Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 12:11:18 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Eared Grebe, Caspian Terns, Little Gull MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Yesterday (Saturday 31 March) found Joan Decarli and me continuing our quest for life and state birds. We began at 9:30 a.m. at the dock at the end of Lapidum Rd., in Susquehanna State Park, Harford Co., and after nearly an hour of studying an intermediate plumaged grebe in the rain, concluded that it was indeed an EARED GREBE. The facial pattern was that of a breeding-plumaged Eared Grebe, with golden tufts on the back of the head, extending down the nape of the neck. However, the throat was still pale in color, with some streaking, and was of little help in identifying the bird. A COMMON LOON and Several PIED-BILLED GREBES were also present, but besides Mallards, the only ducks were RED-BREASTED MERGANSERs. Also at the dock were: N. ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW (one seen among hundreds of tree swallows over the river) and a CAPSIAN TERN, which must have dropped and caught its fish ten times, while flying over the river, chased by a Herring Gull. Conowingo Dam, Harford Co., offered more of the same, with two CASPIAN TERNs just downstream from the dam, and six N. ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWs sitting on a wire over the river nearby. At Back River WWTP in Baltimore Co., there were one or two hundred BONAPARTE'S GULLs over the lagoons, and a single COOPER'S HAWK sitting in a tree, but nothing unusual. However, out on the river, from the parking lot of the restaurant behind the Royal Farms (see Gail M's post for directions) I met Barry Cooper, and he reported seeing five Little Gulls during the previous three hours. Joan and I set up in the same spot, and within 20 minutes, while scanning the thousand-plus Bonaparte's Gulls, a breeding-plumaged LITTLE GULL, came flying down the river, offering great looks at the dark slaty underwings, and rounded wingtips that characterize these birds. The day ended at Fran Uhler Natural Area in PG County, where a big movement of FOX SPARROWs appeared to be underway (we hardly saw any other sparrows). This morning (Sun., 1 April), again at Fran Uhler, a nice V-formation of about 25 TUNDRA SWANs was heading north, high overhead, and we also picked up six species of woodpecker (missing only Red-headed, though they appear to be present there). Stan Arnold Glen Burnie blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================