Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 09:01:01 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Blackwater April 29 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Blackwater N.W.R., April 29, 2001. 44-63 degrees. Clear. Light NW winds. Seven of us on the birdwalk here on a cool day after a cold night did not find a lot of birds. In the area c. 7 A.M. - 1 P.M. were 75 species including 35 Great Egrets (23 in the little pond just west of the Visitors Center), a Glossy Ibis, Canada Goose broods of 4, 4, 5, and 15 (I don't think the latter was a creche; the 15 goslings were hanging tight with just 2 adults that I assumed were a pair), 35 Green-winged and 12 Blue-winged Teal, 6 shovelers, 12 coots, 1 turkey, 45 Least Sandpipers, 3 Short-billed Dowitchers, a snipe, 2 Caspian Terns, 6 swifts, a female hummer, 1 ad. Red-headed Woodpecker, 3 crested flycatchers, 3 kingbirds, a Brown-headed Nuthatch at its apparent nesting cavity, 2 Wood Thrushes, a prothonotary at the Egypt Rd. wooded swamp, and 2 White-crowned Sparrows (one a stunning adult). 2 Fox Squirrels, 3 bunnies, 2 Muskrats, 2 Red-bellied and 8 Painted Turtles plus a small chorus of Bullfrogs. Water levels in the tidal areas and the impoundments were "good" (i.e., low and getting lower). At Rigby in the afternoon, where I did hardly any birding, a House Wren and a kingbird were arrivals. The Choptank was barren with hardly any gulls or terns even, the scoters are gone, and I only saw 2 loons. The female eagle flushed off her nest. I suspect they're not having a good year here. The nest is now so large that from the only vantage point on our property where I can see it well it was impossible to see this bird on it. Two weeks ago an eagle nest at Elliott Island had a young as large as a big duck already but the Yellow Book shows the late egg date to be April 29. 2 Gray Squirrels, 2 bunnies, 6 does. A few butterflies today, mostly Cabbage Whites but a few sulphurs and an American Painted Lady also. Best to all. -Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================