February, 16, 2013
I don't chase a lot of birds but Jeff Shenot's Pelican at Jug Bay, straddling the PG/AA county line, was just a little to tempting. Lynette Fullerton and I took his suggestion and went to Patuxent River Park. After finding a break in the trees behind the Visitor Center, it took all of ten seconds to locate this wonderful bird which was quietly resting near the eastern shore of Jug Bay. This was about 1:45. As soon as we enjoyed our distant view and thanked this welcome visitor, he began to swim south actively feeding along the way. Lynette reminded me that it was Saturday, not Sunday. Why is that important? Because it helps to know what day of the week it is if you want to interact with the rest of society. More importantly, Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary is open on Saturdays. We figured we'd have a better view from there and we were on our way.
The darkening sky, rain and snow slowed us down, but just a little. We skipped the observation deck and the railroad bed trail and walked down to Otter Point. We did not relocate the pelican but enjoyed a very brisk walk and got some practice keeping snow off our optics.
On our way back, we decided to take the Railroad Bed Trail into the marsh. The view of where we last saw the pelican would be more distant than from Otter Point but we could also see further downriver. This is when the afternoon began getting interesting. First, about 3:30, we relocated the White Pelican. It was still hugging the east shore but well south of where it had been. My guess is it was just north Selby's Landing and probably not visible from there. The campground north of Selby's has access to the river and was where we probably should have been to see it well.
There were hundreds of gulls flying south and perhaps a thousand resting out in the marsh. I began looking through the flybys and was rewarded with an ICELAND GULL among the Herring and Ring-bills. Deciding the afternoon was as good as it was going to get, we headed for the parking lot but ended up stopping at the observation deck just in case the Osprey was still there. No osprey but lots of gulls and we quickly found two Great Black Backed Gulls and two Lesser Black Backed Gulls. Then we looked through the ducks. Yes, some of us look at gulls before looking at ducks. There's a big flock of Green-Winged Teal wintering here. I've been looking through them a couple of times a month trying to find a COMMON TEAL. And today I did. It came in pretty close to the deck giving us great scope views and what I hope are good enough photos to satisfy the records committee (assuming they are interested).
For those who care about such things, all these birds were in that county east of the river. However, usually most of the Green-winged Teal I see here are in the marsh at the mouth of the Western Branch in Prince George's County. Anyone interested in relocating the teal should probably search from Mount Calvert since the Jug Bay Wetlands is only open to visitors Wednesday through Saturday.
After a day like this, maybe I should start an AA county list.
Dave David Mozurkewich
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