Date:         Sun, 23 Jan 2000 21:09:00 -0500
Reply-To:     les_eastman@netfox.net
Sender:       Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From:         Les Eastman <les_eastman@NETFOX.NET>
Organization: Harford Bird Club
Subject:      Conowingo Dam and Susquehanna River on Saturday, Jan 22
Comments: cc: Michael Bowen <m_bowen@acs.org>
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I was the co-leader, along with Mike Bowen, of a Montgomery MOS trip to
Conowingo Dam on Saturday morning. The gulls were very disappointing,
both in number and variety. Only 2 generators ran from about 8:30 until
10:30 producing mild activity from less than 1000 gulls. I was able to
find one adult Lesser Black-backed Gull on the wall which promptly sat
down, hiding his primary field mark - the yellow legs. No other gulls
besides the usual 3 species were found.

Although the gulls were disappointing, the other birds were not. An
adult Peregrine Falcon showed up about 9:30. We didn't see it catch a
pigeon but it had one before long.  It remained perched in a sheltered
spot for the rest of the morning.

The Bald Eagle numbers at the dam was disappointing, also, with only
about 3 or 4 being seen. (However, read on.)

Other birds seen from the dam were:

Pied-billed Grebe
Double Crested Cormorant
Black Duck
Mallard
Common Merganser - several hundred
Red-breasted Merganser
Hooded Merganser
and of course, the ever present Great Blue Herons, Turkey Vultures and
Black Vultures.

A walk down the nature trail produced:
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Hundreds more Common Merganser
Winter Wren acting like a Brown Creeper
Brown Creeper
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Common Flicker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet

We left the dam and went to check the lake above the dam, only to find
it frozen over, so we headed down river with a stop on Stafford Road to
look for Red-headed Woodpecker.  Mike and I got a brief glimpse of one
and heard it calling. (Fran - add this to the year list.)

Next stop was Lapidum Landing where there were thousands of birds on the
water, mostly Common Mergansers and Canada Geese and gulls.  The
thousands of Common Mergansers was an impressive sight! Also present
were 6 adult Bald Eagles.  We saw one sail out over the river, pluck a
fish from the water and return to its perch.

The next stop was the marina in Havre de Grace where I had to leave the
group to pick up my daughter.  Mike tells me that they added Canvasback,
Lesser Scaup and Ruddy Duck to the trip list for a total of 46 species.

Les

======================
Les Eastman
les_eastman@netfox.net
Havre de Grace, MD
Visit the Harford Bird Club Web Page at http://birdclub.harfordhasit.com
Visit the Havre de Grace Soccer Web Page at
http://hdgsoccer.harfordhasit.com

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