond, I pulled over across from the visitor's center where two Purple Martins were flying around and perching on the poles, looking, if I can anthropomorphize here, confused as to where their gourd houses were. They were a few hours early, because later in the morning Bob & I saw the refuge workers hanging the gourds on the poles. 

Purple Martin

Common Goldeneye

Down at the Gull Pond the most interesting of the many ducks was a hen Common Goldeneye. When Bob & I started on the Wildlife Drive there were yellowlegs in the first pool and a few of them were Lesser Yellowlegs, another year bird for both of us. Then it got a little tricky. Between markers 4 & 5 there were lots and lots of shorebirds, a few yellowlegs but most of them were Dunlin.  We were looking for Short-billed Dowitchers, and since Dunlin feed with a similar sewing machine motion, we were almost persuaded that we had some (which would still be rare), until the number of birds made that unlikely. But there was one obvious dowitcher, only hump-backed, and after much hemming and hawing we finally landed on Long-billed Dowitcher, still rare, but not crazy rare in winter and despite the date, it's still winter to me.  

White Ibis

Of course, the Ospreys were all about, providing photo ops--whenever we saw a line of parked cars ahead of us, we knew we were approaching another Osprey platform. Bob needed the Blue-winged Teal as a year bird and hadn't stopped at the ponds before entering the refuge, but at the end of the loop you can see one of those ponds and the teal were still in there, so they were his bird of the day. After lunch we were starting on our 2nd loop with a quick look at the Gull Pond again where there was another pair of Blue-wings. Bob, ever helpful, saw a photographer and rolled down his window to tell her about the teal. She knew about them but returned his favor by telling us that there were 5 White Ibis at the start of the road in the trees where we'd seen herons & egrets earlier. We hadn't looked there the 2nd time down the road, concentrating on trying to find the single American Coot I had had earlier in the morning.  We drove up the road and easily found them. It used to be a White Ibis would be flagged as rare; today, only the number--5--was flagged as a high quantity. "Exact Count," I put on our eBird list. Five. I saw today that at the Ocean City Welcome Center this afternoon, someone counted 197 White Ibises in the rookery there, but 5 breaks the filter at Brig. Go figure.  

For the day I had 60 species, my highest total for the year.

Brant  50
Canada Goose  100
Mute Swan  8
Blue-winged Teal  4
Northern Shoveler  100
Gadwall  20
Mallard  25
American Black Duck  125
Northern Pintail  4
Green-winged Teal  175
Bufflehead  10
Common Goldeneye  1
Hooded Merganser  1
Ruddy Duck  135
Mourning Dove  3
American Coot  1
American Oystercatcher  2
Killdeer  1     Overlook
Long-billed Dowitcher  1     
Wilson's Snipe  1     Gull Pond
Lesser Yellowlegs  3
Greater Yellowlegs  15
Dunlin  350
Ring-billed Gull  20
American Herring Gull  25
Great Black-backed Gull  3
Double-crested Cormorant  20
White Ibis  5     
Snowy Egret  1
Great Egret  12
Great Blue Heron  11
Turkey Vulture  5
Osprey  11
Cooper's Hawk  1     Jen’s Trail
Northern Harrier  1
Bald Eagle  2
Northern Flicker  1
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  2
American Crow  1
Fish Crow  16
Carolina Chickadee  2
Tufted Titmouse  4
Tree Swallow  15
Purple Martin  2
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1
Carolina Wren  2
European Starling  2
Eastern Bluebird  1
American Robin  4
House Finch  5
American Goldfinch  3
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  2
Red-winged Blackbird  15
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
Pine Warbler  6
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  2