Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 14:02:31 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Re: Tufted Duck -- YES, 2/18 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, As a school teacher taking advantage of Howard County's 8th snow day this school year, I decided to brave the snow and sleet, and head into DC for my fifth attempt at the Tufted Duck. I didn't end up where I wanted to, and somehow found myself in the middle of town, driving past the captial, and towards the monument. I had no clue how to get to Haine's Point from there, so I looked for the river, found it, unsuccessfully attempted to follow it, and then found a sign to Ft. McNair. Well, being retired military with a current sticker on my car, I thought I would try Ft. McNair first, and if unsuccessful, would then attempt to navigate Haines Pt. (I HATE urban driving). It was my lucky day, because after one pass along the narrow road between the Officer's Club and the point, I backtracked, scanning the scaups, and hit paydirt at about 10:30 a.m. The Tufted Duck was in a small raft of no more than 40 scaup swimming away from the seawall, and between 75 and 100 feet away. It was raining now, and fortunately I never had to get out of the car. From that distance, it was easy, even without binoculars, and I shot the better part of a roll of film with my modest camera. As others had reported, the tuft was readily visible. For someone with military access, this would be the place to get some choice photos. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie, MD blkrail@gateway.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================