Date: 3/9/13 4:55 am
From: Art Drauglis <lwsyrup...>
Subject: [MDBirding] Dorchester - Golden Eagle and more


Friday afternoon I found a Golden Eagle in the woods along Steele Neck Road about two miles from Vienna and about a mile from Elliott Island Road. I had stopped to take a look at the 600-700 Tundra Swans spread across a field, more than I think I have ever seen at once. The eagle was perched on top of a dead tree trunk maybe fifty yards into the woods.

Other highlights of the day included a feast along MD 335 involving no fewer than nine Bald Eagles, twenty Turkey Vultures, about thirty crows, and various gulls. They were centered around a carcass which the eagles seemed to be "in charge of". The adults would take a few bites, then maybe let a sub-adult in with the vultures and crows stealing scraps.

Yellowlegs, Dunlin, Kestrels, and a lone American White Pelican were seen along Wildlife Drive.

I looked for the Barrow's Goldeneye from both sides of the river, but the Choptank was a bit too choppy to get long looks at anything. I saw numerous Common Goldeneye, but nothing that I could have turned into a Barrow's.

Art Drauglis
DC

ps I did manage a glimpse of the Crested Caracara in Delawara

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