Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 20:23:48 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Snowy Owl in the snow - present 12/19 Comments: cc: georgearmistead@hotmail.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all, I braved the snow, traffic, and slippery roads today to take advantage of my last chance to see a Snowy Owl this millenium, since I doubt that any have made it as far south as Belize yet this year (I leave for Belize Thursday morning). The effort was not in vain, and the bird was obligingly perched on power poles off New Design Rd. 1-2 mi south of Greenville Rd. starting at 4:20. It did not seem to be present in the same area at 3:40 when I first arrived and it took 40 minutes of cruising the roads before I spotted it. Only one other birder was present, a German fellow who said the Snowy was "his ideal Christamas present". Seeing the Snowy in this winter storm was indded bordering on magical, especially when the bird dropped off the poles and vanished against the veneer of falling snow. Once it took a rat 20 ft from my parked car, then flew 1/4 mi away to a hillock to eat it. While perched on the hill it was the darkest object in sight, but when it looked directly at me its entire face was invisible save for the eyes and the suggestion of a bill. I watched the bird hunting through 5:04 before I decided to battle my way home. This was Maryland year bird #320 for me, and barring exceptionally good luck tomorrow, will likely mark the final species for my "big year". With no true chance at a winter pelagic trip, a winter finch year that fizzled too quickly (I missed both crossbills, but did get redpoll), and an almost eider-less Y2K, I am pretty satisfied with my end result, considering that I was traveling for over 2.5 months of the year. Stasz is of course the man to watch, who has been laying low with a high number primed to beat Mark Hoffman's 329 if only the coastal Xmas counts can perform their usual magic. Our worst miss? Eurasian Wigeon! (maybe tomorrow...) Good Birding, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Ocean City/Annapolis, MD PS - A number of longspurs were calling from among Horned Lark flocks in the same area as the owl. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================