Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 07:59:16 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul Subject: Goshawk, waterfowl in DC Comments: To: Ottavio Janni , Voice MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Spent a good part of 1/1/01 birding in DC with Craig Tumer. Here are some highlights: NORTHERN GOSHAWK - Quite surprisingly, I first heard and then saw this bird on 15th St, NW (near R), while I was standing on Craig's front step (thanks, Craig, for being late). The call first reminded me of a parrot - a harsh krak, krak, krak. It then flew right overhead, fairly low. It was backlit and mostly in silhouette, but the big, fluffy white undertail coverts were quite visible. AM. TREE SPARROW - 3 birds at the Anacostia Wetlands. GULLS - Finally the gull numbers are building in DC this winter. Near dusk there were 2 - 3,000 on the ice in the Washington Channel. Unfortunately most were Ring-billed, which means that the chance of finding a white-winged gull are slim (they tend to hang with Herrings). So no rare gulls, but there was (only) 1 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, which is low for DC in winter (could have been the same bird we saw on the Anacostia earlier in the day). MERLIN - At least 4 are roosting at the Hains Point Golf Course this winter. WATERFOWL - The ice is concentrating duck numbers on the river. Here's a rundown (most numbers are approximations): Species - 4-mile Run/Alex. Powerplant/Jones Point Pied-billed Grebe - 15/-/6 Black-crowned Night Heron - -/10/- Canada Goose - 60/10/300 (plus one barnyard-type) Mallard - 200/50/150 Am. Black Duck - 50/20/10 Gadwall - -/-/250 (very high number for DC) Pintail - 6/-/- Am. Wigeon - 3/-/6 Canvasback - 125/-/35 Redhead - 20/-/- Ring-necked Duck - 10/-/- Lesser Scaup - 60/-/- Common Goldeneye - -/1/- Bufflehead - 15/10/- (plus 2 at Roches Run) Hooded Merganser - 70/25/20 Common Merganser - 1/17/1 (all female but 1) Red-breasted Merganser - -/6/- (all female) Ruddy Duck - 40/-/- American Coot - 30/-/1,000 Good birding, Paul Pisano Arlington, VA cheep@erols.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================