Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 00:57:35 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Linda Baker Subject: loons Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > >I decided such a nice day was too good to spend doing anything but >birding. Looked for the reported Pacifid loon on south river. > >Looking north from the south shore in Loch Haven, I could see two loons, >quite far apart, and nearer the north shore. One was bathing, it was >definitely a common loon, partly in breeding plumage; speckles appearin= g >on back, head somewaht a cross bewtween winter and breeding plumages, bu= t >nearer the winter type. > >So I took myself to Quiet Waters Park. ( By now it's early afternoon and >boat traffic is picking up. Darn.) With a little patience, I found two >loons and eventually they were feeding near enough to one another to >compare size-- which was essentially the same. The bill of the second o= ne >may have been a bit smaller. The plumage of that bird was more nearly >like winter pattern of the common loon, although once again I found that >they were fairly far away from me, and even in the zoom of my scope I w= as >not getting a textbook look. > >If either bird had a "chin-strap", I was unable to see it. I am certain >that the first did not, and fairly sure the second didn't. > >ALSO: >Plenty of buffleheads about in small groups-maybe (40 or 50 total), a ni= ce >flock of ruddies (100's), osprey perched on every available nesting spot= , >3 double-crested cormorants, a great blue heron--which was discussing >beach priviliges with a turkey vulture. > >A carolina chickadee was carrying something, I assume nesing material in= to >a bluebird size box near the gazebo where I had parked my scope. > >I learned something about diving styles while watching for loons. The >buffleheads almost jump into their dive. The loon just puts its head do= wn >and with less commotion is gone. > >Linda Baker >Arnold > ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================