Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 12:38:51 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Harvey Mudd Subject: Choptank River waterfowl Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" On March 18 we birded at various spots along the Choptank River in Caroline County, and had the following results for Common Merganser: sections visible from River Road a mile or so north of Denton: 0 from Forestry Station at west end of Deep Shore Road: 6 from Martinak State Park: 44 from Caroline County Country Club: 12 from Gilpin Point: 0 from Ganey Wharf: 1 From Choptank: 0 Kingston Landing (looking into Caroline County from Talbot County): 8 Total: 71 (these were minimal counts; there were probably more) On the other hand, no other species of diving ducks or grebes were seen on the Choptank. We did have a large flock (> 25) Ring-necked Ducks on Williston Lake. From Harry Armistead's posting of 3/19/01 I see that he and his son George in Caroline County on March 17 had 56 Common mergansers (in 6 places), but the only other diving duck they mention in the county was a female Red-breasted Merganser at Ridgely. On a weekend when Hooded Merganser's and Horned Grebes were moving through in various places, can anyone explain why these species were so hard to find in Caroline County. We have had several other experiences similar to the above. Bufflehead is also a Caroline nemesis. How, or why, do these species apparently avoid Caroline County? Harvey Mudd P.S. Is the Ridgely sewage disposal plant now open on weekends ?? It is hard for us to get there on weekdays. ____________________________________ S. Harvey Mudd NIMH/DIRP/LMB Building 36, Room 1B-08 36 CONVENT DR MSC 4034 BETHESDA MD 20892-4034 tel: 301-496-0681; fax 301-402-0245 email: shm@codon.nih.gov ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================