Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 08:50:30 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Blackwater, Hooper's 11/19/00 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii 1. Blackwater N.W.R., 6:30-11:30 A.M. Overcast. Calm. 36-39 degrees F. Birdwalk with 7 participants. Let's get right to the prime ribs: Adult Ross's Goose at 7:05 A.M. in flight with snows right over entrance to Visitors Center (V.C.). Seen also (or different bird?) in water with snows opposite Pool 3c at 11 A.M. - nice, clean white bird with swollen-looking neck, small, wedge-shaped bill, more highly-colored than a snow's with blue-gray area near gape, small rounded head - the whole ten yards. Also: 1 imm. Little Blue Heron, 3K or so Snow & Blue Geese (c. 1/3 Blues), 650 pintails (such an elegant bird), 2 hoodies, 16 Bald Eagles (10 in sight simultaneously), 575 Dunlin, 6 Forster's Terns hangin' in there, 2 ad. male sapsuckers, 235 waxwings (some harassed by a Cooper's Hawk), and an imm. White-crowned Sparrow (hanging around the V.C. feeders area). Mammals: 3 cottontails, 2 Gray and 2 Fox Squirrels and 1 Sika Deer. A few imm. BC Night Herons are still roosting in the willows of Pool 3c, pretty easy to see in the daytime. 2. Hooper's Island (Swan Harbor Rd. including the Tar Bay sandbars; bridge over Fishing Creek). 12:15-1:30 P.M.: 1 Black-bellied Plover, 325 Dunlin, 7 Sanderlings, 860 Tundra Swans (resting and loafing in the bays, a lot of them will probably be on their way to North Carolina soon enough; the sounds of calling wild swans are as good to listen to as anything I know.), 5 Bald Eagles on the bars (plus a 6th bird, an ad., in flight). Also, 7 Horned Grebes and 3 Common Loons, one feeding on a Hogchoker, and 35 Buffleheads. 1 Fox Squirrel at the south end of the development at the end of Swan Harbor Rd. Best of all was an extended, 10-minute view at 30 feet of a Clapper Rail nailing minnow after minnow in a small tidal ditch. I was standing in full view the whole time eating a sandwich. Finally this fat bird, which had been continuously cocking its tail, just looked at me and slipped into the Juncus grass to disappear. I have seen them, every bit as effective as a heron, catch small fish this way previously in the same area. Heard 1 Virginia Rail call. 3. Rigby's Folly, Talbot County (my "yard", with views of the mouth of the Choptank River), 2:50-4:50 P.M., 42 degrees F.: 2 ad. Bald Eagles (one, the male, I think, did an extended chase of a Ring-billed Gull, forcing it to drop its unidentified, lemon-sized food object), 145 Surf Scoters and 55 Buffleheads offshore plus 3 Common Loons, one feeding on a Hogchoker. 5 Gray Squirrels. A few goldeneyes both here and at Hooper's. This was a good day to be out. There was no flight but it was so calm that the birds just stayed put, easy to see on the water. The very low tide being a foot or so below normal made it advantageous for viewing shorebirds, herons, and dabblers. Lots of gooey mud and flats, presumably loaded with inverts. CAVEAT BIRDOR. On Nov. 27 (Mon.) & Dec. 1 (Fri.) the so-called "first section" of Wildlife Drive (i.e., most of it) at Blackwater will be closed for the deer shotgun hunt. Kaboom. Blam. The rest of the drive will be open, however, with no fees on those 2 days; enter from Key Wallace Drive just west of the V.C., where the treadles (tire shredders) will be inoperative those days. The V.C. is closed on Thanksgiving Day. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119. 74077.3176@compuserve.com. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================