Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 19:04:43 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Fred Burggraf Subject: Turkeys near Blackwater Comments: cc: Kburggraf@aol.com, jbillclarke@juno.com, aherndon@erols.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit My wife Karen and I headed out early for a birding morning at Blackwater NWR, arriving in Cambridge about 8:00. We headed south on Route 16 and in about 6 miles I spotted a number of huge dark birds in a field on the left. I pulled over and grabbed my bins...there were about 60 Wild Turkeys in the field, feeding and displaying. Although many were hens, there were at least a dozen toms, some busy with full tail displays. These birds were out in the open, fairly close, and oblivious to the scant traffic on the road at that hour. We had to leave to meet friends at the refuge, and when we returned to the spot a few hours later the field was empty. This field is in DeLorme Page 42, D1. It was off of Route 16 about 0.7 miles north of Plantation Road on the east side of the highway. The map shows at that location a red dashed line leading to a small network of dashed lines. I believe this to be some dirt roads leading back to a sportsman's club or area. (Next to the field is a gate and a sign for a hunting club or something of that ilk.) Because of the field's proximity to a sportsman's area, I surmise these could be introduced birds. I consider it a good year when I see a Turkey. Perhaps I've seen my quota for the century. Blackwater, by the way, did not disappoint: we got wonderful looks at eagles, the most remarkable of which was two adults sitting together on a branch on a snag literally "cuddling"--they were touching side to side and majestically surveying their realm. Thrilling! Fred Burggraf Dentsville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================