Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 17:44:35 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Michael Bowen Subject: January 1, 2001 sightings Comments: To: voice@capaccess.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The first field trip of the new year for Montgomery County, MOS, was the "Earliest Bird" trip today, to DC "Hot-spots" and nearby Virginia spots along the river. DC's hot-spots were anything but hot today, as water was iced over pretty much everywhere. The Potomac is frozen from bank to bank at National Airport and the Washington Channel near Fort McNair (site of last year's Tufted Duck and last week's Common Loon) has iced over just in the past few days. However: 3 AMERICAN PIPITS (probably same birds as earlier reported by Bill Dobbins) flew by at around 8 a.m. at Georgetown Reservoir. Only waterfowl on the reservoir were 4 RING-NECKED DUCK and a single COOT. There was some open water in the Washington Channel over by the Maine Avenue seafood area. About 20 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON were in the trees here. The ducks were all MALLARD. At Hains Point the resident MERLIN gave everyone some super scope looks. Lots of gulls -- RING-BILLED, HERRING, and GREAT BLACK-BACKED were on the Anacostia, together with an adult, winter-plumaged LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL on the ice off the Anacostia Navy Annex. (Thanks to Paul Pisano for pointing out to us where this bird was.) Because of the extensive ice, we decided to "go south" and headed over the Wilson Bridge into Alexandria VA. At the mouth of Hunting Creek we had GREATER YELLOWLEGS (2), COMMON SNIPE (2) and 3 KILLDEER, along with lots of gulls and CANADA GEESE. At Bellehaven Marina (Fairfax Co., VA) we saw 2 adult BALD EAGLES and 3 immatures on the ice. One of the adults was dining on a hapless coot. In the open water were 50-100 HOODED MERGANSER and 2 COMMON MERGANSER (both females). Ducks here included NORTHERN PINTAIL, AMERICAN BLACK DUCK and NORTHERN SHOVELER. Up north again, at Washington Sailing Marina, where the water (a large open-water oasis among the sea of ice) is in DC and the land is in Arlington County, VA, there was a nice raft of ducks, with 100+ CANVASBACK, and smaller numbers of REDHEAD, LESSER SCAUP, RING-NECKED DUCK, BUFFLEHEAD and RUDDY DUCK, together with lots more HOODED MERGANSER and a couple of PIED-BILLED GREBE. It's my belief that lack of any open water in the Hooded Mergansers' usually favored ponds and streams has forced them out into the river, where there not usually seen, at least in such numbers. Anyway, anyone fond of looking at these beautiful creatures has a great opportunity right now. A Very Happy New Birding Year to all! Mike Bowen D.H. Michael Bowen 8609 Ewing Drive Bethesda MD 20817 (Montgomery County Chapter, MOS) Tel.: (301)530-5764 dhmbowen@yahoo.com _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================