Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 12:36:58 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: : Cattle Egret & Bonaparte's Gull at PRR North Tract MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, I led a bird tour in the blustering snow this morning at the Patuxent Research Refuge North Tract. I really didn't think anyone would show up, but four hardy souls joined me in a very interesting outing. While we only tallied 35 species for the event (not a single woodpecker or identifiable sparrow, and only one warbler [Pine]), we nevertheless had some significant finds. I've been a volunteer at the North Tract for four years now, and have done nearly 500 bird surveys during that period. Not once during that timeframe have I heard of either a Cattle Egret or Bonaparte's Gull being reported, but this morning, our small group had both birds within about 60 seconds of each other at Lake Allen. The gull, an adult, was flying low over the water as we drove around to the back side of the lake. No sooner did it fly out of sight when a white bird flew over our heads, and landed on the far side of the lake. A quick look through binoculars revealed it to be a Cattle Egret. Of the species seen, the more notable include: Pied-billed Grebe 2 (Lake Allen & Merganser Pond) Cattle Egret 1 (Lake Allen) Ring-necked Duck 2 pairs lingering at Lake Allen Wild Turkey 1 fanning its tail on the Red Trail Spotted Sandpiper 1 (Lake Allen) Common Snipe 6 (Merganser Pond) Bonaparte's Gull 1 (flying low over Lake Allen) Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 together on a pine tree across from the Drop Zone Hermit Thrush 1 (Yellow Trail) Pine Warbler 2 (across from Drop Zone) 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================