Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 10:07:34 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Birding along Rte. 309, Queen Anne's County MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jim et al., There are several ponds along Rte. 309, all w/ interesting birds and all w/ potential for shorebirds. As you come from the west (Rte. 213), the first one you pass is on the left at about 1 mile. This one is great for ducks and geese, occasionally good for shorebirds in low water conditions. It is in a depressiona and can be viewed from the road but the landowner DOES NOT take kindly to birders walking or driving down to the pond. Another mile ahead is a pond on the right, not very good for anything really though Little Blue Herons and Mute Swans sometimes turn up. A mile after passing through Starr is Pemberton Manor, a private farm with wonderful fallow fields (have had Short-eared Owl and Dickcissel) and a large pond. It is here that I saw a Ruff in 1999 and a number of other interesting shorebirds (including Sunday's Ruddy Turnstone) have appeared. This is the best birding spot but unfortunately can be viewed ONLY from the road. I had occasion to talk to the landowner for the first time last week, and while he was very friendly and glad to have birders interested in his property, he was unwilling to grant permission to view the pond from his driveway or allow us to walk into the field. Still, this pon always bears checking even if you can only see 2/3 of the shoreline - habitat is good for shorebirds there now. The pond which Danny and Matt Hafner were talking about it about a mile off Rte. 309 in the first 0.1 mi of Crouse Mill Rd. It is BRAND NEW this year and is the best shorebird pond around! Every time I go there are interesting shorebirds. Matt and I didn;t have much of particular note on Sunday, back on 14 May George A. and I had a single Pectoral - fairly late. A final pond of note is a little farther on Crouse Mill Rd. on your right. It is actually a swampy beaver pond with breeding Prothonotaries and good habitat for Olive-sided Flycatcher and Red-headed Woodpecker, thoguh I have yet to see either there. > Is the pond accessible to the public? I learned that the pond on RT 309 > (about 1/2 mile up 309 on the left from Rt 213) is not birder friendly; > i.e. the owner does not take kindly to people walking around with > binoculars. > > Jim Wilson > wlsngang@shore.internet.com > Best, Marshall Iliff *********************** Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ************************ ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================