Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2001 20:20:16 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: PG Avocets In-Reply-To: <3B660030.C1015B00@erols.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII That's right. Plural. Bob Ringler came down to check out the PG county shore bird spots I've been reporting about recently. We decided to make it a full day starting with some ponds in the northern part of PG county, then hit the Patuxent river since the tides there are a couple of hours ahead of the Potomac. We spent the afternoon heading north on the Potomac and Anacostia ending at Bladensburg. The main excitement was a flock of two American Avocets. At about 3PM, they flew in, landed on the bar forming the south end of Selby Bay. We watched them for about a half hour, then (on my misguided advice) we tried to sneak past to check the shore further north. They flew off to the southwest. Avocet is one of those rare shorebirds that is easier to sex than to age. These were clearly females, based on the sharp upturn to the end of their bills. I'm guessing they were juveniles based on the orange-brown being confined to the back of the neck, and some brown in the wing coverts, but I don't know if molting adults can look like this. Bob has video of the birds both in flight and on the ground so will probably give a more definitive age determination. We believe this is a first county record. But with records from Charles and Montgomery counties, it was probably overdue. Selby Bay is on the Potomac, just south of the Wilson Bridge in PG county. We got there by walking the shore north from Fort Foote Historic Site. Otherwise, shorebirds were scarce. Four Greater Yellowlegs on the Patuxent. Killdeer were at several locations. Their numbers reached the low 30's. The walk to Selby Bay also yielded Spotted, Least and Pectoral Sandpipers. The only other interesting birds were two Common Mergansers on the Anacostia at Bladensburg. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk@bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================