Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 21:30:30 -0500 Reply-To: bott@erols.com Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bonnie Ott Subject: Eastern Shore Highlights MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A sizeable group from Howard County spent the 3 day weekend out east. We surpassed 100 species for the 3 days and enjoyed two days of fabulous weather and 1 day of really crummy weather. I think the group's favorite sightings were the male HARLEQUIN DUCKS at the inlet. They were really approachable and eye-stopping in the full sun. A late afternoon foray to see the SHORT EARED OWLS off Elliot Rd rewarded many with lifers of both the owl and ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. NORTHERN GANNETS were a treat along with the myriad of other waterfowl. For many of us in land-locked Howard county we have too few opportunities to see such spectacular numbers of water birds. Pickering Creek was a nice surprise and well worth another visit. Many land birds delighted us including a WINTER WREN. He burst into glorious song (must have been enjoying the spring-like weather as much as we were). BALD EAGLES were dueling in the sky and sparrows popping about in the fields. We had a couple SAVANNAH SPARROWS that perched on the tops of cedar trees, breathtaking SWAMPS with their bronze and copper colors reflecting the sun. SONGS SPARROWS flushing with every step - which makes me dream of an October day there! Always have to have one that eludes ID though and the ammodramus that flushed up and dropped was just such a bird. Assateague Island allowed us incredible AMERICAN BITTERN views. A MERLIN perched on the top of a dead tree was very "scopeable". He was also a talented hunter and zipped away with a little something in his talons. (Hopefully that something was one of the numerous yellow-rumps and not a sparrow!) A few little notes managed to stop all of dead in our tracks along the boardwalk. Although the bird stayed hidden in the grasses a series of little doubled chip notes kept us riveted as we unsuccessfully tried to get a glimpse of what sounded like a SEDGE WREN. We did whisk up to Delaware but had a devil of a time seeing anything in the fog and mist. We did see a huge flock of waterfowl on Silver Lake but alas no Tufted. I can easily believe it was there but we missed it! Oh well, always need an excuse to go back! Although the daytime birding was great, I believe the Sunday evening sightings of a few RAVENS got some in the group more excited than I could have ever imagined. I have never seen such dedication as these birds were studied intently for many hours. Bonnie Ott Howard County Ellicott city bott@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================