Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 09:46:06 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Danny Bystrak Subject: Leap Day trip MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Well, yesterday i and my wife barbara made my first stab in a long time at a western shore-only "winter big day." With an equal mix of worrying and planning behind me, i covered my yard, Jug Bay Sanctuary, Upper Marlboro Ponds, and various points in Calvert and St Mary's Counties. My yard was extremely good to me (46 spp. by 7:30), Jug Bay was fair to poor, The U.M. ponds and Leitch's Wharf Rd were very good, and it was downhill from there. The howling Gale (not Mckiernan) that followed us everywhere was absolutely no help. The forecast at 5:15am said there was no significant wind -- not so everywhere we went! Finished up the day at Jacob's Farm and Cornfield Harbor, trying to hear Screech or Horned Owls over the peepers. Our final bird of the day was a (visual) Horned Owl perched on top of a dead snag silhouetted against the fading light of day -- oh that was also when the wind stopped. So, it was fun but frustrating and it appears that what was wrong was: the wind, the fact it was so warm (peeper interference) and the fact that we should have started at Pt Lookout/Jacob's Farm and worked backwards, because that area is a real dog in the late afternoon. Another problem was choosing a year when so much got wiped out by the big snow. Don't know how others have been doing, but since the storm i haven't seen or heard Winter Wren, either Kinglet, or Brown Creeper, and my staked-out Yellowthroat, Marsh Wren and Catbird seem to have perished. Many others (like Swamp Sparrow) are way down in numbers too. Rather than bore you with the list, i will mention the fabulous misses in order of amazingness: Hairy Woodpecker !!!!!!!!!!, Redhead, Belted Kingfisher, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Savannah Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Cedar Waxwing, Brown Creeper, Pine Warbler, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Winter Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Gray Catbird, Water Pipit, Horned Lark, Little Gull, White-fronted Goose......etc. It is most amazing that we didn't run into Barry and Gail, considering we covered many of the same areas. Was "glad" to hear no one else found the Little Gull, but irritated to hear the White-fronts were there. We did see 2 "BRONK" geese at the location, whatever those hideous things are. Highlights included the 2 Forster's Terns at Leonardtown (thanks Patty)!, the enormous flock of D.-c. Cormorants at the end of Leitch's Wharf Rd (thanks Sue!), my first Osprey (same place), and Phoebes singing in 2 places. Oh right, the final total -- 91 species (92 if one can accept that the lone corm. sitting on the structure at Pt Lookout was a Great.) Thanks to Patty, Sue, Tom, Arlene, Jane/Tyler and Greg for tips on locations. danny bystrak barbara anderson bristol ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================