Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2001 13:38:50 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Kurt R. Schwarz" Subject: Howard County Terns On Stan Arnold's advise, I went to Brighton Dam at 0655 this morning. The lot was locked at 0600. In any case, no terns. I returned at 1045 to find the pylons mentioned by Stan occupied by three terns. Alas, I was unable to see any white foreheads, and the legs were red-orange. Perhaps due to wishful thinking, the bills did appear yellow. I summoned aid at that point, and ultimately ended up at Greenbridge on the MontCo side, where I found Jo Solem and Bonnie Ott. We studied those three birds closely, with a Swarovski AT80 and two Kowa scopes. We could find no white forehead, though one bird was moulting it's crown feathers, and at certain angles it almost appeared to have a white crown stripe. This may be what Stan perceived as a white forehead. The legs were red-orange, wrong for Least. We could discern no black at the wing-tips, even in flight. And at least one bird's tail was about as long as the wings at rest. Then a fourth bird arrived: a classic winter plumaged Forster's. Black eye patch on a white head, black bill. All birds were the same size, and we all reached a consensus that the birds were all Forster's. Emmy Holdrige arrived independently at the same conclusion, without prompting from us. We, of course, cannot say with certainty that these are the same birds Stan saw yesterday, but we can say with certainty that there were four Forster's terns at Brighton Dam today from at least 1045-1200. They can be viewed from Brighton Dam, or at a somewhat closer range from the Greenbridge fishing/boat ramp area. Binos won't cut it, you'll want a scope. Three possible Caspian Terns were seen headed downstream from the dam, also, but I was backing the car at the time.... Also seen today at Tridelphia were Osprey 1 (at Brighton) Spotted Sandpiper 1 (Pigtail) Killdeer 3 (Pigtail) Louisiana Waterthrush 1 (heard, Pigtail) Between visits to Brighton Dam, I ventured out to Oland Rd. in FredCo, where I bumped into Lydia Schindler and Linda Fried(see, I told I'd forget). We saw at least six Upland Sandpipers on the north and south sides of Oland at the corner of rt. 85/Buckeystown Pike. On the south side, quite a few tailless, baby E. Meadowlarks, too. And three Kestrels! Five not so Solitary Sandpipers were present near the river at Lilypons, and one Great Egret flew over. REMEMBER, if you go to Oland Rd. under no circumstances park on the south side of the road. Nice fat shoulders available on Lilypons Rd., convenient to Oland. Kurt Schwarz Howard County white-crown@home.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================