Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 19:23:09 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Sugarloaf scouting today Hi everyone-- Barry and I decided to take advantage of what might be the best weather of the next few days to scout for the upcoming Sugarloaf CBC -- we do Sector 6 but -- I confess -- we also "poached" on otehr sectors, just to see what was around. It was actually a pretty decent day with little wind, but we tallied some of our "arctic" visitors, highlighted by the Snowy Owl in the field at the NE corner of New Design and Oland Rd., couple of Snow Buntings with Horned Larks in the same field, two Lapland Longspurs with larks along the entrance road to the Clagett center, also Whitecrowned Sparrows at the feeders at the houses at the start of Greenfield Rd., and Tree Sparrows along Cap Stine Rd. (Sector 10). Lots of Redtails about, and we think we had a Rough-leg along I-270, an large, very dark Buteo perched high in a tree on a farm between Dr. Perry Rd. and Rt. 80 junction, but couldn't stop. We tried to circle back but couldn't relocate the bird -- keep your eyes peeled! Then we stopped in at Black Hills to tag the Harlequin for the day -- most of the reservoir is frozen, but there are open areas filled with waterfowl near the Visitor's Center/boat ramp and also near the Rt. 121 bridge. The Harly was near the former location, but actually left (south) of the pier and around the corner in a narrow arm of the lake, where there was open water close in to the bank, with Ringnecks and appearing to associate with a Common Goldeneye. It was getting late and cold so we wnet home -- hope the snow is not a major hassle for Sunday's counters! Cheers, Gail Mackiernan Colesville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================