Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 02:46:49 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: rick Subject: Black Rail Search in Harford County Comments: cc: Jlstasz@aol.com, jchurchi@wvu.edu, scottguz@HOTMAIL.COM, dpowell@netfox.net, MH1920@aol.com, Skiptech@compuserve.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" It looks like rain will spoil the Black Rail chase on Saturday night. The forcast is bad and I am not going out unless it improves. I di= d hear the bird, twice, on Friday night, but it took nearly three hours of listening and once again tapes seemed to have no effect, although Virgini= as were quite noisy. For those who want to try on their own, here are the directions. The marsh is accessible only from the railroad tracks that parallel Rte. 40. Except in the wee hours, traffic is definitely a problem. The spot to listen from is approxi,ately 0.15 miles east of the intersection with Jam= es Run. There are only two ways to get onto the tracks. About 0.2 miles east of Ja,es Run on Rte. 40 is a High's. Directly across from the High's is a muddy entrance road that goes up to the tracks. It is not drivable, and i= t is wet, se be careful walking it in the dark. It is only a dozen yards or so long. On reaching the tracks, turn left and follow them to the first o= r second opening on the right. You'll see (if it is not too dark, lots of marsh in front of you. The other way is off of Rte. 543. Take Rte. 95 to 543 and go sout= h towards Riverside. At the third traffic light, about 0.7 miles, turn righ= t onto Church Creek Road (from Rte. 40 it is the first light going north an= d the turn is a left). The second light after 95 is also Church Creek, but = do not turn there. It is longer. Go 0.4 miles to Grey's Run and urn left. After about 0.1 miles you will pass a large field on the left. Just past the field, running right alongside of it, is a blacktop walkway that goes down to the tracks. It is dark. At the tracks, turn to the right and walk about 0.3 miles to the opening. You can park along the road on Grey's Run. DO NOT park in the courts just before and after the field. The spaces in front of the houses are reserved. Riverside is a quiet community and the walkway is a public path that goes behind houses. Please be reasonably quiet if you are walking it late at night. At least five policemen live in the immediate vicinity, so discretion is advised. I suppose you can park in the parking lot of the High's after hours, but it would not be unusual to be harassed by the loc= al police if you do. I do not know about parking along Rte. 40, although the shoulder is certainly wide enough. There is a place to pull in right at the point where James Run crosses Rte. 40, on the east side of the small bridge, but access is blocked to the tracks by a small but deep marshy area (no birds). Do not try to get onto the tracks from the west side of the creek. There is a ca= r repair and junk place there and they have built a fence to keep people fr= om passing through and they will prosecute (as I learned when I asked during the Atlas). Good luck, whatever night you try. If the weather forcast changes= , feel free to call me late Saturday afternoon and we will make arrangement= s to go. Rick Never take a solemn oath. People think you mean it. -- Norman Douglas Rick Blom rblom@blazie.com 4318 Cowan Place Belcamp, Maryland 21017 (410)575-6086 Editor: BWD Skimmer (www.birdwatchersdigest.com) ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================