The smoke from the Canadian wildfires still blanketed the Eastern Shore of Maryland, so we almost canceled the outing. A good friend had suggested a birding tour of Sinepuxtent Bay out of Ocean City, Maryland, months ago. We accepted, but as the outing date neared, the smoke from Canada that had plagued our area a few weeks earlier had returned.
Fortunately, we concluded we would survive breathing bad air for a few hours. We also guessed that the smoke would be lighter on the shore. We were right.
There isn’t much to say about the trip other than that it exceeded everyone’s expectations. We anticipated seeing Pelicans, Egrets, Herons, Oystercatchers, and others. We didn’t expect to see so many of them. We saw hundreds, many of them in flight. And on one magical tiny island, we saw a gathering that was as spectacular as anything I ever saw.