Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 02:09:30 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Western MD 11/16/00 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, In an effort (in vain) to get Golden Eagle for my MD year list, I headed to western MD today. I did manage to dig out a few county birds though, so the day wasn;t a total wash. I must have misheard the weather forecast as I was greeted at Town Hill by light SE winds which shifted to SW in the afternoon. In my first 2 hours of hawkwatching (0930-1130) I saw only one migrant hawk - fortunately it was an im. male Gos! Once I realized that today was not the day for a hawk movement, I headed west. In Cumberland there were 3 Gadwall at Terminus and a Peregrine (ad male?) eyeing the incredibly large pigeon flocks. Jim Stasz had one in Cumberland last Feb I think, so passers-through might want to watch for the possibility of a wintering bird here. Piney Reservoir was fairly dull with one Ring-necked Duck, 140 Canada Geese, and 40 Mallards. I then dropped down Big Savage Mountain to Aaron Run Rd. where 30 minutes of scanning produced 3-4 Northern Harriers, 2 Red-tailed Hawks, and one im. light Rough-legged Hawk, all locals feeding over the field. I continued my unbroken run of raven sightings here and the highlight were 3 Snow Buntings that flew in a dropped in the large plowed area, Garrett County bird #217. Viewing for the Aaron Run Rd. fields is best at the high point of the road. I then crusied over the Dan's Rock for a ditch effort at Golden Eagle, and though I didn't see a single raptor from 2:30-3:30 I was treated to an incredible cloud show as the outer fronges of the cold front rolled in. I concluded with a wuick trip into Rocky Gap to pick up my third Allegany County bird of the day - Snow Bunting (#197 w/ God, Peregrine, Snow Bunnie). The pakring lot area has a good track record of getting them in November and I had mine at the southwest corner of the parking lot feeding on an area where straw and been thrown down to grow grass. The lake was dull - 3 Pied-billed Grebes and a coot, along with Mallards and Canadas. Then a long drive back to Ocean City. Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Ocean City, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================