Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 14:18:46 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Re: Pipits by the hundred; Longspurs (not) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Just returned from trying some birding this morning (Fri.), but I cut the day short because it's so miserable out there, and I'd rather be inside. Anyway, the only thing of casual interest were the hordes of pipits along Maple Dam Rd. and Egypt Rd., near Blackwater NWR. As Les Roselund suggested, the snow in the fields will drive the birds into the road, and that's exactly where they were, two hundred or more spread out all along both roads. Other sightings were two COMMON SNIPE in the ditches at the north end of Shorter's Wharf Rd, lots of E. MEADOWLARK along Key Wallace Rd., and also a dozen SAVANNAH SPARROWs on the same road near the refuge visitor center. BALD EAGLEs were everywhere, but I didn't see any goldens. I tried for the Caroline Co. Lapland Longspurs, and came up empty handed yesterday and today. Yesterday afternoon I sat for 90 minutes, and besides scores of Horned Larks, only came up with two SNOW BUNTINGs and three RUSTY BLACKBIRDs. Today, I couldn't get to the location because the roads had not been recently plowed, leaving two to three-foot drifts in the road. I wasn't going to chance it with my low-clearance vehicle. By the way, there was a nice flock of 150-200 Horned Larks in Queen Anne's Co., on the north side of Rte 304, about two or three miles west of Bridgeton. The flock is in a field in front of a farm with four silos. I scanned for a while this morning with my scope, but the wicked wind in my face made any quality viewing impossible. I encourage anyone in the area to try to locate and scan the flock for some other goodies. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie ================================================================= To unsubscribe send a message to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ==========================================================================================================================================