Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 18:41:39 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Western MD highlights - another butcherbird, RL Hawk, Redpoll etc. Comments: cc: Fran Pope , Ray Kiddy , Roger Alan Skipper MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, This past weekend Jim Stasz and I set out to bird Western MD, work on our year lists (add Black-capped Chickadee to the comp list!), and especially, to seek out a Northern Shrike and a couple winter finches. Despite the bitter cold on Saturday (Sunday was comparatively balmy), we were successful on all counts. The Northern Shrike was an extremely brown immature off Russell Rd in Garrett County (see directions below). Amazingly, and to his credit, Jim surmised the shrike's presence before we found it. We had been birding quite slowly through this area of strip mines and open fields with shrikes specifically on our minds, but also looking for field bird flocks that might hold longspurs or Snow Buntings. At one point we stopped to look at a lump in a tree (alot of that over the two days - bagworms, dead leaves etc.) and I saw "field birds" flying behind the lump. I lurched from the car and though I heard a couple Horned Larks (undoubtedly the "field birds" I had seen) but the only bird I found was a lone female Northern Cardinal, flying across in front of us about 60 feet up. I commented to Jim how weird it was to see a cardinal flying so high and his response (half kidding?) was "They only do that when being chased by a shrike". About 3 minutes later I glassed a treetop bird and immediately knew it was the shrike! The species list for the weekend follows, w/ directions etc. to the shrike below. I give the species, the number of individuals, and location. Terminus is the section of the Potomac River in Cumberland at the end of the C &O Canal; Broadford Reservoir and Deep Creek Lake are near Oakland, MD; Pleasant Valley is south of Oakland; Aaron Run Rd. and Russell Rd. locations are given below; other locations should be well known (?). 1) Pied-billed Grebe - 1, 1/23, Terminus 2) Great Blue Heron - 4, 1/23, Terminus (WV side only) 3) BLACK VULTURE - 5+, 1/22, extreme western Garrett county, south and west of Oakland. [For the past two WINTERS we have seen this species here, but have yet to find them in summer. Previously almost unknown from Garrett County.] 4) TURKEY VULTURE - 2+, 1/22, extreme western Garrett, [as unknown as Black Vulture as a winter bird out there] 5) Canada Goose - 20, 1/22, Broadford Res.; 300+, 1/23, Terminus 6) Mallard - 900, 1/22, Broadford Res. mostly [last open water]; 60, 1/23, Terminus 7) American Black Duck - 90+, 1/22, Broadford Res.; 1, 1/23, Terminus 8) American Wigeon - 1, 1/22, Broadford Res. 9) Gadwall - 3, 1/22, Broadford Res. 10) Northern Pintail - 6, 1/22, Broadford Res. 11) Green-winged Teal - 5, 1/23, Terminus 12) Bufflehead - 2, 1/23, Terminus 13) Hooded Merganser - 20, 1/22, Broadford Res.; 17, 1/23, Terminus 14) COMMON MERGANSER - 1 male, 1/23, Terminus [county bird for me!] 15) Ruddy Duck - 3, 1/22, Broadford & Deep Creek Lake 16) Red-tailed Hawk - several both days 17) ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK - 1 dark ad. male in Pleasant Valley, 1/22; 1 light juv and 1 dark ad. female, 1/22, off Aaron's Run Rd. In extreme eastern Garrett; 2 light morphs, 1/23, off Russell Rd. In extreme eastern Garrett; 2 dark morphs, 1/23, off Aaron's Run Rd. [weekend total SIX!. The strip mines in the extreme eastern part of Garrett are clearly a Roughleg hotbed. This was a county bird for both Jim and myself (#206)] 18) Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 ad.. 1/22, Garrett; 1 im 1/23 Allegany; 1 im 1/23 Washington 19) Cooper's Hawk - 1 ad.., 1/22, south of Red House 20) American Kestrel - 3 on 1/22, 1 on 1/23 21) Wild Turkey - 11, 1/22, near Blakeslee; groups of 7, 13, and 4 on 1/23 (both Garrett and Allegany) 22) American Coot - 40, 1/22, Deep Creek Lake and Broadford (4); 2, 1/23, Terminus 23) Ring-billed Gull - 2 ad., 1/23, Terminus [good winter bird for Allegany] 24) Mourning Dove - surprisingly many in Garrett 1/22, both days 25) Rock Dove - both days 26) Eastern Screech-Owl - 1, 1/23, Green Ridge 27) SHORT-EARED OWL - 3, 1/22, Aaron's Run Rd. fields; 1, 1/22, Russell Rd; 1, 1/23, Stickler Rd. & Broadfording Rd. Intersection in Clear Spring area, Washington County [both good sightings for western MD. The Aaron's Run location as found by Jim last March and was excellent this time too (3 Short-eared Owl and 2 Rough-legged Hawk in view at once!). The Washington County one was a complete surprise, although we were specifically looking for them. We have looked in the same location at least 7 times previously without success. This is a GREAT Short-ear year.] 28) Belted Kingfisher - 1, 1/23, Terminus 29) Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2, 1/22, Garrett County; several on 1/23, Allegany County only 30) Yellow-shafted Flicker - 1, 1/23, Oldtown 31) Downy Woodpecker - many both days 32) Hairy Woodpecker - 2-3 both days 33) Pileated Woodpecker - none 1/22, c. 15 1/23 in both counties (incl 8+ in Garrett) 34) Horned Lark - 50, 1/22, Pleasant Valley; 20+, 1/23, Dans Mountain 35) American Crow - tons 36) Common Raven - 2, 1/22, Garrett County; 6, 1/23, Allegany and Garrett 37) Blue Jay - some both days 38) Black-capped Chickadee - lots both days 39) Tufted Titmouse - some both days 40) White-breasted Nuthatch - some both days 41) Brown Creeper - 1, 1/22, Swallow Falls SP; 1, 1/23, Westernport Rd. 42) Golden-crowned Kinglet - 3, 1/22, New Germany SP [very low - also NO Red-breasted Nuthatch!] 43) Hermit Thrush - 4-5, 1/23, Green Ridge & Oldtown 44) AMERICAN ROBIN - 6, 1/22, Garrett County [at six different locations. Seems remarkable for Garrett in winter] 45) European Starling - yuck 46) Myrtle Warbler - 2, 1/23, Oldtown 47) Northern Cardinal - many both days 48) American Tree Sparrow - 25, 1/22, Garrett; 60, 1/23, Allegany & Garrett 49) Song Sparrow - 3, 1/22, Garrett; 6, 1/23, Garrett (2) and Allegany 50) White-crowned Sparrow - 2 ad. leucophrys, 1/23, Bald Knob, Allegany 51) White-throated Sparrow - 40+, 1/23, Oldtown and Green Ridge 52) SWAMP SPARROW - 1, 1/22, New Germany SP at lower end of lake. [Maybe westerners can fill me in on whether this is weird or not - I thought Swamp Sparrow totally withdrew from there in winter...] 53) Slate-colored Junco - everywhere 54) Red-winged Blackbird - 2, 1/22, New Germany (1) and Pleasant Valley (1) 55) Common Grackle - 5, 1/22, Broadford Res [blackbirds hard in Garrett in winter] 56) House Finch - ZERO on 1/22, 25+ on 1/23 57) Purple Finch - 9, 1/22, near New Germany SP; 1, 1/23, Aaron's Run Rd. 58) American Goldfinch - 1, 1/23, near New Germany SP 59) EVENING GROSBEAK - 5+ in three groups, 1/22, near New Germany SP 60) COMMON REDPOLL - 1 ad. male, 1/23, at private feeder on Dan's Rock 61) House Sparrow - ZERO 1/22, 1/23 many [the highlight of the trip - we tried (not real hard) and actually MISSED House Sparrow!) 62) [out of order] Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1, 1/22, at feeder near New Germany; 1, 1/23, Oldtown [good for Garrett in winter] The most interesting part of the trip for me was exploring the strip mine areas in extreme southeastern Garrett County. In summer this is an incredible area with extremely dense Henslow's Sparrow populations. In a partial survey last May I counted 35+ singing males (!). Clearly, it represents a rare "prairie-like" habitat. The presence of numerous Short-eared Owls, Rough-legged Hawks, and the Northern Shrike was a pleasant outcome but not altogether surprising, given the incredible locations. Added to that, the vistas were spectacular, especially with the snow cover. In case anyone is interested in birding these areas, or chasing the shrike, pull out your DeLorme Atlas for MD. On page 66 look for the area bounded by c3 and d3 - the brown mottled areas are strip mines which have now mostly reverted to grassland. Roughly, from Westernport, MD, drive 5 mi north on Rte. 36. Go left to cross the creek at Barton immediately opposite Miller Rd. and follow Reynolds Rd. south to Mill Run Rd.. Take that road uphill and in 3.0 mi or so, large fields open up on your right. The best viewing area is at the very top of the hill, when the road starts to go downhill again for the first time. From here, we saw 3 different Rough-leggeds (2 dark, 1 light), 3 Short-eared Owls, 80+ deer, and the Coyote. Westernport Rd. also has some interesting field areas. Follow Westernport Rd. on to the intersection of Westernport/Pine Swamp/Russell. Russell Rd. and Michael Rd. form a nice loop trip, with interesting habitat along the way. Grouse are possible (we dipped). If you loop on Michael first, look for a Rough-leg at the hill crest of the mining operation on your left after 2.1 mi. From the Michael/Russell intersection at the BOTTOM of the hill, go uphill on Russell for 1.1 mi to an area where there are blue-green gates on either side of the road. The shrike was seen from this area as were 7 turkeys, 2 light rough-legs, a number of Tree Sparrows and some other species. It is an interesting habitat and Snow Bunting or Lapland Longspur are possible (Jim had the latter here last March). If anyone is interested in any other areas, please feel free to contact me. Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com ============ Marshall J. Iliff Annapolis, MD miliff@aol.com ============= ================================================================= To unsubscribe send a message to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ==========================================================================================================================================